Author: Eric Scheie

Gay Marriage. It is huge news right now. North Carolina voters just rejected it, and President Obama has decided that he can score political points by dramatically flip-flopping from his previous opposition to support. This post is not about whether it is a good idea for gay couples to be inviting the government into their private…

In a story that would be touching in the ordinary context, an 88 year old man and his 85 year old girlfriend built a portable water purification business from a dream to a reality. Nothing wrong there; such things are supposed to be part of the American Dream. But now, their business is being ruined by…

I am very proud to see that Sarah is guest blogging at Instapundit. Moreover, she is behaving in a very purrfessional manner! It probably won’t surprise anyone that since I aspire to being the mad-cat-woman of science fiction (Yes, the competition is stiff.  Well, actually it’s soft, fuzzy and on occasion purrs) I love the…

Speaking of the things They do to Us (and the frustration almost makes me understand the silly emotions that drive the 1% versus 99% dichotomy), I am one of those stubborn clingers to the past who wants to keep my Windows XP — a perfectly good OS that serves my needs. Anyway, simply because I…

Using a new browser. WTF? I can’t remember… It’s….. Maxthon. That’s what it is. A friend just told me about it after the umpteenth Firefox crash. Why they do these things to us, I don’t know. Nor do I know how seriously to take this new browser, but Google is taking Maxthon seriously: On April 10,…

Speaking of not wanting to start arguments, my post last night depressed me, because I couldn’t figure out whether by voicing a thought, I might be guilty of starting an argument. I mean, my normal process in everyday life is to just throw private fits when I see something I disagree with. I’ll curse and…

I’m not surprised to see “science” confirm that heavily tattooed or pierced people are more likely to drink to excess. As M. Simon has pointed out many times in a slightly different context, people who suffer from PTSD are likely to do all sorts of destructive things which overlap and can thus be said to…

I have a computer which runs a Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU. Although the machine is plenty fast I could stick in a faster CPU, like a Core 2 Quad Q6600 which I am told would be “twice as fast.” While keeping up with the Joneses often makes me feel twice as slow, if you…

A write-up on safes (ostensibly a discussion of the fact that many Americans prefer to store their wealth at home as opposed to banks) reminded me of the tension between secrecy and security. Safes — even high quality safes — are not necessarily good hiding places. If a safe is found, it would become the logical…

Whether it’s in the New York Times, CNN or countless other places, the George Zimmerman case is becoming a well organized campaign against “Stand your ground” laws, which is a thinly veiled war against self defense itself. As I told M. Simon (who has been sending me links) in an email, I should probably be screaming…

NO! NO! NO! I am too tired to write, but some things are too much. Self driving vehicles are too much for me to bear contemplating. (My biggest worry is that they’ll start by allowing them, then end up requiring them.) As if that isn’t bad enough, they want us to be strapped into sci-fi-ish-looking…

Whether it’s setting fire to forests and meadows, poisoning fish, shooting owls, killing sea lions, or (from the latest news)  shooting cormorants, today’s environmentalists love nothing more than laying waste to the land. In the name of “the Environment” they apply policies that are about as merciful and compassionate as the Khmer Rouge. It isn’t about the Environment,…

When I heard about the proposed Egyptian “reform” which would legalize sex with corpses (of recently deceased spouses, although of course multiple spouses might mean multiple corpses), my initial reaction was “Talk about stiff!” Nyuk nyuk. But maybe I shouldn’t have been so flippant. After all, this is a serious legal reform in a supposedly progressive,…

One of my computers has been behaving erratically. Not erotically, mind you, although it does get plenty “hot.” What will happen is that suddenly, for no apparent reason, the screen will go black, and at exactly the same time the CPU fan (or the case fan or some loud fan) will just explode in a…

M. Simon sent me a link to a report about an Occupy rally which has me puzzled: Multiple speakers preached explicit violence at the Occupy The Justice Department rally in Washington DC Tuesday.  Speeches at this event were focused on Trayvon Martin and freedom for radical journalist and convicted cop killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Typical leftie fringe. Nothing surprising…

This sort of thing has become all too typical of the Obama administration: “Kids may be banned from even the most simplest of farm related tasks and experiences“: The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from…

A million dollars is a lot of money to pay someone for “proof” of someone else’s non-virginity, but that’s what’s considered a hot news item today. Apparently, a lot of people are so irritated over the claim that football star Tim Tebow is a virgin, that disproving it has become some sort of cause. While…

Is hiring a gay spokesman “not conservative“? I don’t know. Some self appointed spokesmen for conservatism seem to think that it isn’t. And some of them are screaming loudly that Romney should be made to atone. So what is “conservative”? As a libertarian, am I supposed to care? Should I be battling to be able to…

I’m not feeling especially creative right now. The one cup of coffee I have had did little more to inspire me to click on a news site, and I chose the SF Chronicle only because earlier I perused Joel Kotkin’s WSJ piece about the “The Great California Exodus,” so as the Chuck Berry line goes,…

In celebration of a dishonest and manipulative occasion for a “day,”  here’s the “If I Wanted America to Fail” video. I agree with Roger L. Simon that it deserves to go viral. Aren’t environmentalists lovely?