Author: Eric Scheie

I do not own or seek to own Bitcoins. Something about the idea of harvesting and selling unique, computer-generated numbers strikes me as silly. That this medium of exchange is intrinsically worthless, volatile, and shows all the signs of being a bubble also does little to endear me to it. However, earlier I was reading…

Phyllis Schlafly is convinced that the goal of gay marriage is to destroy Christianity. Long-time conservative activist, nationally syndicated columnist, and best-selling author Phyllis Schlafly said that gay marriage advocates are targeting Christian businesses, such as bakeries and wedding planners, and not targeting similar Muslim businesses because the ultimate goal of homosexual marriage is to…

The prospect of being buried alive has long terrified people. So much so that provisions have been placed in wills requiring waiting periods, entombment in unlocked crypts, etc. Some inventor actually applied for a patent for what was called a “device for indicating life in buried persons.” The buried person simply needed to rotate a…

FWIW, I think racism sucks. Not only is racism irrational, but it is — and was — the antithesis of the ideals on which the country was founded. (Hence the Civil War, the seeds of which were sown by the founding principles and the compromises thereof.) Bad as racism is, I think that sooner or…

Of course not! Stuff like this only happens in Europe. Officials here and in Arizona stepped up their investigation into two men who opened fire with assault rifles and were shot dead by a police officer before they could invade a controversial Muhammad cartoon contest. Here we have the First Amendment, so we can say…

The shooting of a black man in Detroit by federal agents is attracting more and more local attention. DETROIT, MI — Kevin Kellom of Detroit was at the Wayne County morgue Tuesday afternoon taking care of formalities. The body of 20-year-old Terrance Kellom, his son, was inside. Police are saying little about what led to…

As he was to many in my generation, Bruce Jenner was an icon in my youth. So it’s not surprising that his recent announcement — that he is a woman — has taken the Internet by storm. Obviously, the idea of a star Olympic athlete changing his sex is shocking and titillating. But if you…

Things have reached the point where I am sick to death of the Internet, much as I depend upon it for communications and news. The main reason is spammy suckass websites which promote, condone, allow, are paid to allow, the damnable, detestable audio and video advertising that will AUTOPLAY. I hate intrusive noise, and I avoid…

While I know I’ve been complaining for years about the prohibition of drunken sex, there is now a new wrinkle. People with Alzheimer’s Disease are now being treated like people on alcohol or drugs. Meaning (of course) that no sex is allowed: The nursing home staff caring for Rayhons’ wife, Donna Lou Rayhons, told the former…

Police violence. Nowadays, nearly everybody is talking about it. Over the years, I’ve kvetched about SWAT team raids, the War on Drugs, Homeland Security, militarization of law enforcement, etc., etc. more times than I care to imagine. In the latest national meme, liberals are doing everything they can to conflate police violence with racism. Nice…

When most people hear the words “kiddie porn,” they’re thinking of innocent children being exploited and damaged for life by villainous adults. That’s the legal theory behind laws against child pornography: protecting the victims against exploitation. What is happening more and more is that these same laws are being used as a tool to punish…

So far at least,  this sort of thing has never happened to me. There is a blurry line separating ‘normal’ healthy eating and orthorexia nervosa, but one way to define the condition is when eating ‘healthily’ causes significant distress or negative consequences in a person’s life. They may be ‘plunged into gloom’ by eating a piece…

Why are so many people (left and right) obsessed with such a question? It should not matter to sane people. But for reasons that still escape me after many years of blogging, it absolutely does.

President Barack Obama was actually interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie. Seeing is believing. Wow. Just wow.

Ferguson is indeed a conversation starter, although I don’t think this is the sort of conversation Starbucks had in mind: ST. LOUIS (AP) — Police are searching for three young men after a light rail passenger in St. Louis was attacked after being asked what he thought about the “Mike Brown situation.” Officers released details…

Right. I often think it’s all a waste of time. People think what they think, whether they think it or not. Arguments are a waste of time. Sometimes I think the Internet has only aggravated the problem. As I know I’ve said countless times, I’m almost as tired of partisan arguments I agree with as…

Writing in the (conservative) National Review, Katherine Timpf argues that conservatives ought to distance themselves from Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame: Phil Robertson is an ignorant buffoon, and that many of his comments — despite the fact that he does have every right to make them — are not ones that anyone should ever want…

I don’t know how reliable this report will turn out to be: All evidence indicates that the copilot of Airbus machine in his six-months break during his training as a pilot in Germanwings, converted to Islam and subsequently either by the order of “radical”, ie. devout Muslims , or received the order from the book of…

There’s an emerging national inquisition over the issue of race: Workers at the U.S. government’s Forest Service have been asked to use online tests to check whether they are secretly racist, or harboring other biases. The federal employees were asked to use work time to take tests, lasting some 15 minutes each, to see whether…

Is anyone allowed to crack jokes about Michelle Obama? Apparently not. Not even if the joke was a wisecrack about a bad makeup job by an actor made up to look like her. And not even if the joke was made by a biracial presenter on Hispanic TV who is also “openly gay and an…