Or more precisely, those who identify as conservative suffer from “a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death.” At least it is if you’re Jonathan Haidt, who informed us last September, that in essence, Read more…
Welcome to the final ten days of 2008. To ring in the New Year I am bringing to you a countdown of the greatest asshats of the year, roughly in order of increasing stupidity, amusement value, and pernicious effect on the world at large. To begin, to celebrate the end Read more…
As I pointed out a while ago, taking draconian stands against child porn is not what one would call a politically courageous stance. In fact, if you accuse someone of possessing child porn, you’ve pretty much destroyed that person. It is such an explosive charge that one would hope that Read more…
I don’t usually post similar posts back-to-back, but occasionally the stupid comes fast and furious and I can’t help but stand by and mock. Since this all is my blog, I can do that. So, with this in mind I present to you the latest in a long line of Read more…
One of the fun things about being a libertarian is that you really have no problem coming up with really good examples of bad government intervention. It’s almost a given, and I think even the most statist of both my liberal and conservative friends would agree that Sturgeon’s Law applies Read more…
I wanted to write a follow-up to two other blog posts I wrote back last summer. The story at that point was as follows: Sherry Jones writes The Jewel of Medina, a historical novel that features one of Mohammad’s wives. She sells it to Random House. Random House sends an Read more…
Well he’s shocked, shocked I tell you. Quoth the Fed Chair who served under presidents and congresses of both parties, we’re suffering from a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami.” He explains his shockedatude by saying to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: “That is precisely the reason I was shocked Read more…
I now present to you some choice quotes from Mr. Horace Engdahl, senior member of the awards jury for the Nobel Prize in literature: Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the Read more…
The generally used definition of othering goes along like this: The belief/insistence that someone outside the group is somehow, “categorically, topologically, intrinsically, DIFFERENT.” Also, the use of this belief, the not-understandable “other,” to re-affirm the group’s “normalcy” and identity. There you go, the human history of race, sex and gender Read more…