Understanding the nihilist in the White House
A new article of mine is up at PJ. You’ve heard Obama called a nihilist. But is he? And if so, what type?
Continue reading →Category Archives: Getting philosophical: life, love, the universe
What a way to go
This is certainly different: Now, the ashes of a loved one can be made into a beautiful diamond, thanks to a Swiss company called Algordanza…Using a combination of machines and complex scientific process, the staff at Algordanza separate the carbon … Continue reading →
Brittany Maynard postpones assisted suicide
Assisted suicide is a huge topic about which I have tremendously conflicted feelings, including compassion for those who are suffering so greatly that they feel the need to consider it. But this isn’t going to be a long, complex article … Continue reading →
The FDA, speed, and thalidomide
Articles like this one accuse the FDA of unnecessary slowness in approving diagnostic techniques, treatments, and vaccines: Pandemic vaccines and drugs don’t move through the FDA approval process faster. Instead, drug- and device-development times actually increased more than 70 percent … Continue reading →
It’s the idiocracy, stupid
Commenter “Mrs Whatsit” notes that “We are witnessing a spectacle of incompetence on multiple levels of government not quite like anything I recall before,” and asks whether there are any competent adults left. A few, but I think they might … Continue reading →
Andrew Madoff, RIP
Those of you who follow this blog know that I’ve said from the start that I don’t think Bernie Madoff’s sons were guilty, and that they were among Madoff’s biggest victims because he stole their good name from them as … Continue reading →
Civilization and its enemies
I remember reading some of Lee Harris’s essays post-9/11 and being impressed, but after that I lost track of him. So I missed his book Civilization and its Enemies: The Next Stage of History when it first came out in … Continue reading →
Do conservatives have the patience for the long march?
I wonder. It’s not that conservatives lack courage. But from the evidence I see around the blogosphere, many would rather throw up their hands and say that it’s already over, so let it all go to pot and wait for … Continue reading →
The greatest of these
During the time James Foley was in captivity, he tried to write letters to his parents, but they were intercepted. Resourcefully, he came up with the solution of composing one and asking a fellow-hostage who was about to be released … Continue reading →
Being depressed
The suicide of Robin Williams has started a lengthy discussion of depression, with those who’ve suffered from it trying to describe its depths, and why depression could drive a man like Williams to do what he did. Depression is an … Continue reading →
A few more prognostications from the past (from FredHJr and others)
A few weeks ago I was looking at some old comment threads to find some apropos quotes from commenter FredHJr for a post on the fifth anniversary of his death, and I came across a few extra ones that I … Continue reading →
How the Atlanta school system became a hotbed of cheating
This is one of the saddest articles I’ve ever read. It describes the genesis of the cheating behavior that was exposed in 2010 in a scandal in the Atlanta public school system, where administrators and teachers in predominantly black schools … Continue reading →