Author: Eric Scheie

Ann Arbor officially got 9.6 inches of snow last night, but it looks like a foot, and it is the heavy wet kind, so I am sick of shoveling. Besides, what’s the point of shoveling out my driveway when the street in front of the house has not been plowed? I can’t go anywhere, as…

Kay Hymowitz has a new book — Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys — and Dr. Helen is questioning some of its premises at her blog, where she asks a question that made me chuckle: When someone tells you to “man-up,” what do you think they are trying to…

As regular readers know, I get sick of the gay issue. Especially the “TEH GAY” issue. But what the hell. I seem to be stuck with it and no matter what I do, there exists a demand for gay related posts. What I find a little disturbing is that the demand is not created only…

While I have long worried about the possibility of the government shutting down the Internet, recent events in Egypt show that what I have been told is technically impossible in this country has become possible — at least in other countries. The most ominous development to date is an actual proposal to have an Internet…

On Valentine’s Day of last year, I wrote a post about the long tradition of political ridicule, in which I featured an unflattering political cartoon of Thomas Jefferson:   It’s not very nice. Disrespectful, even. But presidents have been subjected to innumerable comparisons with animals. George Bush was so routinely likened to a chimpanzee that…

In a down economy, it’s easy to understand the socialist impulse. After all, if businesses are failing everywhere, and “The Government” has “All That Money,” why, it seems almost a no-brainer to use that money to “keep everything going.” At least until things “get back to normal.” What is normal? Stasis? Should the government have…

As Sarah was having trouble opening the blog software earlier, she asked me to post something about the Border’s Books closure. I’ve echoed two of a friend’s posts on the borders situation on my FB.  I view this as a sign of the things happening all over — both in publishing AND in government.  The…

On Valentine’s Day of all days, Glenn Reynolds linked a fascinating article (by fellow University of Tennessee law professor Michael J. Higdon) titled “Fatherhood by Conscription: Nonconsensual Insemination and the Duty of Child Support.” Quipped Glenn, I was thinking of writing an article on this subject someday, entitled “Ejaculation As An Ultrahazardous Activity.” As most…

Sorry to be posing what sounds like another rhetorical question, but the other day I wrote a post in which I worried about the security of the Sphinx and the Pyramids. I was somewhat cheered by a comment from Kathy Kinsley: Indeed, it’s not funny. However, I don’t think the people of Egypt would allow…

From Glenn Reynolds, a quickie project: TRANSLATE THIS. OK, I’ll try. Help facilitate the destruction of human rights (which is what Sharia Law does) while claiming to be promoting “Human Rights.”

In a discussion of CPAC, Greg Gutfeld argues that religion alone seems to be the basis for some people’s distastes: …if you want to argue against homosexuality, you need to move it beyond religion. Fact is, if I get mugged, I can explain to the police why the mugger must be arrested – without saying…

Sarah’s son Robert (who wrote a great post on Post Modernism) has done such a marvelous job with the Blogfather T-shirt design that I just ordered one. (Hey what’s with that Valentine’s Day rose? Coincidence?) Quite incidentally (and quite fascinatingly, from a historical perspective),when I first read about the design, it was in Glenn’s post…

Delightful as it was to read, Sarah’s recent post about squirrels reminded me that there is no end in sight to the war between Coco and the Rodentine Occupation Army, which oppresses her on a daily basis and causes her extreme mental consternation. (Seriously, she is obsessed with them, and the fact that they cannot…

I’m confused. What better place to start than with an admission like that? Thinking over a comment I left last night, along with earlier related posts, and something really basic began to not compute at a definitional level. There is an argument going around, which is being widely repeated and embellished upon by ever more…

Not far from where I live, some local University of Michigan students have created a large Sphinx out of snow, and I took a few pictures earlier. A view from the front: A side view: And a view from the rear: Aside from having fun with the show, I suspect the goal of the students…

I get a ton of spam, and it’s a very annoying process to have to scroll through the comments labeled as spam in order to save and then publish the “good” ones. The spams outnumber the goods by a ratio of 20 to 1, and it’s easy to make a mistake. My apologies to all…

Andrew Breitbart threw a party at CPAC for GOProud, and Roger L. Simon was there. He called it as close to a game changer as things get: The party staged by Andrew Breitbart for GOProud — the gay Republican and conservative group — was as close to a game changer as things get and the…

Glenn linked and embedded a hilarious Reason video inspired by a very unwise statement that Hillary Clinton should not have made: Recently, during an interview with Mexico’s Televisa, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the United States can’t legalize drugs “because there is just too much money in it.” The video is titled “The…

Was my title eye-catching enough? Remember when not long ago journalists were supposed to stop using violent metaphorical language to characterize political occurrences? Well, over at Memeorandum this morning, I saw a link to an delightfully irresistible headline: Rumsfeld knifes Condi I know Rumsfeld is one of those mean and vicious Neo-Cons, but did he…

One of the more ridiculous side effects of the debate over gay marriage is the way it has tended to sexualize politics on both sides. To the majority of liberal activists and to an ever-increasing number of social conservative activists, a consensus has emerged that human sexuality should be part of a political litmus test. …