Author: Eric Scheie

In a recent news item I wish I didn’t have to take seriously, the Shariah-promoting Fiqh Council of North America is claiming that airport body scanners violate Islamic law. The Detroit Free Press says this could complicate airline screening: In a move that could complicate airport screening, a group of Muslim-American scholars issued a religious…

Earlier I was sent a link to an event I consider ridiculous, which I was all set to ignore in my usual manner. I offhandedly forwarded the link to M. Simon, who made an obvious suggestion — that I ridicule the event. The event featured programs with titles like “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms:…

When I wrote about the used Japanese rice cooker I found at a Craigs List moving sale for nothing, the implications of this emergent “fuzzy logic” technology had not yet begun to sink in. I was not yet fully aware of how easy it had become to prepare high-quality, low-cost food, but now that it’s…

Self hatred has long fascinated me, because it’s one of those psychological conditions which has been transformed from a medical disorder into a political indictment. Gay conservatives, gay libertarians, and any other gays who disagree with the left have been called “self hating homosexuals” for so long and so repeatedly that it’s almost a thing…

Just about everyone across the political spectrum has sounded off about Sarah Palin (who has predictably been praised and denounced for her appearance at the Tea Party Convention), and all the while I have remained silent. Perhaps too suspiciously silent, perhaps not. In an earlier email to M. Simon, I explained why I didn’t want…

While I enjoy history, it’s always humbling, because there’s no way to know everything about everything. The most that can be hoped for is to know a little bit about as much as you can in the time you have on this earth. But that, of course, is never “enough” for there are always countless…

Eric S. Raymond (whom I greatly respect) took umbrage at this statement from Bill Whittle (whom I also greatly respect): Of course, the media coverage has tried very hard to portray the normal, average, every-day Americans of the Tea party rallies as dangerous and angry racists and Wal-Mart knuckle-draggers, while identifying the mass-produced signs, the…

While I have discussed RU-486 (mifepristone, or “miffy”) in previous posts, my thoughts turned to the drug again in light of this statistic: A medical abortion is a type of non-surgical abortion in which an abortifacient is used to induce voluntary miscarriage. Safe and effective abortifacients for use in the first trimester became available in…

I can think of few people more deserving of Christopher Hitchen’s vitriolic wrath than Gore Vidal. Once a talented writer, the latter has clearly degenerated into a tawdry peddler of ridiculous crackpot conspiracy claims. …in an article headlined “Vidal Loco”, Hitchens launches a stinging attack on Vidal, claiming that the events of 9/11 “accentuated a…

In a fit of homesickness, earlier I was thinking about surly service in favorite decrepit Chinese restaurants I have known over the years. (For some reason the two tend to go hand in hand.) In Berkeley, some of my fondest drunken memories involved Robbie’s Chinese American Hofbrau, which used to be on Telegraph Avenue. The…

To what class should Barack Obama be assigned? That is not an easy question to answer, because while it’s clear that he is now at the top of the political and “intellectual” ruling class elite, his background cannot easily be characterized in ordinary class terms as we understand them (or, as we once understood them).…

Earlier today I found a longtime favorite doo-wop song that I’ve listened to for years recently uploaded to YouTube. Hardly a video, but it does have a cute picture, and I also think it’s cute that it has only had 23 views! The song is the mysterious “Oh You,” by an obscure doo-wop group called…

From time to time, I write posts about Salvador Dalí. However, I tend to move on from one thing to another, and unfortunately, this blog doesn’t have categories, so things get lost. Last night I collected and cross-posted the Dal&iacute posts into a blog I started years ago, but neglected, Daliblog.com. I don’t know whether…

While he was guest blogging for Glenn Reynolds yesterday, Michael Totten linked an interesting analysis which tends to confirm my previous suspicions: …for those seeking a true measure of Obama’s judgment, on both policy and politics, the meeting between the president and Senate Democrats yesterday was much more instructive. Obama’s words made it clear that,…

Who said that? If you think it’s some liberal bigwig, you’d be wrong. Tom Tancredo said it, and I agree with Dan Riehl, who calls it “stupid pandering.” While no big fan of McCain, if Obama gets the two more SCOTUS appointments he might, don’t tell me we’re better off because McCain lost. We’ll be…

And what a well-deserved tearing it was! Never have I felt more destroyed, disemboweled, mauled, hammered, ripped, slammed, and buttf*cked than I did when I watched this. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Because I know that Jim Treacher is a humorist, I thought that this early, one paragraph report of him being hit by a State Department vehicle might have been intended as some sort of satire. I’m sorry to see (via Glenn Reynolds’ later link) that I was mistaken, and that this was actually a very…

In an earlier post, I made a point of hesitating, ironically, to use the word “savages” in characterizing those Pashtuns who have sex with men who would kill one of their own for admitting homosexuality I’d say that the British had a word for people like that — “SAVAGES” — except I’d be inviting trouble…

I’ve been so preoccupied with personal business yesterday and today that I have had no time to blog about whatever is happening in the real world. I haven’t even had time to look. Between a household repair emergency and trying to help out a friend who has become a villain in a compelling but false…

Are we facing an epidemic of “Internet addiction”? Apparently so. There are more and more studies like this warning of dire dangers, which are said to include depression and the risk of suicide: Study leader Dr Catriona Morrison, from the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds, said: “The internet now plays a…