One of the hallmarks of the character Iago in Shakespeare’s “Othello” is that his evil is left somewhat unexplained. Unlike most people who do evil, he seems to have no clear motive for his actions other than to do evil … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I noticed this word appearing again lately, so I think it’s time to repost this. I originally wrote it in December of 2015.] I’ve noticed the word “kapo” cropping up now and then in the comments section of this … Continue reading →
This post is about a book called Defying Hitler that I’ve recommended before. Even though it was written in the late 1930s, it wasn’t published in the author’s lifetime and he died in 1999. But it’s a unique document of … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post. Unfortunately, it seems as though it’s always a timely subject, and right now even more timely. So I thought it could use another go-round, very slightly edited.] Commenter “Ymarsakar” once made … Continue reading →
Commenter “stan” writes: Neo wrote: “I expect that most people will go on believing that Chauvin was indeed a cold-blooded murderer, and a racist one at that.” More importantly, they will feel morally superior because of that belief and have … Continue reading →
As I’ve written before, when I was in college in the late 60s I happened to take a course called Russian Intellectual History. I had always liked Russian lit, I’d been told the prof was good, and the course seemed … Continue reading →
On the white guilt thread yesterday, I wrote about various ways in which people can react to feelings of guilt and then want to join movements such as BLM or especially Antifa. Then I added: in addition, I believe that … Continue reading →
[Hat tip: commenter “Barry Meislin.”] This new piece by Alan Dershowitz is interesting to me for many reasons, not the least because he demonstrates his usual sense and yet continues to find it difficult to surrender his allegiance to the … Continue reading →
There’s almost too much news on the Flynn case to digest at once. Yesterday some documents were revealed, and today some more. Here’s the basic story that broke yesterday: My quick hot takes:1) They set up a perjury trap but … Continue reading →
Another great article by Gary Saul Morson has been published in New Criterion. He’s the author who wrote a piece about Solzhenitsyn that I discussed previously here. This time Morson is writing about Lenin – or rather, about the thought … Continue reading →
I read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four when I was about twelve years old. You might say that’s too early to truly understand it. And if you said that, you’d probably be right. But even then, I understood it well enough. … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a slightly-edited repeat of a post first published in 2007. I came across it yesterday when responding to a comment, and I though it might bear repeating.] We may not be able to define evil, but most … Continue reading →