One of my regular commenters asked, in a previous thread, “If everyone was truly released from the shackles of religion, and got beyond the false moral codes imposed on them, would society collapse in a heap of nihilism?” This question needs a longer answer that will fit in a reply comment. The shortest summary is… Continue reading If God is dead, is anything permissible?
Don’t Dis the Wiccans, Tea-Partiers!
A few minutes ago I read Bill Whittle sneering at “mass-produced members of bused-in wiccan nihilist anarcho-Maoist lesbian eco-weenie anti-war protestors”. I tried to leave a comment there; it went into moderation, and I lost my original in the browser shuffle. I can’t guarantee that the following is a word-for-word copy, but it’s pretty close.… Continue reading Don’t Dis the Wiccans, Tea-Partiers!
Opening Pandora’s Music box
I’ve been meaning to experiment with Pandora Radio for a while, and finally got to it today. It’s based on something called the “Music Genome Project” that categorizes music by how it expresses a large number of “genes” — traits that describe features like song structure, instrumentation, genre influences, and so forth. According to Wikipedia… Continue reading Opening Pandora’s Music box
The Great Blizzard of 2010
This is a bulletin for those of my regulars who know that I live smack-dab in the middle of the mid-Atlantic-coast region of the U.S. that’s just been hit by epic snowfall. We’re OK. It’s dangerous outside and we’re not planning on stirring out of sight of the house until the blizzard is over, but… Continue reading The Great Blizzard of 2010
Error cascade: a definition and examples
I’ve used the term “error cascade” on this blog several times, notably in referring to AGW hysteria. A commenter has asked me to explain it, and I think that’s a good idea as (a) the web sources on the concept are a bit confusing, and (b) I’ll probably use the term again — error cascades… Continue reading Error cascade: a definition and examples
Naming and shaming the AGW fraudsters
James Delingpole, in Climategate: Time for the Tumbrils, noting the public collapse in credibility of AGW “science” utters a fine rant summed up in this wise (parochial references to British political figures and organizations omitted): I’m in no mood for being magnanimous in victory. I want the lying, cheating, fraudulent scientists prosecuted and fined or… Continue reading Naming and shaming the AGW fraudsters
“I forgot he was black tonight for an hour”
In commentary following Barack Obama’s 2010 State of the Union address last night, MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews said “You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.” It’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around racial prejudice that blind and entrenched. If I were black I think I’d be righteously pissed… Continue reading “I forgot he was black tonight for an hour”
Comment to USCG on NAIS policy
These are comments on policy for sharing information from the U.S. Coast Goard’s NAIS, a network of 140 AIS receivers covering U.S. coastal waters, as solicited by Federal docket USCG-2009-0701. (The docket request for comments is here.)
Corrupted climatology
The Times of London reports a determination from the Information Commissioner’s Office of the United Kingdom: members of the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.
Some things are…priceless…
Yesterday morning I learned that GPSD has been awarded the first Good Code Grant by the Alliance for Code Excellence. This is how I think about it now: Amount of test hardware you can now afford: $500 Being able to tell people that your project is funded by the sale of indulgences…priceless!
Are political parties obsolete?
There’s been a lot of punditry emitted in the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts special election to replace Teddy Kennedy. All of it that I’ve seen is aimed at making some partisan point in the Democratic vs. Republican tug of war. But the facts of the Brown victory seem to me to… Continue reading Are political parties obsolete?
Jews and the tragedy of universalism
One of my commenters recently pointed me at the work of Kevin McDonald, an academic who has studied the adaptive strategies of diaspora Jewry in great historical depth, largely drawing from Jewish historians as his sources. I have yet to read his actual books, but I’ve found a great deal of review and discussion and… Continue reading Jews and the tragedy of universalism
Reading racism into pulp fiction
I have a scholarly interest in the historical roots of science fiction and related genres. For this reason, I sometimes seek out and read late 19th and early 20th-century fiction, both classic and “pulp”, that I have reason to believe was formative for these genres. Nowadays I read such books critically, trying to understand what… Continue reading Reading racism into pulp fiction
The Devil in Haiti
There’s a great deal of ridicule being aimed at Pat Robertson for describing the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti as God’s retribution on the country for a deal with the Devil supposedly made by the leaders of the 1791 slave revolt in which they threw off French control. And Robertson is a foaming loon, to be… Continue reading The Devil in Haiti
Twenty Four Million New Socialist Men = War
A silly webzine posts some serious news: A new study released Monday by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found that more than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age are likely to find themselves unable to find women to marry come 2020. The reason? There just aren’t enough females to go around, because Chinese… Continue reading Twenty Four Million New Socialist Men = War
Beyond root causes
One of the consequences of the Great Recession we’ve been in since 2008 may be the long-overdue death of the “root causes” theory of crime and criminality. In A Crime Theory Demolished Heather McDonald points out that crime rates are dropping to 50-year lows even as unemployment hits a 70-year high. While she is right… Continue reading Beyond root causes
Escalating Complexity and the Collapse of Elite Authority
In yesterday’s New York Times, David Brooks wrote perceptively about the burgeoning populist revolt against the “educated classes”. Brooks was promptly slapped around by various blogosphere essayists such as Will Collier, who noted that Brooks’s column reads like a weaselly apologia for the dismal failures of the “educated classes” in the last couple of decades.… Continue reading Escalating Complexity and the Collapse of Elite Authority
A no-shit Sherlock
Instapundit and John Nolte are quite right: the new Sherlock Holmes movie was better than we had a right to expect from the trailers. We were led to anticipate a fun, mindless action comedy – a sort of reprise of Iron Man in Victorian drag, with Robert Downey Jr. in full scenery-chewing mode. I would… Continue reading A no-shit Sherlock
Terrorism and the militia obligation
Section 311 of US Code Title 10, entitled, “Militia: composition and classes” reads: “(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of… Continue reading Terrorism and the militia obligation
‘Twas the Chinese did the deed
Now, this is interesting. Mark Lynas writes this: Copenhagen climate conference How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room. I had a strong hunch that it was going to turn out that the Chinese had trashed any hope of an agreement in Copenhagen, and Mr. Lynas mostly duplicates my… Continue reading ‘Twas the Chinese did the deed