Uncategorized 1266
Of Humility and Gratitude: Dana Gioia at Notre Dame
Dana Gioia's brief but worthy address at Notre Dame.
Progressivism vs. Conservatism?
That some "progressives" may be conservatives, while most "conservatives" are actually progressives.
The Anti-Propaganda of Calvin Coolidge
In a wonderful little essay on Calvin Coolidge (Calvin Coolidge: Puritanism de Luxe) written in 1926, Walter Lippmann described the president as having mastered the “technique of anti-propaganda” by sapping…
Dr. Krustian, Phd.
Over on the hip lefty Sojourner's blog, Chris Rice douses the fires of American sin with the holy waters of sanctimony in an entry ominously and alliteratively titled: "The War, the Well, and…
The Colossalizing of Roads
My review of Eric Jaffe's The King's Best Highway is in today's Wall Street Journal.
Get Lost, “Friendship Coach”
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? Harry Potter and Ron Weasley? Anne Shirley and Diana Barry? Disruptive elements, all of them.
On Not Asking the Right Questions
In 1954, the Bell system (at the time, THE phone company) decided that a technical background was not sufficient, and sought to give its rising young executives an intensive course…
Steven Pinker: The Internet Keeps us Smart
The New York Times offers this piece by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, who argues that, contrary to the skeptics, wringing our hands about new communications technology is really a bit…
June Cleaving
William Cullen Bryant selected the month of his death: I gazed upon the glorious sky And the green mountains round And thought, that when I came to lie …
A Shameless Plug
Should you have, for some reason, an interest in goings-on in the world of philanthropy and civil society, I invite you to lumber on on over to Philanthropy Daily.
The Internet Makes us Stoopid
New studies show that the cognitive effects of the internet are real and lead to, like, shallow thinking n stuff as well as, wait a sec, there's a butterfly....
Contracepting Cultural Memory
R.J. Snell writes, "Contraception is already so normalized in our society that its use is presumed for both married and unmarried alike; in fact, so normalized is contraception that its…
Hurray for Hellman’s
I am not quite sure what Hellman's gets out of this, but it's the best public service spot I've seen. Watch their "Buy Canadian" commercial. Hat tip to Grace Potts.
On Local Radio
My appearance on local radio yesterday discussing politics and law, both practical and philosophical. Skip to the 55 minute mark.
Academy of Philosophy and Letters Annual Meeting
Creeping Tyranny: From Constitutionalism to Arbitrary Power
In the Good News Department
Down in West Texas there is a one-armed cotton farmer named Cliff Etheredge who has turned the sirocco that blows through his part of the country into an asset—and not…
Dan Mielke for Congress
There's an honest-to-god crunchy-con candidate in the northern Wisconsin woods.
Chalk One Up for Organic
Some scientific arguments on energy use are based on data that do not take enough factors into account
Revenge of the Weeds
"“It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,” said Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts." Farmers Cope With…