Author: Eric Scheie

Today I learned about two Salvador Dali paintings that I had never known about before. Both are from 1942 when he was living in the United States after fleeing Europe. One is “The Sheep” (the lamp is an optical illusion): The other is a an anti-VD propaganda poster he made for the U.S. Army titled…

Some sick friend told me about this awful picture which seems to be floating around. I think it’s downright disrespectful. Sheesh. Next the Teabaggers will be saying the ‘Mericans are like the Eloi. UPDATE: Damn! The cult is spreading! I’m all for people worshiping together in the church of their choice, but this is getting…

This morning I saw a story about a kindergarten riot. Actually, it was parents who rioted. Seven adults and one teenager were arrested for aggravated rioting and prosecutors will decide whether to charge them, he said. No one was seriously injured, but there were a number of scrapes and bruises from the fisticuffs. Drummond said…

Poor Coco! She has managed to fracture one of her toes, so her foot is in a sort of doggie cast, and I am nursing her and giving her lots of love and doggie pain killers. She is going to have to have that thing on for 6-8 weeks, and it makes a clumping sound…

Bill Quick quotes Theodore Dalrymple on why so many young converts to Islam are violent. What these cases show is that it is not Islam that makes young converts violent; it is the violence within them that causes them to convert to Islam. Adds Bill Quick: The only reason these violent young men turn to…

Earlier I read that a woman is having a “dolphin-assisted birth.” CHARLOTTE (CBS Charlotte) — A North Carolina couple traveled to Hawaii in order to bring their baby into the world in a dolphin-assisted birth. The Charlotte Observer reports Adam and Heather Barrington are staying with Star Newland, founder of The Sirius Institute, in Pohoa.…

To The Horror Of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here That was the headline in a Forbes piece I saw today, which hardly surprises me. Just last night I was reminiscing about my freshman Paleontology classes at UC Berkeley, in which we were taught that what is commonly known as “the Ice Age” was…

It’s a little too cold, wet, and bleak for most people around here to be out having fun, but that makes it a good time to remember the purpose of the holiday today: to honor those who fought and died to preserve the freedoms we take for granted. All the more important because some Americans…

A headline quoted at Drudge makes the following claim: Protesters in over 400 cities march vs MONSANTO… Really? That sounds like quite a movement. I didn’t know that many people cared. So I checked out the AP story, and — lo and behold — the source of the “news” was revealed in the first sentence:…

Freedom is freedom, and freedoms are interrelated. That’s the message of this ad. The Seattle poster has caused a lot of trouble on the left, which cannot stand freedom unless they can dispense it in such a way as to make people beholden to them. What they hate most of all is independent, free citizens…

Possession or distribution of kiddie porn is a crime, right? Arguably, it is one of the more serious crimes  imaginable, as violators can typically get more years in prison for possession of child pornography than for possession of drugs. The theory of the crime is that the children involved are victimized every time the porn…

As some of the commenters to this post are realizing, my apparent cluelessness about the rioting in Sweden was grounded in sarcasm. I think a major part of the story is being edited out quite deliberately, with the weasel word “youths” being used as an airbrush.  I find the condescending nature of this approach to…

An interesting philosophical observation from Michigan football star Taylor Lewan: “If you don’t talk about pain, it will go away” The man — a 6-foot 8-inch, 308 lb. lineman renowned for playing through injuries — knows whereof he speaks. What about the inverse? That if you do talk about pain, then you will have it!…

A local San Francisco restaurant specializing in bacon has been forced to close thanks to whining neighbors who don’t like the smell. The story has attracted national attention: Closing Bacon Bacon, the Frederick Street eatery that serves … well … bacon has turned out to be a publicity bonanza. The delicious irony that neighbors are…

What’s going on in Husby? This morning I read that Swedish teens there are rioting. STOCKHOLM (AP) — Gangs of youth angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man in a mainly immigrant neighborhood hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early Monday, forcing the…

Bill Quick linked a horror story from California. Here it is. It speaks for itself. The cops arrived without a warrant (claiming they’d had a “domestic violence report”), demanded entry, which was refused, so they kicked in the door, assaulted the wife, and tazed her husband for trying to help her. How manly of them!…

I think Ron Radosh makes an excellent point about the hard left when he quotes Herbert Marcuse on his doctrine of “repressive tolerance”: Marcuse developed the theory of “repressive tolerance.” As he explained, tolerance of the speech of those who are fascist or conservative is not acceptable for a democratic society. To liberate tolerance means…

One of my pet peeves involves people who use the cover of “freedom” to take away freedom. For years, the puritanical left has been claiming to support free and open human sexuality, while waging a not-so-covert war on sex. I’m not the only one to notice, and while it’s probably normal for libertarians to notice…

Ever wonder why there is such a major push to both militarize the police, and simultaneously demilitarize — even disarm — the military? I think Bill Quick may have touched on the answer. Soldiers expect that they may have to kill enemies of the nation. Cops expect that they may have to kill civilian criminals. They…

Remember the cacophony in 2011 when most of the country’s leading liberals — including Vice President Joe Biden — were loudly calling Tea Party supporters “terrorists.” I do, and I posted about it several times, because I think it is the height of irresponsibility to accuse people of terrorism simply because they think the government…