Author: Eric Scheie

Not only was that my immediate reaction to Roger L. Simon’s and Lionel Chetwynd’s lively and spirited discussion of “An Education,” but it was the very first IMDB User Comment on the film (which BTW, bas drawn rave reviews across the board). I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t weigh in on whether Lionel…

Regarding the the incredible story of the leaked Hadley CRU files (a story which M. Simon helped break in the blogosphere, and which prompted Dave to suggest that the leaker deserves Al Gore’s Nobel Prize), I’m naturally curious about the whodunnit aspect. It’s beginning to look like it was no hacker but an insider. From…

As there’s been some advocacy of secession in the comments, I thought I would examine how this might occur in practice, whether legally or not. A lot of people seem to think the Civil War settled the issue of whether states have the right to secede, except it did not. The war — not a…

In an earlier email to M. Simon, I remarked, If a woman has a right to an abortion, all people have a right to medicate pain. That happens to be what I think. Yet as I learned recently, there are some people who interpret remarks I’ve made like that as an attempt to — let…

Rand Simberg linked a post I wrote last month about the federal criminalization of wood, and I thought I should thank him here rather than in the post itself — which Glenn Reynolds linked yesterday, but which is so old that regular readers might miss updates on it. Simberg added a great point which I…

I’m getting more than a little tired over the fact that some people on the left — aided, naturally, by some people on the right (with the help of agents provocateurs and trolls) — seem hell-bent on fomenting an American Civil War. I think people need to remember how much civil wars suck. Take it…

Despite the fact that I hate repeating myself, I have complained about government health care and unconstitutional laws till I’m blue in the face. All to no avail, it often seems. Those government bastards will do what they want, no matter what I think or say. Still, no matter how tired I get of complaining,…

That there is a double standard between the “right” and the “left” where it comes to sexuality is not news. In general, people perceived as being on the left are allowed sexual freedom — including the right to be gay, to be promiscuous, to engage in sex for money, and to pose in pornography —…

Via Glenn Reynolds, James Taranto makes a very important point I think is being missed in the debate over the trial of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in New York: one man’s technicality is another’s violation of due process; and the corollary of treating KSM like ordinary criminals is treating ordinary criminals like KSM. This column approves…

A forensic scientist I am not. However, the following comment to M. Simon’s post about the suicide of Michael Scott intrigued me: Was Scott left-handed? In my personal experience, I have found that a good way to tell which hand a person favors is simply to watch the person write something. If that isn’t possible,…

In a refreshing reminder of how pleasantly “out-of-it” some people are, when I told a South Park fan about a recent episode which spoofs Glenn Beck, an immediate question arose. “Who is Glenn Beck?” I don’t watch him (on the few occasions I tried, the commercials thwarted me), but I tried to stick to the…

I have to say that I admire M. Simon’s patience in writing this post, which was occasioned by a link I sent him discussing the following question: Are you a Christian first and an American second? Or an American first and a Christian second? While Jesus’s “render unto Caesar” remark comes to mind, if I…

Ann Althouse is taking flak from her commenters for writing a post about football, even though all she did was point out that her team (the Wisconsin Badgers) beat Michigan’s Wolverines – which happens to be “my” team — 45-24. That game was a major rout – and in a comment I thanked her for…

In what I think is a blatant restriction of private property rights (as well as grotesque government micromanagement of people’s lives), the City of San Francisco is considering requiring landlords to accept pets: Right now, it’s up to property owners to decide if they’ll allow pets. But a city commission is looking at forcing landlords…

In yet another example of how government censorship tends to creep from country to country, a German law firm is demanding that Wikipedia remove all references to a man convicted in the brutal 1990 murder of filmmaker Walter Sedlmayr: At issue is an apparent conflict between the U.S. First Amendment — which protects truthful speech…

While a story about an abused child might not be as interesting to the readers, the Philadelphia Inquirer has a long article about a severely abused dog named Oreo. Described as a “pit bull mix,” she had been severely beaten (badly enough that a fellow project resident called the cops) and finally thrown from the…

A number of people on the right side of the political spectrum (including those who blog here) have been asking how it came to be that Major Hasan escaped scrutiny and managed to remain an Army officer despite his bizarre views and terrorist sympathies. But on the left, many — including Senator Frank Lautenberg, whose…

Without fully explaining in detail, Glenn Reynolds opined that Sarah Palin is more atttractive than Mike Huckabee. WELL, SHE CERTAINLY IS AHEAD OF HIM ON THAT COUNT: Huckabee: Palin’s getting more media buzz than me because she’s attractive. More important, from my perspective, is the fact that — although people have tried to paint her…

Are there too many people in the world? Some say there are, and some say there aren’t. The topic does not seem to lend itself to easy answers. The last time I touched on the subject, it involved considering whether there is such a thing as conservative eugenics, and I was no more comfortable with…

Today is Veterans Day, so if you know any veterans, go out and thank one. If you don’t know any veterans to thank, you could always start with this blog’s resident veteran M. Simon, who also has his own blog. My father served in World War II and my grandfather served in World War I,…