Author: Eric Scheie

This morning, guest contributor Frank wrote a post about Andrew Sullivan. I just got this from Frank: You guys may be interested in this. I e-mail a link of the article to Sullivan with a note that he should read it and reflect. He e-mailed back 20 minute later with a one word response: weirdo…

The good news just keeps coming! I just learned that figure skater Johnny Weir (whose past refusal to follow the cultural diktats of Gay Inc. I admired) has issued a fashion fatwa at Washington politicians. …He suggested that Washington kick off its flats. “I love a woman in a heel, and a gentleman in a…

Michael Barone has written the political obituary of Newt Gingrich, and considering Barone’s status as a political analyst, I think that makes it official. Gingrich is out! Considering my opinion of the man, I should be happy. So why am I not rejoicing? I guess it’s because I am less than thrilled by the prospect…

A friend emailed me a link to a fascinating article by Salim Mansur which succinctly argues that the reason for the absence of democracy among Arabs is cultural: The Arab League consists of 21 states and the Palestinian Authority. There is not one single democracy in this collection of Arab states, and the predominant reason…

I have been so busy with my backyard landscaping project that I have not had time to blog. After digging out the hole and putting in perforated pipe, next came six yards of egg rock (moved by hand in 97 degree heat!): Then soil and more soil: As you can see, it was only thanks…

Not much to say today as I have been digging in the yard. But I see that Huma Abedin — who became famous and I discussed repeatedly when she was Hillary Clinton’s “body person” — is in the news again. The news that Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, is pregnant had been known and agonized…

As if we needed more evidence that the federal government nanny state is completely out of control, the EPA is poised to ban most rat poison. If upheld, the EPA action would pull from the shelves some commonly sold products for controlling rodents. The EPA said the move would prevent thousands of children from being…

I have complained about SWAT team raids in countless posts, but now that they’re using them to enforce warrants issued by the Department of Education over defaulted student loans, I thought yet another post was in order. The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife’s defaulted student…

I don’t know whether any birdwatchers frequent this blog, but I recently attached a bird house to my garage, and it didn’t take long for a commotion to develop, following which construction began. I just photographed the builder in action, entering the house with twig in beak: Cute, no? I have not yet identified the…

In the sweltering heat today, the landscaping job continued. I dug trenches in the hot sun and chopped out so many roots and so much concrete that my hands are now covered with blisters. I do not envy the Chinese coolies. Even though it was too hot for any non-mad-dogs Coco still managed to supervise.…

Electric cars frighten me. Not because I have anything against new technology or the freedom of anyone to travel in whatever way he sees fit, but because I see a lot of money going into the development of something that people are not going to want, and I worry that push may come to shove.…

In the event that anyone is coming here looking for new posts from me, my sincere apologies! I have been literally SWAMPED with work lately, and I am completely re-landscaping the yard. Coco has been supervising everything so carefully that she has a new title. “The Snoopervisor!” But little does she know…. Just wait till…

Over a year ago, I wrote a post about the nixing of bisexual baseball players by a gay team which apparently believes that bisexual is “not gay enough.”  Sure, people have a right to discriminate in the free association sense, but it has long baffled me why people care so passionately about the sex lives…

Salvador Dali said that, and I would tend to agree. So today I went rock-shopping, and found a few nice boulders. Those two were three to five feet. While the stones in this aggregate are only three to five inches: In terms of ultimate time, aggregate is temporary. A rock is a stone is a…

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Internet is attempting to determine what the facts are in a given situation. For example, this morning I saw an interesting Drudge link: Blogger’s First Person Abortion Posting Draws Fire… The above is a true statement, no question about it. Beyond that, who knows? There is a…

While it is not a new subject at this blog, yesterday I stumbled into another incident of restroom tyranny. At a local bar/restaurant I’ve visited before, I went to the back to use the men’s room, and to my surprise there was a line of three men. Something about their sheepish behavior reminded me of…

I have been too busy to blog these last few days, but today is Memorial Day, which is a day of remembrance, so I thought a few links would be in order. Glenn Reynolds linked a really, really great post by Walter Russell Mead about how to remember those who fell in the Iraq War,…

Coco and I were both reassured to learn that hot tubs are more dangerous than pit bulls. (Which probably explains why Coco does not like the hot tub.) And if you find that surprising, consider that Americans are sixteen times more likely to be killed by a five gallon bucket than by a pit bull.…

Yeah, yeah, I’m sick of water. But that’s not what this post is about. Having recently taken a crash course in hot tub ownership, I have learned that one of the most irritating aspects of the experience is having to regularly replace the blasted hot tub covers, which have an infuriating habit of soaking up…

Damn! It’s 11:47 p.m.  If I don’t post something I’ll turn into a pumpkin! Coco agrees. UPDATE: On a happier note, I fixed the broken hot tub! Isn’t it beeeyooteeful?