Author: Eric Scheie

Via Ann Althouse, I found a touching story about a new program to rehabilitate youthful offenders by having them perform Shakespeare. This, it is urged, would increase their low self esteem: The program would train court-referred teenagers to mount an abbreviated Shakespeare play after a six week session, under supervision of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee theater…

Anyone who runs Windows or who spends time online knows what a constant annoyance viruses, malware, adware, spyware, Trojans, unwanted self-installing “bars,” and all that other crap can be. I like to think that I am at least fairly conscientious about protecting my computer. After considerable research, I switched from Trend Micro (which missed a…

Reading about the methanol-related deaths of at least 143 /people in India, my first reaction was to wonder “why in the world would anyone buy such poison?” The answer is that they cannot afford the good stuff sold in government-run liquor stores. So, callused criminal entrepreneurs brew up poisonous rotgut, which contains methanol. The predictable…

I got quite a kick out of this story about the DC resident who was fined thousands of dollars for not recycling contaminated recyclables: Dupont Circle resident Patricia White says she has been fined eight times for throwing homemade cat litter in her trash. The fines total $2,000. White says she shreds old newspaper and…

Thanks to the latest twist in the endless War on Drugs, new laws are ensuring that patients in chronic pain will be denied pain killers. So they are left to writhe in pain, because doctors are afraid to help. Charles Passantino stared at his doctor in disbelief. A 64-year-old patient with a crippling liver disease, Passantino…

Good news for all you oppressed introverts. According to a study Glenn linked, there may be a drug to make you extraverted: Montreal — First dates, job interviews or Christmas cocktail parties can be stressors for some people. Such social rites of passage have no doubt made shy or introverted individuals wish for a magic…

While I wish we didn’t have to rely on the British press to give us our news, so often it seems that they are the only source for news that ought to be national. As to why the American news outlets shy away from stories like the one about the Predator drone used to spy…

When I read this very thoughtful book review — “Women on Top, Men at the Bottom” — I once again found myself contemplating Kay Hymowitz’s criticism of men who seemingly remain boys. Sit on a bench on the Thompson Hall lawn — the “green” at the University of New Hampshire — and watch the students walk…

In an editorial at PJ Media, Roger L. Simon makes a good case for Newt Gingrich. While I do not take serious issue with anything he says, I have such a serious problem with Gingrich’s status as the nation’s leading Drug War advocate that I did something I don’t do often, and left a comment.…

Here’s something that ought to amaze and astound everyone. A scientific study has reached a dramatic conclusion: Alcohol fuels the desire to engage in unsafe sex. Got that? Science is catching up to the centuries-old popular wisdom that alcohol lowers inhibitions. I used to think that was one of those truisms. Common sense, even. Now…

“I want a World War Two style victory plan-a decisive, all out cataclysmic effort to break the back of the drug culture.” Yes, Newt Gingrich actually said that. Please let that sink in. He did not say he wanted a World War Two style war on drugs, but against drug culture. What does that mean,…

Reason’s A. Barton Hinkle has an interesting piece titled “Drug War’s Mission Creep Hurts Farmers: The nation’s drug warriors fret that hemp cultivation would make pot prohibition harder.” A Virginia farmer wants to do what the early Virginian founders once did, and grow hemp. Politis is a retired businessman who now sits on the Board…

I hate it when important details news in events go unreported, especially when it seems that they are being deliberately unreported. Last night when I read about a gunman at Sunset and Vine shooting people at random, I figured he was either a nut or a Jihadist (which is a distinction, even though there is…

There’s a GOP debate tonight. Many of the consensus bandwagon people are drooling with anticipation over Newt kicking Mitt’s butt. As I have said a number of times, I don’t like Romney, but I can’t stand Gingrich. What I like less or cannot stand more does not matter. I have learned that regardless of what…

A bill which would stop the EPA from regulating so-called “farm dust” was recently approved by Congress: The Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act, H.R. 1633, which would prevent the EPA from issuing any new rule over the next year that regulates coarse particulate matter, or “nuisance dust,” passed in a 268-150 vote. Like other environmental bills…

“ONLY TRAINED LAW-ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONALS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CARRY GUNS” So proclaims Glenn Reynolds sarcastically, as he links the latest news item about some incredibly inept gun handling by Milwaukee police: According to a criminal complaint released Thursday, Edwards was in line at Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop when he reached into his back pocket for his…

I was deeply disappointed to read that not only might the world not actually end on December 21, 2012, but that the evidence doesn’t even show that it’s what the Mayans believed: Trying to determine how 2012 — specifically, Dec. 21, 2012 — turned into a worldwide doomsday watch is a thankless pursuit, although the…

After 70 years, the date still lives in infamy, and even though the survivors have gotten so old that they will have to disband their group, it is important that we remember. Too many people think that stuff like that will never happen again. They have already been proven wrong.

When I first read about the family whose home was destroyed by a fire while firemen stood there and watched, I was upset. Apparently they failed to pay a subscription fee, so the result is that they didn’t get emergency fire services: A Tennessee couple helplessly watched their home burn to the ground, along with…

Funny thing I’d be talking about generators the other day. This morning shortly after six I was awakened by my (two) APC UPS units beeping rudely, which they do when the power goes out. So I turned off the APC units. Not long after that, I heard a strange a deep “POP” sound some distance…