Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
Working away today, I caught an NPR story about social and behavioral scientists who are beginning to study altruisim and freeloading (which can be flipsides of each other). The results of the studies indicate that the healthiest groups (at least in economic models) are those that, not only do not
Continue readingAs you probably know, the wobbly compromise on the immigration bill broke apart entirely. I'm not sad — I didn't like it. The Power Line guys figure that conservatives now have a brief window of time within which to have their voices heard on the issue. To that end, they've
Continue readingPassover is around the corner (April 12 is the first night). So, I give you something silly and fun to help you celebrate. (Thanks, Tracy.)
Continue readingGerman historians have announced as news the fact that the Nazis intended to expand their Holocaust to Palestine. I'm including the whole Reuters article here because (a) it's fascinating, (b) it touches directly on my father's war involvement, and (c) it touches indirectly on my mother's war: Nazi Germany planned
Continue readingI found this great picture at Flopping Aces. He found it through Buck Sargent. I don't think I need to add any comment. UPDATE: G-Raze left a comment pointing to what s/he (don't know which) thinks is a tremendous irony: that I published this picture on the same day the
Continue readingI did something I rarely do: I made an impulse purchase of a just-released movie on DVD. I simply couldn't resist buying The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I then watched it again with the kids, and found it just as good as I
Continue readingIt was always the Left that had a lock on envisioning a new world order, while the Right stood there, desperately trying to maintain the status quo. That, of course, is no longer the case. The Left is mired in the 1960s, and the Right is trying to rejigger the
Continue readingLast year, I watched a video called Death in Gaza, shot by a British film maker. It was a sympathetic portrayal of Palestinian families, with a special focus on young boys and their fascination with emulating the Hamas killers. The video ended in a No-Man's land, with a fire fight
Continue readingWhen my home and work life are quiet, I go into a blogging frenzy. Conversely, when things heat up in the corporeal world, things fall silent in cyberspace. Between a sick kid, orthodondist appointments and after school activities, things are manic here in the real world. I don't expect to
Continue readingThrough Webloggin, I've learned about something called Newsvine. I'm still struggling a bit to figure out just what Newsvine is, but it seems to be a combination news outlet and blog spot that's driven by its readership. You should toddle on over and check it out, because it strikes me
Continue readingI didn't realize that the medical community had been bewildered as to whether premature newborns could feel pain. Now, hi-tech evidence shows that they do, in fact, experience pain: Premature babies experience feelings of pain rather than simply displaying reflex reactions, a study says. Experts have never been sure how
Continue readingHave you ever read Daddy Long Legs? Written in 1912, it's a charming story about a young orphan, Judy, who is sent to college by an anonymous trustee, her only obligation being to write him letters about her college experience. It's one of my favorite examples of an epistolatory book.
Continue readingFaith is a tremendous virtue — when it comes to religion. It has dubious value in the political field, as Thomas Sowell so neatly explains: What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology is the widespread habit of disregarding facts. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey put it
Continue readingI seem to be on a binge of books that make me wonder. Today's book is Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. This is a book I mentioned before in connection with my reflections on whether a religion can abandon founding tenets and still
Continue readingFor a truly strange story about sex roles amongst the Saudis, and for a wonderful pun, go here.
Continue reading