Category: Uncategorized

Via Hotair, over at FrumForum John Veccione assaults libertarianism with a veritable army of strawmen. As someone who marched merrily from movement conservatism to more or less doctrinaire libertarianism, I feel obliged to call in some rhetorical artilley on the columns of calumny therein, while attempting assiduously to avoid employing the No True Scotsman defense.…

Does what a majority of ordinary people think matter to the tiny minority of privileged folks who rule without being elected? I realize that sounds like a rhetorical question, but in theory, we are living in a country with a constitutional government run by elected officials with specifically limited powers, so it always pisses me…

It looks like a number of Republican aspirants to the Republican nomination for President have stumbled in December. Mike Huckabee is emblematic of the stumblers. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee didn’t have an easy December, either. Writing about the much-debated proposal to “cap and trade” greenhouse gas emissions, Huckabee said, “I never did support and…

I am not kidding. Go take a look. Should I issue a retraction of what I said? I’ll have to think about it, because this is no laughing matter. It’s a grave issue.  

A great piece at Instapundit about education versus schooling, and how the disparity was addressed in centuries past. My sister was homeschooled, was accepted at Stanford, and after a year or so decided to become a firefighter/EMT.  She travels the world, is certified as a divemaster, and spent last winter in Antarctica at McMurdo.  She learned…

Speaking of what should be taught to children, earlier I saw a quote from that landmark Supreme Court which (depending on your view of these things) either ordered the government to stay out of religion or ordered religion to stay out of the government. There is a difference, right? In a letter (pdf file) to…

Darleen Click left a very thoughtful comment to a previous post which I didn’t want to forget, because it reminded me once again of the absurdity inherent in classifying human beings according to their sexual tastes. let me through another variable in here – what is considered “acceptable” behavior in society will have a great…

Not a creature was stirring, except for my mouse…. I realize that the night before Christmas is no time for kidding around, but seeing this headline was really too much: Joe Biden disagrees with Pat Robertson on Pot “I still believe it’s a gateway drug. I’ve spent a lot of my life as chairman of…

I need to do a better job of keeping up with local news. Until today I did not realize that local activists are fighting for slower speed limits in Ann Arbor. One of them is a public school teacher who makes a fascinating comparison between driving and ritual human sacrifice: Jeff Gaynor, a teacher at…

Hmmmm…. Whether the night before Christmas is the right time or not, I have just finished devouring — with great relish — a book that Glenn Reynolds recommended not long ago: After You Shoot: Your gun’s hot. The perp’s not. Now what? It’s a real head trip of a book, especially if you’re one of…

A nice summary from Steve Chapman, but a bit pessimistic. An optimist might have noted the world has never been more free, and posited the notion that further movement is perhaps slow because there’s no more low-hanging fruit — the remaining unfree societies of 2010 have significant pathologies. And while there wasn’t a whole lot…

Last night I drove a half an hour west of Ann Arbor and back, and this morning I drove half an hour east and back. People are in a hurry, and many of them seem stressed. Bad drivers stand out more than ever. Michigan’s biggest problem is that it has set two different highway speed…

Pat Robertson thinks the war on marijuana is bad for family values. I have been saying that for decades. I have been posting this link often: Demographics. It runs down what mass incarceration does to family values. BTW Pat says he is “not exactly for the use of drugs”. I’d love to find what exactly…

Southern Ohio is in the midst of a public health emergency. There is a serious outbreak of pills in the area. Nearly one in 10 babies were born addicted to drugs last year in southern Ohio’s Scioto County. Rehab admissions for prescription painkiller addictions were five times the national average. In a rare step, the…

Via Glenn’s link to Snowflakes in Hell, I learned about a new gun control proposal they’re trying to sneak through. By “they” I don’t mean only the Obama administration, or Mayor Bloomberg, or the BATF. I also include the Washington Post, because of the sneaky way the proposal is described: To stem the flow of…

As there has been some debate recently over the possibility of gay soldiers engaging in sexual harassment of straight soldiers (which some would apparently define as being gay while showering with men who aren’t), I thought I would take a look at a frustrating issue that I have never quite been able to clarify to…

When Glenn linked my post about whether incest is banned in the military, he not only made my post look funnier that I had thought it was, he reminded me of an obvious irony: IF NOT, RESTORING ROTC TO COLUMBIA WILL JUST BE THAT MUCH EASIER: “Does anyone know whether the Code of Military Justice…

The Missoulian reports on a marijuana case in Montana that went bad for the prosecution. They couldn’t seat a jury. A funny thing happened on the way to a trial in Missoula County District Court last week. Jurors – well, potential jurors – staged a revolt. They took the law into their own hands, as…

Quick question. Does anyone know whether the Code of Military Justice prohibits incest? William Saletan claims that it does, Technically, the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Manual for Courts-Martial prohibit sodomy, bigamy, adultery, “wrongful” cohabitation, and incest. Except the link he provides does not prohibit incest; it merely lists incest as an example…

A comment to an earlier post touches on an intractable problem which refuses to go away, and makes me feel as if I am in a permanent Catch 22. <i>I just have one question: why do you keep treating Sullivan as if he’s meaningful or even sane? One shouldn’t feed trolls nor like to the…