Random Observations about...
June 2009

The Trials of Lyddie England

The Daily Mail: "They think that I was like this evil torturer. ... I wasn't,'' she says. "People don't realize...

British National Party (BNP) "Right Wing"?

I've been hearing from the media about "right wing" seemingly-facsist groups in Europe, and have wondered, numerous times, if they're...

Is *Your* Town "Sufficiently Gay"?

Telegraph, via Mark Steyn: Canterbury is sufficiently gay, council inspectors rule Whew! That's a relief! A government watchdog decided that...

Rethinking Megan McArdle

When "Jane Galt" first appeared in the wake of 9/11, I found her a refreshing and interesting libertarian voice. But,...

Bring Back Debtors' Prisons?

I remember the screams when Congressional Republicans (and many Democrats) voted to reform bankruptcy law — in ways that, from...

Junk DNA

For a period of time, as a teenager, I had fairly bad acne and, at one point, was looking into...

NCLB Raises Test Scores

Since (as Mickey Kaus notes) this study would undoubtedly have gotten a lot more media attention if it had found...

Obama's Iranian Realism

VDH: Iran, remember, has no such reluctance about meddling. It endorsed Bush in the 2004 presidential race — to the...

Tattoos: "Furniture" You Can Never Sell

Can you remember a bad piece of furniture you had in college? What if it followed you around for the...

Jimi Hendrix Murdered?

Daily Mail: [James Wright] quotes [Hendrix's manager Michael] Jeffery as saying: 'I was in London the night of Jimi's death...

Is Sufficiently Advanced Magic Indistinguishable from Technology?

Famed Science Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once noted that "any technology which is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."...

Why Do They Hate Us?

Part 31 of a potentially endless series... Why do they hate us abroad? In part, because a dedicated group of...

Do Security Activists Like Marc Tobias Help or Hurt Us?

Interesting Wired article. On one hand, his alleged justification: But to Tobias, pissing off The Man isn't the point, not...

$11,764,706 Per Uighur?

AP (ultimately): The Associated Press has learned the Obama administration is in talks with the remote South Pacific island nation...

The Cost of Daylight Savings Time

Daylight savings time disrupts humans' natural circadian rhythm When people living in many parts of the world move their...

North Korea? Blame Bush! (More British Non-Brilliance)

According to Richard Lloyd Parry, writing in The London Times, North Korea wouldn't be any trouble at all if weren't...

The British: Not as Bright as I'd Thought

Like most Americans, I'm a bit of an Anglophile. The "special relationship", James Bond, Monty Python, Yes Minister (and much...

The Passion That Dares Not Speak Its Name: Socialism?

Eric at Classical Values laments that it's almost impossible to have have an adult discussion of whether we want socialism,...

Why Daddy Isn't a Democrat

One of the odd things about Why Mommy is a Democrat (a book to help the devout pass along their...

Corporations Not Right Wing

Via the Times, a profile of one the nation's biggest venture capital firms -- they're pushing hard for tight controls...

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