Thoughts on the Prisoner of Narnia

Since writing the essay C.S. Lewis is morally incoherent I have finished rereading the entire Narnia series. I could go on at length about how the writing deteriorates as Lewis’s imaginative impulse is more and more smothered by the clanking and wheezing of his allegory machine, but Adam Gopnik makes the point better than I… Continue reading Thoughts on the Prisoner of Narnia

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Categorized as Culture

Utter IDiots

Leon H. at RedState writes in Intelligent Design (The Debate Isn’t Helping): In other words, my feeling about Krauthammer, Derbyshire, et al is basically this: if you wish to denigrate ID and insult its proponents, go find an ID discussion board (they are legion) and do so there – don’t use the pages of NR… Continue reading Utter IDiots

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Categorized as Culture

The smell of victory, part deux

Aha. The Sunnis say they want to work with US. This comes hard in the heels of reports that the Baathist dead-enders protected al-Qaeda polling places from jihadis during the just-concluded elections, in which turnout pushed 70% even in the heart of the Sunni triangle.

King Kong is a gigantic mess

My wife Catherine has written an excellent review of Peter Jackson’s King Kong, which we saw just last night. I concur with it; the movie is a meandering, flabby, over-long, self-indulgent mess that will be deeply disappointing to many of the fans Jackson attracted with the Rings movies. I hope it bombs, and he learns… Continue reading King Kong is a gigantic mess

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Is that victory I smell?

The last two days have seen a triple whammy for the Islamofascists and their Western quislings. The Iraqi elections were a thumping success; congressional Democrats voted in a resolution supporting prosecution of the Iraq war; and the Patriot Act failed to be renewed.

Pornography redefined

Long-time readers of this blog will be aware than I’m fascinated by the semiotics of pornography. Not by pornography itself; as I wrote in Why does porn got to hurt so bad? I find most pornography ugly and unappealing. No; I’m interested in the meaning of pornography, the code it’s written in and what it… Continue reading Pornography redefined

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Categorized as Sex

No War For Magnetite!

I contemplete this news story: Earth’s north magnetic pole is drifting away from North America and toward Siberia at such a clip that Alaska might lose its spectacular Northern Lights in the next 50 years, scientists said Thursday. The story goes on to say “exactly why this happens is a mystery”. No it isn’t, or… Continue reading No War For Magnetite!

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Categorized as Politics

Secret prisons

I’m having real trouble understanding the current flap over allegations that the CIA is running secret overseas prisons for terrorists and enemy combatants. I would prefer not to believe this is just another outbreak of reflexive anti-Americanism, but I don’t see any principled case against what is being alleged. Can anyone explain it to me?

Just desserts

There comes to us from Iraq the news that a terrorist group calling itself Sword of Truth has kidnapped four people from a group called Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and has threatened to kill them unless some demands for the release of certain terrorists from Iraqi jails are met. What makes this interesting is that… Continue reading Just desserts

Iraq Gun Porn

This is an essay blog; I don’t normally just carry links to other peoples’ postings, but Iraq Gun Porn is just too informative, and too much fun, to pass up. I was particularly tickled by this: The ..45 pistol: Thumbs up. Still the best pistol round out there. Everybody authorized to carry a sidearm is… Continue reading Iraq Gun Porn

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Categorized as Firearms

Rudyard Kipling Invented SF!

Ever had a moment when somebody else drops an insight on you, and you feel totally stupid because you had all the facts and all the motivation to generate it yourself, it was about something you’re expert at, but you just…didn’t…see…it? And you should have, and you’re damn annoyed with yourself for missing it?

Take the WRT54G challenge!

So, LinkSys (formerly independent, now a tentacle of Cisco) has brought the Linux version of their WRT54GL wireless router back to life. We’d previously heard that Version 5 of the box would run proprietary VxWorks firmware. But according to this story over at LinuxDevices.com, LinkSys is shipping a Linux-based WRT54GL model that it says it… Continue reading Take the WRT54G challenge!

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Categorized as Software

Mathematics versus reality

In the comments to my posting on the incoherence of Narnia, it has become apparent that some of the respondents are deeply confused about the relationship between mathematical and empirical truth. Symptoms of this confusion have included a superficially plausible but mistaken application of the Law of the Excluded Middle and an an attempt to… Continue reading Mathematics versus reality

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Categorized as Science