[NOTE: Part I can be found here.] I can’t find the quote right now, but Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi—who wrote Survival In Auschwitz, which I consider the single most definitive and brilliant book on the camps from the … Continue reading →
[Hat tip: Open Blogger at Ace’s.] [NOTE: Part II can be found here.] Here is a fascinating interview with an elderly concentration camp survivor. If you’ve read or heard many camp survivors’ tales, the horrors he faced will not surprise … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I’m not becoming Tolstoy-obsessed, although I’ve written two days in a row on him. However, I think that the topic of both posts is not really Tolstoy per se, but larger philosophical questions about the good life, politics, and … Continue reading →
Leo Tolstoy lived from 1828 to 1910, and was probably just as famous for his political and religious/social beliefs as he was for his writing (maybe even more so). Tolstoy was a Titan of energy and creativity who later in … Continue reading →
I’ve had many an argument—um, discussion—with my son on the topic of artificial intelligence. How far can it go? Could it ever include consciousness? Suffice to say we have not answered the question. Nor have scientists, although there is no … Continue reading →
I’m here to announce another vice. This is a new one, although it also involves an old one—YouTube video chain-watching. Chain-watching is when you go from one video on a topic to another, sort of like eating a bagful of … Continue reading →
In the electoral/political sense, that is? I think it’s very very rare. Or rather, they think they learn, but all too often they learn the wrong thing. In order to really learn from one’s mistakes and to correct them properly, … Continue reading →
In a recent thread on gymnastics, commenter “CV” recommended watching this astounding video. I can’t seem to figure out how to find the embed code, so you’ll have to go there in order to watch it. It’s well worth the … Continue reading →
There’s a trend I’ve noticed in the comments section here and also in some of the emails I’ve been getting: quite a few people admonishing me that I should shut up like a good apparatchik and take one for the … Continue reading →
In Shelby Steele’s Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country, he writes: …[A]ll these victim-focused identities are premised on a belief in the characterological evil of American and the entire Western world. This broad assumption is the idea … Continue reading →
Why are we still talking about Cruz’s speech last night and the reaction to it? It crystallizes some of the themes that have been building and building this entire campaign season, as well as the frustrations. Trump is a candidate … Continue reading →
The British poet (1795-1821) wrote: Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? By the way, I highly recommend the film “Bright Star,” about Keats’ romance … Continue reading →