Author: Eric Scheie

Who are “they”? It’s an ongoing question here, and I have devoted a number of posts to the issue. In a piece titled “Boss Rangel and the Spirit of 1876,” Walter Russell Mead really nails them: ….take the upper middle class neo-Puritan goody-goodies out of the mix and there isn’t all that much left of…

Confronted with the spectacle of the gluttonous David Axelrod chomping on a drumstick, President Obama is reported to have “surveyed the spread on Mr. Axelrod’s desk with a slight smirk” and then quipped “What is this, King Arthur’s court?” Neo-Neocon notes that the president committed a historical gaffe: King Arthur’s court? I believe Obama must…

While I’ve used Ebay to buy and sell for many years, about a year ago I decided that I would never be a seller again. That’s because after many years of a feedback system that allowed both buyers and sellers to leave negative feedback, Ebay suddenly instituted a “no-negative feedack” rule — but only against…

The video that Glenn Reynolds posted reminded me of something I have discussed before — there is a serious problem with absolute idiots on the road. For whatever reason, our society deems it unnecessary to ensure that drivers know how to drive. Watch and weep as Mike Allen of Popular Mechanics demonstrates that (doh!) you…

In a post about short actors, Ann Althouse features a YouTube video of the original “Mr. Skeffington” trailer: It’s a great film which starred Bette Davis and Claude Rains, and the two of them were perfectly matched — as Bette Davis was 5′ 3″ while Claude Rains towered over her at 5′ 6 1/2″. You’d…

In his column today, Leonard Pitts echoes a tired but familiar theme — that because crazy people show up at Tea Parties, the movement is itself crazy, and because “conservatism” is reluctant to denounce the nutcases, all conservatives are somehow tainted: …in the tea party movement, some conservatives finally meet a cognitive disconnect they simply…

There’s a lot of speculation here about the Pentagon shooting suspect who has been identified as “John Patrick Bedell” since Glenn Reynolds linked the original report. If the Freepers are correct, he may be a Lew Rockwell-following, gay, Obama-loving, pot-growing, Bush-hating 9/11 conspiracy theorist. As to whose narrative this might fit, I have no idea.…

Glenn Reynolds quoted part of a remark by Ann Althouse which made me wish I had voted for Barack Obama: …Barack Obama won the presidency by holding himself out as powerfully virtuous, as the man who would change the way Washington works. When I voted for Obama, I didn’t think that was going to be…

Can people be taxed into adopting better health habits? It’s a fascinating idea, and it seems to be the primary goal of Philadelphia’s Mayor Michael Nutter, who wants to impose unprecedentedly high taxes on soft drinks: Mayor Nutter, balking at cutting “core services” and running out of ways to raise money, is expected to balance…

I am very sorry to see that Jon Swift — whose real name was Al Weisel, and who described himself as “a reasonable conservative who likes to write about politics and culture” — has died. I can’t help notice that his blogging seems to have stopped not long after the inauguration of Barack Obama. I…

Back in the good old 1930s, when radio and talking movies were the rage, few Americans thought to question the voices of authority which issued sanctimonious pronouncements in stentorian tones. “Marihuana” was addictive and dangerous! And all of our youth were at risk to dope peddlers in schoolyards! What the authorities wanted most of all…

As M. Simon made clear in his post about a recycled story, things are going worse than we thought in the Drug War (rapidly approaching its centennial). The drug war is touted as one war worth fighting. Does anyone still believe that any more? And what is the lead in every single article? It is…

Justin pointed me to a fascinating Newsweek report about a new archeological find at Gobekli Tepe, in Turkey which turns conventional knowledge of early human on its head: Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the…

Roger Kimball thinks Al Gore has become quite a comedian, and cites with devastating approval his recent column in the New York Times: It is just lovely that the New York Times — the world’s most discredited newspaper — would give so thoroughly discredited a mountebank this lavish soapbox upon which to make a fool…

While the last thing I want to do is leap to the defense of President Obama, I thought I should make a simple observation about the Boris Karloff comparison that has been floating around. Rush Limbaugh seems to have started it with this remark: Obama was sitting there and his lips were pursed. There as…

I don’t mean to be a bore about these things, but I try to be fair, and not long ago I wrote a long post complaining about “two dishonest words that especially offend me,” because of their inherently argumentative nature as well as their tendency to distort perceptions of reality. Anyway, because I used the…

The hysteria over the killing of a trainer by a killer whale has now reached a media crescendo — replete with psychoanalysis of the animal’s motives, often in the context of a narrative that sees man as the oppressor. This is causing some people with knowledge about animals to roll their eyes and remark the…

Dr. Helen links a video which ought to be seen by anyone who doesn’t believe misandry exists… Let me pause right there to note an unexpected irony which proves one of the points made by the video. As I typed the first sentence of this post, the word “misandry” was flagged in red, even though…

Quite foolishly in my view, Senator John McCain has introduced new legislation that would give broad new powers to the FDA to regulate the vitamin and dietary supplement industry — right on down to your corner store. Steven Joyal looks into why McCain would do such a thing, and concludes it’s because of baseball: Most…

I have been feeling under the weather lately, and as I had some leftover rice in a ziplock bag, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and see how well my rice cooker performs at making jook. Also called congee, it is renowned throughout Asia as the ideal sick person’s food, as well…