Author: Justin

Woke up this morning and turned on the tv. Saw the horror in coastal Asia. Richter 8.9. Dear sweet Jesus. What could people have done? Can we ever hope to forestall this kind of catastrophe? Today, sadly, no. It would take a lot more technological moxie than we can muster to tsunami-proof a coast. Twenty…

Late news (April, 04), but still news to me. The association of cats with humankind has been pushed back a few thousand years. Researchers have often given Egyptians living around 4,000 years ago credit for having first domesticated wildcats and then bred the tame felines. However, discoveries on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus indicate that…

I was browsing a depressing little book the other day, Sherwin Nuland’s”How We Die“. Interesting stuff, and helpful too. What I took away from the book was a simple insight. We don’t die all at once. In fact, the whole process is sometimes rather lengthy and complicated. I’m not referring to the prolonged and painful…

I haven’t smacked Leon Kass around lately, mostly because I haven’t seen him in the news. That’s a good thing. Still, like mucking out the stables, it’s something that needs to be done regularly. But not always by me! Check out “The Speculist” for a sensible, temperate article on cloning, grey areas, and ethics. A…

What if something magical happened? What if all our energy worries ended tomorrow, with the happiest of happy endings? What if a new power source came along that was so powerful, so clean, so abundant, that the greenest of green activists couldn’t find fault with it? And what if it was really, really cheap? Who…

Here’s hoping all Classical Values readers had an edifying, tasty Thanksgiving. We all have much to be thankful for, and in line with our holiday traditions, I’m hoping that you leave here feeling stuffed. And have I got the turkey to do it for you. I promised you more Rifkin ages ago, then failed to…

But we were not always in the air, and our idle hours were spent taming the Moors. They would come out of their forbidden regions (those regions we crossed in our flights and where they would shoot at us the whole length of our crossing), would venture to the stockade in the hope of buying…

I was reading Lileks the other night, and thought I would check out the excerpts from his new book. One passage in particular caught my eye. In another era these items would have been a symbol of shame. In the Seventies they thrived. Everyone knew someone whose mom was into this crap, and stuffed the…

I’ve been a little down lately, as so many of us have. It’s on account of the election. Not for the usual reasons, though. Oh no. See, I made my mom cry by voting for George Bush. Looking back, perhaps I should have lied about it. She never tried to conceal her loathing for the…

`… There’s fascism for you!’ `I don’t know what you mean by “fascism,”‘ Alice said. Humpty Neiwert smiled contemptuously. `Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!”‘ `But “fascism” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument,”‘ Alice objected. `When I use a word,’ Humpty Neiwert said…

…and tells us that Classical Values is one of his daily reads. Be still, my racing heart. I’m still new enough at this business to enjoy the idea of having a reader in China. Embarassing, but true. At any rate, reader Scott Hillis wanted to point out that John C. Wright’s newest novel is now…

When I was much younger, I envied my older brother’s air of suave accomplishment. Along with a few of his other talents, I thought his facility with shadow hand puppetry was too cool for words. Not only could he do the alligator and the butterfly (as who among us cannot?) he could do the barking…

Nick Packwood at “Ghost of a Flea” reminds us why we fight. Thank you, Nick!

Seems like I’ve been so wrapped up with Leon Kass lately, I’ve forgotten to water the rest of my hate garden. Along comes Henry Miller to remind me. Thank you, sir. Professional worrier Jeremy Rifkin’s pronouncements always remind me of the characterization by one-time Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas B. Reed of his…

J.D. Bernal penned these words back in 1929, two years before Huxley wrote “Brave New World”. So far we have been living on the discoveries of the early and mid-nineteenth century, a macro-mechanical age of power and metal. Essentially it succeeded in substituting mechanism for some of the simpler mechanical movements of the human body….…

Jay Manifold at “A Voyage To Arcturus “and “The Rhetorica Network“have cooked up a nifty idea. ….a mechanism whereby a symbiotic relationship between blogging and traditional forms of journalism can be deliberately cultivated. Reporters can use it to quickly authenticate highly technical or specialized story elements with subject-matter experts (SMEs) drawn from the best the…

Here’s a problem that cries out for deeply serious consideration. …. As with cosmetic surgery, Botox, and breast implants, the enhancement technologies of the future will likely be used in slavish adherence to certain socially defined and merely fashionable notions of ?excellence? or improvement, very likely shallow, almost certainly conformist. This special kind of restriction…

Heartbeat is all wrong. His body temperature is…Jim, this man is a Klingon, er, Narn. A Narn? I wonder what Starfleet Command will say about that?

I found this through Instapundit, so half the universe has probably already seen it. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the depth of feeling. Dan Rather and everyone else at CBS News who had direct managerial authority over, and supervisory involvement in, the production of last Wednesday night’s “60 Minutes II” broadcast about the Killian memos…

Abridged excerpts from “A House Divided ” A presentation of The American Enterprise Institute, December 22, 2002 The first speaker is Charles Murray ….The report of the President’s Council on Bioethics is superb. It embodies the kind of reasoned discourse that you wish were used for all public issues and almost never is. Furthermore, Leon…