Jul 19 2023
First, courtesy of Mike Miles, a prediction from a visionary of a century ago: Brave New World predicted several things: genetic engineering, the end of human parturition, a habit-forming pleasure drug, the virtual abolition of emotion, a rigidly stratified world society, a world government, and more. Huxley’s vision was dystopic: that of a …
Mar 30 2023
And right out in front of God and everybody, too: According to the sourcelink, the ever-growing number of hockey players who are pushing back against NHL’s “Pride Nights” and refusing to wear LGBTQIA++++++++++++ themed jerseys, is causing the league to “re-evaluate” such events. This is a good thing, and good on the …
Jan 23 2023
I just encountered this gem: Being an introvert, I spend a lot of time in my own head. — Dio As a colleague of mine likes to say, I resemble that remark. But just as “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s,” you don’t have to be an introvert to …
Nov 21 2022
(Yes, there was a movie by that name. Pretty good movie too, though a trifle bleak. No, this piece won’t be about it.) The polarization of America has reached a level that endangers every man, woman, and child in this country. We no longer “do politics;” we make war, and others make war …
Nov 16 2022
Do you know how the professional seducer operates? Are you able to detect one at work? What if the seducer is aiming his wiles at you? In his novels, Robert A. Heinlein made several observations about con men and their operations. Their aggregate import can be stated as follows: The con man selects …
Nov 13 2022
“Hey, I know a place. Let’s go.” – Russell Baker I’ve always had a fascination with the truly remote places: the regions well separated from the main habitats of Mankind. Most such places are islands. If inhabited at all, their populations are small. The mode of life of the denizens is likely to …
Jun 20 2022
“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” Thank you, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche! How many times have we heard that or some equivalent? It was the central theme of both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. (The similarities …
Dec 10 2021
“When it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and acts like a duck, I call it a duck. Call it a bunch of roses. It still quacks.” – Robert A. Heinlein, Glory Road Some pieces need no titles. Others can’t abide them. As for the quote above, hang in there. …
Sep 01 2021
Back in the heyday of blogging, everyone and his halfwit Uncle Herman had a blog. There were, at peak, over 50 million such sites. Most, of course, were of no broad consequence: little was posted there, and most of that was worthless. However, they gave their “proprietors” a sense that they could be listened …
May 26 2021
In his book In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, one of Charles Murray’s arguments for the policies he advocates is that they watch the correct “dependent variables:” When the way we add up results is combined with the difficulties of operationalizing hard-to-reify constructs, the nature of what I call “the dependent variable …
Mar 02 2021
Have you said or written any of these things, or anything like them? “The GOP isn’t perfect.” “America isn’t perfect.” “Trump isn’t perfect.” If so, I have a question for you…no, let me rephrase that: I have a demand for you: Either define perfect Or shut up. Take your time. Show your …
Jan 28 2021
Approximately 538 trillion people, aware that I was relocating from Blogger, have: Exhorted me to use WordPress; Assured me that “You’re going to love it.” That group includes (of course) Mike Hendrix, whose assistance in creating this blog was invaluable. You could say Mike is a WordPress fan. He assumed that I would take to …
