I’m going to refrain from writing too much about the Anthony Weiner Debacle 2.0, because we’ve already reach the point where just the act of making a joke about him is kind of a joke in itself, and that’s way too meta for me. I’ll just recommend this post by David French: We’re all susceptible … Read more
College professor Barbara Oakley has written a paper that gives a solid, academic form to an idea that I think a lot of people had but never verbalized. She describes what she calls “pathological altruism.” James Taranto sums it up on WSJ.com: Oakley defines pathological altruism as “altruism in which attempts to promote the welfare … Read more
Mark Sanford won his way back into Congress, marking the culmination of the strangest–and quickest–redemptions of a public figure since Marv Albert put on women’s underwear and went on a biting spree. Some commentators are drawing from this the conclusion that society has deteriorated to the point where we just don’t care about the morals of … Read more
Instapundit, the source of all things, links to a Times article on the “alarming increase” in scientific misconduct found in retracted science papers. And those are just the ones that got caught. Note the reasoning: While the fraudulent papers may be relatively few, he went on, their rapid increase is a sign of a winner-take-all … Read more
To the surprise of exactly no one, after decades of normalizing abortion, “ethicists” have decided that, hey, it’s ok to kill a baby after it’s born too: Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical … Read more
For as long as he coached–and that was a long time–the book on Joe Paterno was simple. He was a simple man with simple needs, living in a small house near the football stadium, his number publicly listed in the phone book, taking a surprisingly small salary for a big-time college coach. He coached a … Read more
As Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me, unless it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, in which case just do whatever, dude“: On May 10, Presbyterians in Minneapolis became the needed 87th local presbytery to vote for deleting the denomination’s expectation for ministers and elders of “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man … Read more
At last, the first act of the Anthony Weiner saga has drawn to a close. (I say “first act” because, if you don’t think this clown is coming back at some point, well, go look up Marv Albert on Wikipedia and come back when you’re done. I’ll still be here.) The whole thing was silly … Read more
At The American Interest, Walter Russel Mead takes an extended look at why our leaders–cultural, financial, and political–suck so bad. Naturally, this part caught my eye: The religion gap between the elite and the rest of the country is a big part of the problem — and in more ways than one. I can’t help … Read more
As Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me, unless it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, in which case just do whatever, dude“: On May 10, Presbyterians in Minneapolis became the needed 87th local presbytery to vote for deleting the denomination’s expectation for ministers and elders of “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man … Read more
You wanna quote scripture? I can quote scripture: Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.Psalm 97:10 Christians have an obligation to view human life as God does (a much more complicated proposition than some would have … Read more
When I first got a whiff of the story about the Philadelphia abortionist’s slaughterhouse, I thought the few details that I heard sounded gruesome. But there have always been gruesome details about the abortion business. America by now seemed pretty thoroughly desensitized to the whole thing. But the story keeps sticking around. And the details … Read more
A manufacturer of those magnetic wristbands that you see everybody wearing—the ones that claim to improve your health, strength, and balance—was forced by the Australian government to admit that its marketing claims are a bunch of hooey. In our advertising we stated that Power Balance wristbands improved your strength, balance and flexibility. We admit that … Read more
Robert Byrd, seen here on his way to steal the Building & Loan right out from under George Bailey Dead people are always good people, it seems. No matter how loutish or abrasive a person was in his lifetime, even his enemies feel compelled to praise him when he passes. We want to try to … Read more
Bless Rod Dreher’s heart: he’s said something that’s bound to be misinterpreted and condemned, but something that had to be said anyway: “Shame on those stupid, selfish poor people.“ I spend a lot of time talking about stupid, selfish rich people, usually in high finance, and the price innocent people pay for the foolish, immoral … Read more
If you ever downloaded music for free in that (ahem) legal gray area know as “file sharing,” record company shills said you should be ashamed for stealing food out of the mouths of poor, struggling artists. What you were really doing, though, was denying record companies the chance to steal food out of the mouths … Read more
I thought the recent “Climategate” (or “Climaquiddick” or whatever you want to call it) story was just as funny as the next guy. Not just because I don’t like the prospect of paying $17 a gallon for gas or having a government functionary assigned to stand in my hallway and watch the setting on my … Read more
Baseball Crank, in a comprehensive series of posts, catalogs the abuse, misuse, and fraud that is thick on the ground whenever the political left comes in close contact with science. He touches on a wide variety of subjects, but of course he also mentions everybody’s favorite scientific scandal du jour, Climategate: …Climategate iswhat happens when … Read more
There’s been a lot of talk about torture lately, and in every discussion, the implicit assumption is that torture is something that no civilized society would ever, ever do under any circumstances. Even people on the “pro” side of the debate aren’t really torture supporters. They still say torture is horrible, they just argue either … Read more