Month: July 2003

The “Gate” opens in Iran? Today, July 9, is a big, big day in Iran. Not only is this the day designated for the general strike, but its historical importance cannot be underestimated. The “Bab” (Farsi for “Gate”) was martyred on this date in 1850, but his revolutionary ideas cannot be kept down. To understand…

Strongly Cautioning My Inner Child It’s a hell of a thing to look at your blog the day after you’ve shared your inner angst with a bunch of strangers. I don’t know whether it is a good idea for me to read my own blog. I am not sure how to rate myself, so I…

Please brace yourselves, because this post will sound a bit crazy. But I have to say it, and it’s personal. Earlier today, while in the middle of writing the last post in which I mentioned Watergate and my history with G. Gordon Liddy (a good human being and a dear friend despite all the stuff…

Enemies In Need, Indeed More on fanaticism. Radical fundamentalists often strike me as insecure people who use fanaticism to bolster an unacknowledged lack of confidence in their beliefs. Sometimes I see atheists behaving the same way. Fundamentalists and atheists act as if they absolutely KNOW they are right — and both share fierce beliefs that…

Hadrian hits Madison Avenue! Thanks to this tip from the esteemed I. Punditus (whose all-knowing, all-seeing eyes miss nothing), I just discovered that the multinational corporate giant Pitney Bowes is using one of Rome’s best emperors, Hadrian, in a New York Times ad. I like it so much that I have to display the image…

Dead to Rights I’m back! I want to thank my blogfather Jeff as well as Don Watkins for mentioning me even while I wasn’t there. I am still trying to get caught up with my blog reading, because I make it a daily habit to read every new post by each link in my blogroll…

[another blogger “BIG POST ERROR” forced me to continue this from the above post] I am delighted to see two esteemed scholars from the libertarian camp endorse the idea of simply privatizing marriage. Arthur Silber presents a logically unassailable argument for marriage privatization, and Reason magazine cited David Boaz’ similar idea. Catching up with Arthur…

Happy Fourth! Still at sea, return tomorrow. Thanks for checking in!

Sea Me Blog This is a wild experiment, and I don’t know whether it will work, but I am at sea on that diving trip and until today I couldn’t get this satellite rig to open blogger.com. Now that I have a moment of opportunity, I am going to attempt a post, for better or…