Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
Via Frontpagemagazine.com comes an optimistic post about European organizations springing up to defend Israel, starting with a British group called “Muslims for Israel”. Like fireflies twinkling in the gathering dusk, this is a cheerful sight. May their light guide us through the night and into the bright dawn of a
Continue readingIs our democracy germinating the seeds of its own destruction? Alexis de Toqueville warned, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” That day has come. It is not yet gone. Democracy in ancient Athens lasted about 250
Continue readingBritain, apparently, has solved the puzzle of criminal recidivism (H/T Melanie Phillips of the Spectator). I know that this story provides us with a most important clue as to the greater disease that afflicts Western Civilization. I really just don’t know what to do with this story, so I am
Continue readingBruce McQuain, of the always thought-provoking and very economically libertarian QandO blog, has an interesting post that provides a good overview of just how many large natural gas resources there are in the U.S. and the world. http://www.qando.net/?p=10647 Add to that our vaste coal and oil resources… Folks,
Continue readingI know that we have been round and round on climate issues in our always edifying Bookworm Room discussions, so here is an interesting lecture that I found at our friends at Flopping Aces. The lecturer, Prof. Courtillot, professor of geophysics at the University of Paris, does an excellent job
Continue readingIsrael as the next Saudia Arabia? According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Israel’s unusually large and high-quality shale oil reserves may yield as much oil as all of Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576242420737584278.html These discoveries are in addition to of Israel’s recently diclosed gas
Continue readingOne of my all-time favorite economic historians is Harvard’s Niall Ferguson, who does a very good job dissecting the transatlantic political and economic cultures with characteristic British clarity in erudition. He’s not perfect, however: witness his bad judgment in affixing his name to a worn-out political rag like Newsweek. But, I
Continue readingIs our President a EUrolander wannabee? Yes. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard my fellow Americans spout utter nonsense about EUroland. Hey, they may have visited there and after visiting all the tourist spots and wining and dining in the best tourist restaurants afforded by American
Continue readingFor conservatives and libertarians, the movie icons might be High Noon or True Grit. For Liberals, the defining anthem is John Lennon’s “Imagine“. Why is there such a fundamental gulf between ourselves and Liberals, to the point where we find ourselves simply talking past each other? Can this gulf ever
Continue readingWhat we see in Madison, Cairo and Tripoli today is a glimpse of the new information-based age in its birth pangs. Bill Whittle of Pajamas Media provides a helpful view of progressivism in its historical perspective. Basically, he observes, the “Progressive age” is coming to its logical end game as
Continue readingFascinating. In our great Western civilization, we’ve had Feudalist, Mercantilist, Capitalist, Marxist, Keynesian, Austrian School and Monetarist Economics and, now (drum roll)…Noodlesian economics. Here is a wonderfully entertaining summary on Noodlesian economics, as explained by earnest young minds full of mush through the dark prisms of a moronic convergence. This,
Continue readingHere is a financial report on USA, Inc., presented as a slide show, as developed by financial analysts. Most of us Bookworm Room aficionados know that the economic state of health of our country is not good and getting worse. It is critical, actually. Unfortunately, there are many still wedded
Continue readingMost of us here in the Bookworm Room express a healthy skepticism of “experts” in general. Most of us revel in our ability to think and discourse critically for ourselves, while others lament that socially-anointed “experts” are not solemnly revered through incense, incantations and burnt offerings made before the Temple
Continue readingI recognize that we of the Bookworm Room set do tend to be trend setters and prognosticators in intellectual discourse, but I take a special pride in the fact that we have established, through previous discussion threads, the template allowing none-other than distinguished Harvard historian and financial economist, Prof. Niall
Continue readingI am so proud that a person like this can articulate so well what we believe: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_z1hcp1CNk[/youtube] May the angels of discourse burnish the silver on his tongue. ***UPDATED***new link!
Continue reading