Why are pansies associated with unmanliness and deviation from heteronormativity? They are some of the hardiest flowers there are. When I took this picture the temperature in Washington D.C. had risen to a high of 34F (1C) and they have […]
Howard Ahmanson
China’s High-Speed Rail
Yeah!!! I admit there are a lot of problems with California”s high speed rail, and it was probably a mistake, but if high speed rail could replace a lot of airplanes I would be very very happy. In Response To: […]
June Gloom All Year Round
Joel Kotkin has got a post up, partially entitled, “Coastal Cities are Old News – It’s the Sunbelt that’s Booming.” In it, he declares, “people seem to, once again, be streaming toward the expanse of warm-weather states extending from the […]
More Minimum Wage Games
I am in New York City again, and the hard copy New York Sunday Times was delivered to my room. As usual there is interesting stuff in it, despite some of their editorial policies. In particular there are two articles […]
Am I an Occasionalist? Christian Philosophy Critiques Intelligent Design
First Things is a magazine I like and find interesting. Just recently they have come out with a criticism of Intelligent Design by philosopher-scientist Stephen Meredith of the University of Chicago. He charges that Intelligent Design assumes the philosophy of […]
The Homeless Prefer Suburbia
Even the homeless see the virtues of suburban life, apparently.
What to do about Ukraine
In other words, Berezow says they need a Nelson Mandela. My own suggestions are more in the Congress of Vienna – Treaty of Versailles tradition: Cede everything east of the Vorskla and Dnipro rivers to Russia. This includes Crimea, Kharkiv, […]
Academics, Politics, and Business
David Brooks has written a fascinating essay on how self-presentation in politics is very different from that in the academic world, and how Michael Ignatieff came to grief in Canada finding this out the hard way. I don’t feel the […]
It’s a Consensus World, After All?
We often speak of our era as a very polarized age. I will demur. First, I remember 1968 in America, and the polarization and hate between cultures then was a lot worse than it is now, with actual riots and […]
Two Theories of a Lasting Marriage
Reading the Sunday New York Times always fertilizes the imagination, for good or ill. Today they had a psychologist named Eli J. Finkel writing about how since 1965 we have been in the era of the “self-expressive marriage,” which is […]