Month: January 2011

Who is this “they” kimosabe? Home owners? Nope that is old news. The Banks are walking away from mortgages they have underwritten. …the United States, much of Europe, and China have severe balance sheet issues that are ravaging their respective economic prospects. The media, analysts, and investors are gingerly mozying along as if this is…

The Government has scored another drug war success. Homeless people are now supplying meth precursors to underground drug labs. At the height of the methamphetamine epidemic, several states turned to a new weapon to disrupt the drug trade: electronic systems that could track sales of the cold medicine used to make meth. Tracking sales by…

While I am accustomed to scoldings from the left (especially on Sundays), it surprised even the jaded me to see a Sunday scolding in the form of an Associated Press news report titled “Nation ponders King in wake of Arizona shootings“: ATLANTA (AP) — The federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. has taken on…

While the psychotic shooter was in the midst of murdering people, I was trying to solve a far less important puzzle — one which struck me as frivolous once I heard the awful news of the tragedy in Tucson, so I put it off. Still, whenever classic texts are censored, Bowdlerized, or edited, I am…

Classical Values gets results! No sooner does our own Sarah Hoyt tell the Instaworld “there’s no such thing as a benevolent dictatorship” than this happens: Tunisia’s popular uprising is all the more surprising because it wasn’t part of a narrative that had been given a name and assigned a colour months in advance. To most…

In a post about the FDA’s ban on caffeinated alcoholic beverages, I resorted to sarcastic ridicule by calling for a crackdown on old standby drinks like Irish Coffee and Rum and Coke. ….our culture has been asleep at the wheel as this dire threat has metastasized. Does anyone remember Rum and Coke? Cuba Libre? Why…

Boy is this going to piss off a LOT of people. Odds are the more recreational drugs you consume the smarter you are. Counter intuitive huh? According to Psychology Today, people who use more drugs are more intelligent. “Intelligent people don’t always do the right thing,” they write, “only the evolutionarily novel thing.” According to…

If you want to leave a comment on the video at YouTube you can use this link. Links to the organizations mentioned at the beginning of the talk. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Drug Policy Forum Of Texas And another organization not mentioned headed by retired Detective Howard Wooldridge: Citizens Opposing Prohibition Some thoughts on the…

M. Simon’s post about heroin drew an interesting comment from reader Bob Sykes: In the past, I have often thought you were somewhat of a crank on drug legalization. But your link this morning to Dr. Shavelson is a revelation. I have a brother in-law who is a long-term drug addict and who is suicidal.…

I’ve talked a lot about what publishers are doing wrong in the analysis of the current transformation of book marketing and publishing. Let me talk about some things one of my publishers is doing very right. First, let me admit to some built-in bias. For those who haven’t heard the sob story at cons or…

One of the many ironies about life in our mega-egalitarian, discrimination-obsessed country is that not only does discrimination abound, there may be more discrimination than ever before. Most of it is government mandated, whether in the form of affirmative action hiring programs, requirements that government hire minority contractors, numerous programs for the “traditionally disadvantaged” (such…

Here is an oldie but goodie I wrote back in 2001. Republished on my blog in 2004. == Here is what got me started on the Chronic Drug Use is Caused by Chronic Pain track. The important thing is to read Dr.Shavelson’s book. The drug war in essence is a persecution of tortured children. –==–…

Sarah Hoyt who blogs here at Classical Values is interviewed by Glenn Reynolds on Instavision. The title of the video? There is no such thing as a benevolent dictatorship. Way to go Sarah! Update: If you want to look at some books Sarah has written have a look at Sarah Hoyt – Books . Update…

This is an excellent follow up to my post: Maybe It Isn’t All In Your Genes. About 50 minutes and worth your time. The above video on DVD: Ghost in Your Genes Related video: NOVA – Cracking the Code of Life A book for laymen: The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New…

While I don’t know whether to call it Palin Derangement Syndrome or Palinphobia, a poster has sprung up in San Francisco which I think reveals more about the anger and fear on the left than it does about the anger and fear on the right it purports to condemn: Enrage them with fear? Who is…

Ace catches the media doing… well, what the media does.  The shamelessness is breathtaking. James Taranto has, I think, the best take on all this. Burning an effigy, like burning an American flag, is constitutionally protected symbolic speech. It is also about as eliminationist as speech can get, short of a true threat or incitement. To…

Joseph Nadeau is trying to find the missing link between heritability and genetics. What? You thought Gregor Mendel had it all figured out in the 19th Century? Well he did. But then DNA sequencing came along and upset the apple cart. What we know about the fundamental laws of inheritance began to take shape in…