Some deeply warped Christmas humor here . Now, this Santa might get me the presents I really want. Like, say, a custom-tuned Baer .45 semiauto. Or Liv Tyler, fetchingly attired in nothing but a pair of Arwen ears. I actually did get a really peculiar Christmas present from a stranger this morning. It was a… Continue reading Some Christmas cheer
Author: esr
Away from Keyboard
I’ve on hiatus for a bit while I wrap up my next book, The Art Of Unix Programming. Blogspot comments
Sneering at Courage
One of the overdue lessons of 9/11 is that we can’t afford to sneer at physical courage any more. The willingness of New York firemen, Special Forces troops in Afghanistan, and the passengers of Flight 93 to put their lives on the line has given us most of the bright spots we’ve had in the… Continue reading Sneering at Courage
Social Security and the Demography Bomb
A friend of mine, Russ Cage aka Engineer-Poet, comments on my essay Demographics and the Dustbin of History: People used to have children to take care of them in their old age. Social Security took care of this by socializing the benefits, but all of the costs still fell to individuals; worse, taking time out… Continue reading Social Security and the Demography Bomb
Demographics and the Dustbin of History
Karl Zinsmeister’s essay Old and In The Way presents a startling — but all too plausible — forecast of Europe’s future. To the now-familiar evidence of European insularity, reflexive anti-Americanism, muddle, and geopolitical impotence, Zinsmeister adds a hard look at European demographic trends. What Zinsmeister sees coming is not pretty. European populations are not having… Continue reading Demographics and the Dustbin of History
Today’s treason of the intellectuals
The longest-term stakes in the war against terror are not just human lives, but whether Western civilization will surrender to fundamentalist Islam and shari’a law. More generally, the overt confrontation between Western civilization and Islamist barbarism that began on September 11th of 2001 has also made overt a fault line in Western civilization itself —… Continue reading Today’s treason of the intellectuals
When to shoot a policeman
A policeman was premeditatedly shot dead today. Now, I don’t regard shooting a policeman as the worst possible crime — indeed, I can easily imagine circumstances under which I would do it myself. If he were committing illegal violence — or even officially legal violence during the enforcement of an unjust law. Supposing a policeman… Continue reading When to shoot a policeman
What a responsible American Left would look like
The congressional Democrats have made Nancy Pelosi their leader. Whether or not this is conscious strategy, it means they’re going to run to the left. And very likely get slaughtered in 2004. It’s truly odd how self-destructive the American Left has become. They’re like that famous line about the Palestinians, never missing an opportunity to… Continue reading What a responsible American Left would look like
Conspiracy and prospiracy
One of the problems we face in the war against terror is that al-Qaeda is not quite a conspiracy in the traditional sense. It’s something else that is more difficult to characterize and target. (I wrote what follows three years before 9/11.) Political and occult conspiracy theories can make for good propaganda and excellent satire… Continue reading Conspiracy and prospiracy
The Charms and Terrors of Military SF
I took some heat recently for describing some of Jerry Pournelle’s SF as “conservative/militarist power fantasies”. Pournelle uttered a rather sniffy comment about this on his blog; the only substance I could extract from it was that Pournelle thought his lifelong friend Robert Heinlein was caught between a developing libertarian philosophy and his patriotic instincts.… Continue reading The Charms and Terrors of Military SF
My Very First Fisk
Ta-daa! In ritual obeisance to the customs of the blogosphere, I now perform my very first fisking. Of Der Fisk himself, in his 8 Nov 2002 column “Bush fights for another clean shot in his war”. “A clean shot” was The Washington Post’s revolting description of the murder of the al-Qa’ida leaders in Yemen by… Continue reading My Very First Fisk
Libertarianism and the Hard SF Renaissance
(There is an extended and improved version of this essay, A Political History of SF.) When I started reading SF in the late Sixties and early Seventies, the field was in pretty bad shape — not that I understood this at the time. The death of the pulp-zines in the 1950s had pretty much killed… Continue reading Libertarianism and the Hard SF Renaissance
Post-postmodern politics
The Democratic Party fell off a cliff last night. Never mind their shiny new governorships — the `smart’ money pre-election was on them picking up an absolute majority of governor’s seats, and at the Congressional level they took a shellacking nearly as bad as 1994’s. The races Terry McAuliffe targeted as most critical — notably… Continue reading Post-postmodern politics
The Anti-Idiotarian-Manifesto is officially released
It’s out. The Manifesto site is here. The Manifesto has been submitted to PetitionOnline. To show your support, please add one of thw web buttons to your splash page. Blogspot comments
That bad old-time religion
It’s official. The anti-war movement is a Communist front. No, I’m not kidding — go read the story. Investigative reporter David Corn digs into last Saturday’s D.C. antiwar rally and finds it was covertly masterminded by a Communist Party splinter originally founded in support of the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary. For good later, he… Continue reading That bad old-time religion
The capsaicinization of American food
Consider spicy-hot food — and consider how recent it is as a mainstream phenomenon in the U.S. In 2002 many of us cheerfully chow down on Szechuan and Thai, habaneros and rellenos, nam pla and sambal ulek. Salsa outsells ketchup. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact it wasn’t that way until quite recently,… Continue reading The capsaicinization of American food
Armed children
The Bear of Considerable Brain, writes: “This does not mean every man, woman and child should roam the streets packing heat, much as some of my more rabid hoplophile colleagues in the Blogosphere might enjoy the sight.” N.Z. was probably thinking of me as one of his “rabid hoplophile colleagues.”; I’d be rather disappointed if… Continue reading Armed children
Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 5)
Changes are deliberately not marked. Read the whole thing, this is a final pre-publication draft. Most of the changes from version 4 are deletions of excess verbiage. Counting email, this now reflects approximately 200 comments from across the blogosphere. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Since this process has to close sometime, I’m declaring that… Continue reading Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 5)
A request to web artists
I am planning on publishing the Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto soon, via petitiononline.com and possibly other channels. My hope is that enough bloggers will sign it and talk about it to get the position it describes some notice in the more blog-friendly of the mainstream media. Towards this end, I’m seeking volunteers to design a web button… Continue reading A request to web artists
Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 4)
Substantive changes from version 1 to 2 are marked in red; changes from 2 to 3 are marked in blue; changes from 3 to 4 are marked in purple. Counting email, this now reflects approximately 200 comments from across the blogosphere. Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Since this process has to close sometime, I’m… Continue reading Draft for an Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (version 4)