Gerard Vanderleun reminds us of how relevant Milan Kundera remains. Here’s the quote from my favorite work of Kundera’s, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting: At a time when history still made its way slowly, the few events were easily … Continue reading →
Predictable, considering the makeup of the court, and yet awful: The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling en banc (full court), has ruled against Michael Flynn’s attempt to force District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to grant the government’s motion to … Continue reading →
I was about eleven or twelve or perhaps thirteen years old when I first read Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. It made an indelible impression on me, probably greater than it would have if I’d waited till at least college age. I’m … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Recently I came across an old post of mine on Orwell and decided to repeat it in edited form, because I think it’s still interesting and timely, maybe even more than before. So here it is.] Commenter “Nick” wrote … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a revised version of a previous post.] Robert Frost’s poem “A Case for Jefferson” isn’t great poetry—even though it’s a poem by a master of the genre. It’s more in the vein of light verse, which Frost … Continue reading →
Or perhaps they already have. I’ve written before about how a course I took in college on Russian Intellectual History stopped me from joining the left in the late 60s. Here’s an excerpt: It was there I learned – without … Continue reading →
Canadian sparrows have changed their tune: A new bird song is spreading like wildfire among Canadian white-throated sparrows, at a scale not seen before by scientists. Birds rarely change their chirpy little tunes, and when they do, it’s typically limited … Continue reading →
A double bind is a social science term for “heads I win, tails you lose.” It goes like this: A double bind is a dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more conflicting messages, with … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a slightly revised repeat of a previous post – and today’s attempt to get away from politics.] When I was in junior high school, there was a large poster of the Periodic Table of the Elements that … Continue reading →
That is the question – or at least, one of the questions. I know that some of you – maybe most of you – are feeling some despair right now. Maybe a lot of despair. What we’ve been seeing – … Continue reading →
I cannot state strongly enough how unmoored these actions are from the ordinary safeguards our legal system has attempted to provide defendants: In the case against Michael Flynn the court appointed amicus curiae, essentially a court appointed outside lawyer enlisted … Continue reading →
…do a lot more than climbing up the water spout. They detect electrical fields and use them to – fly. And although I’m well aware that I just used the word “fly” there to refer to the activity and not … Continue reading →