Month: January 2012

“There ought to be a law” – the rallying cry of statists everywhere.

Sorry I haven’t gotten a post up today, but I have spend most of the day batting a virus in vain. I’m hardly a novice and I know enough to have good anti-virus and to not download things, but last night a mere click to a contaminated website (a mom and pop business in the…

The conventional wisdom is that the ABC hit piece (which I suspect was deliberately leaked to Drudge) featuring a much-hyped interview with Newt Gingrich’s angry ex-wife Marianne is an attempt to derail the man’s candidacy, or even put the coffin’s nail in it. I think it’s just the opposite. ABC is surely savvy enough to…

While the issue hasn’t come up in the presidential debates, and many ordinary citizens don’t know about it, there is broad online opposition to the odious SOPA/PIPA legislation pending before both houses of Congress. I’m glad to see Google’s logo blacked out in protest, and even more delighted to see the Wikipedia shutdown. I have…

What stood out about the debate last night was seeing Romney having to defend what he did when he was at Bain. Gingrich is of course still going after him, and while I already agreed with Glenn’s assessment that the Gingrich attacks are helping Romney, what was remarkable last night was seeing Romney in a…

I just realized that my tape dispenser (which had belonged my parents) is so old and bulbous-looking that it might very well be considered collectible! Alongside the stapler, they both look especially… “vintage.” Even the box of staples (which I use because they are staples) seems vintage, and it has the same Swingline model stapler…

I love peanuts, and peanut butter. However, between .04% and .06% of the humans in this country are allergic to the stuff. (2.3% are allergic to seafood, which I also love.) While I feel sorry for those who suffer from such an allergy, I was a bit puzzled by the angry reaction of parents to…

Gerard Vanderleun gets it. The issue is not Romney, but Obama. HT Glenn. (I can’t believe we are having to debate such obvious stuff.)  

I think it was very nice of Newt (via his “super PAC”) to do this: “This is a story of greed, of playing the system for a quick buck, a group of corporate raiders led by Mitt Romney more ruthless than Wall Street. For tens of thousands of Americans, the suffering began when Mitt Romney…

I’m not sure whether I should let Coco see this ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-4bm5NxqPY And if you like the Gingrich ad, you’ll love the way Rachel Maddow has taken it and run with it. I’m also glad I’m not running for president. I say this not as an endorsement of Romney (who does strike me as a…

Eric has written a wonderful post on liberty. I’d like to quote the heart of the piece and then add a few words of my own. …if there is one lesson I have learned from freedom, it’s that there are risks and downsides, and you have to take the good and the bad. Economies do…

The Other McCain at The American Spectator is worried about the future of the Republican Party. Why? Ron Paul. There are many mysteries to the phenomenon that is Ron Paul. How is it, for example, that a 76-year-old with a reedy voice – his appearance and manner not remotely “presidential” by the usual standards of…

A lot of people were surprised by this NASA video. More here, and here, and here. I’m been saying keep an eye on Rossi for a while.  Skepticism still very warranted, but starting to look more and more like maybe there’s some there there. (Just for fun, I also ordered a small home e-cat from…

While it is not central to the point under discussion, I spotted an error in an article in the Daily Mail linked by Glenn Reynolds about an allegedly “racist” portrayal of Michelle Obama as Marie Antoinette. I find the argument that it is racist to PhotoShop the First Lady into a Marie Antoinette portrait ludicrous…

Not only is there nothing new about that observation, it went to the heart of the last election. As most people know, the evil of capitalism resulted in the election of Barack Obama, despite McCain’s attempts at haranguing Wall Street tycoons and the usual Malefactors of Great Wealth. As I keep saying, freedom includes the…

This quote from Frank Luntz provided another reason for me not to want to be saddled with the conservative label: Conservatives should not be defending capitalism. They should be defending economic freedom. And there is a difference. The word capitalism was created by Karl Marx to demonize those people who make a profit. We’ve always…

It is not as large as it once was. And we have Congress to blame. When Congress passed the first copyright law in 1790, the copyright term lasted for 14 years, with the option to renew for another 14 years if the copyright holder was still living. Before 1978, the copyright term was still 28…

Watch Importance of the First Congress on PBS. See more from Ken Burns.

Commenter Frank gave me a heads up on this delightful piece. You can listen to Raphael Orozco doing the piece at YouTube – Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Update: The Rachmaninoff piece on YouTube was mislabeled. I have corrected that. Frank in the comments has the correct link to Rachmaninoff playing the piece.

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when I agree with Pat Buchanan. And if there’s anything I hate more than that, it’s agreeing with Fidel Castro. Imagine my surprise when I discovered myself agreeing with both of them on the same day, and on the same general issue! Pat Buchanan says that Republican infighting has gotten…