Month: November 2010

…mental illness? I have to say, Clayton Cramer dug up quite a gem here: It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown…

Via an email, I learned that the University of Michigan is hosting an event that I am going to miss. (Boo hoo!) Ted Rall [discussed infra] will be speaking, as well as hawking and signing copies of his latest book — “The Anti-American Manifesto.” Which means that if I weren’t busy that night, I might…

I have to agree with Matt Welch’s criticism of Bill Kristol’s call for forceful state action against Wikileaker and accused rapist Julian Assange. I happened to catch Bill, who I have past admired, saying much the same yesterday while watching Special Report on Fox News for the first time in years. Krauthammer was even worse,…

I don’t know whether to call it an improvement or not, but Detroit seems to be slipping in the rankings again. This time, it’s fallen to third place in the Most Dangerous Cities in America category: CQ Press has released its annual list of the most dangerous cities in America. According to the independent publishing…

Eric and I met up on Saturday Night at the Irish Rose one of Rockford, Illinois’ fine eating establishments. We had a friend take a few pictures. One of which is above. I have a few pictures of the friend, but she declines to be identified. Sorry. For more (not much) on the dinner at…

I’m back from Illinois (which is west of Michigan and yet seems somehow more “East”) and looking through my pictures. Here’s me and M. Simon, right after eating dinner at the Irish Rose in Rockford. I ate pork imposingly, and M. Simon had an imposing cheeseburger. It’s not often that all the problems of the…

In this weekend’s “strange new respect” news, someone at Newsweek… trumpets Hayek’s triumphant return? Apparently we aren’t all socialists now. The big debate lately seems to be whether Bernanke’s second round of “quantitative easing” is helping provide liquidity, a la Milton Friedman, or just an attempt to reflate the bubble. If you read Amity Shlaes’…

I had some friends visit for the holidays. A loving time was had by all. Pictures when the first mate gets back with the camera. (It may be a while.) Cross Posted at Power and Control

While I had thought I might be able to ignore the world for a few days, there is no getting away from my sense of duty to blow the whistle when I see dereliction in the press — especially when it involves non-reporting of major events. In what I hope is just another amazing coincidence,…

I seem to have gotten the Michelle Obama quote wrong. It’s important for him to finish what he started. If she has started whining about her husband finishing the work he started two years before the next election I’d say he was already finished. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I wrote this back in 2005 (I haven’t checked the links some of them may be broken) and exactly what I was talking about then has come to pass. And back then? Well of course back then (before the TSA Follies) I was a hysterical weenie. This was America. Land of the Free. Home of…

ASTROGLIDE? How about coarse dry sand? Iowa Hawk blogs at Iowa Hawk. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I’m on the road, and my blogging will be light in the next few days. I’ll probably eat turkey (the fowl, not the country). May PETA forgive me for this imposition. And hey, if you think slaughtering turkeys poses ethical issues, I suggest a post that Glenn linked which asks a seemingly simple question: Did…

Eric Is Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I’m doing the same plus I’m thanking Mark Ames personally for a very special gift for which I will be eternally grateful. ==== Mark Ames, who has never met me, doesn’t like me. I’m honored. Anytime anyone says anything libertarian, spit on them. Libertarians are by definition enemies…

Conservatives, like liberals, when they imagine a government program imagine that the job will be done well. I on the other hand imagine it will be done the government way. Which is why I’m a libertarian. I have the American disease: I don’t trust the government. Government operates on the LCD principle. And that is…

It’s not every day that a news item reminds me of a Grateful Dead lyric, but this one does: (NewsCore) – Facebook is one step closer to trademarking the word “Face,” TechCrunch reported Tuesday. The U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has sent Facebook a Notice of Allowance, which means it will grant the “Face” trademark…

In a recent post in which I quoted a sour proposal of taking Amtrak as an alternative to flying, I asked a cynical rhetorical question: Take Amtrak? How long do you think it will be before the mindless, unelected, nameless “they” who run our lives do the same thing with Amtrak and every other public…

I get all kinds of e-mails and comments. One constant theme among my social “conservative” friends runs something like this: “If we don’t keep all the laws we have and especially the ones targeting rope smokers civilization will break down and the child molesters will be out in force.” Uh. Wouldn’t that be “Law worship”?…

Resist.Net [was Tea Party Patriots – which is incorrect ed.] – a social conservative group masquerading as a TEA Party organization – has a post up with the title: Justice Scalia: Founders Never Imagined Abortion “Rights”. Well I have news for him: They never imagined Vagina Police modeled after the TSA either. Well super. The…