Veritas Forum

Here's my Barometer piece today.

And I suppose this is as good a place as any to continue the discussion of censorship and communism.

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"But I do think the coffee table is actually there. When I say I don't care, this should not be taken to mean that I don't care about the coffee table. What I don't care about is convoluted explanations of the obvious. On this kind of issue, we should divide philosphers into two categories: those who can find their hinder parts when allowed to use both hands, and those who can't."

-- Douglas Wilson on postmodernism

I've been in a particularly bitter mood these last few days, spending what little free time I have in wondering why, if there is a wise and just God, humans haven't been obliterated from the face of the earth.
Anyway, one of the antidotes to the gloom I spread on here and elsewhere (e.g. my ongoing The Death of Western Civillization series) is the blog of a wonderful former teacher of mine.
Anyway, she has gotten the job she talks about in this post.
Congratulations, Mrs. Staley; I'm sure you'll do very well, though I will admit to being disappointed that you weren't hired at OSU.
One of the benefits of this for we her former students is that since she's a teacher again, we shall no longer have to struggle to train ourselves to use her first name. Even though it's been 3 1/2 years since I last was in her class, "Stephanie" still feels wrong.

This incident reaffirms my belief that humans are not only wicked, but stupid.
Not that I needed more evidence...

I'm surprised that The Fly hasn't linked to this.

I don't think Nathanael has linked to this story yet of a pregnant woman contesting her right to use the carpool lane.

This is what happens when scientists go on a bar crawl...

And, more on why Wal-Mart is good.

Sad...but crazy

I'm sure this had nothing to do with the competancy of the Canadian health care system.

What does it take to get a modern Western icon to speak out against communist China?
Its wicked political system? Its persecution of religion? Its belligerence toward Taiwan? Its "one child" policy, which is enforced by compulsory abortions? Its brutalization of Tibet? Its crackdown on free speech over the Internet? These and all the other evils of totalitarian government garner not a whisper of protest.
However, cruel treatment of dogs and cats is simply too vile to be overlooked.

One of my pet peeves was pricked tonight. People who get off on opposing censorship irritate me excessively.
It sounds very principled and wise and whatnot to say that no book should ever be banned. And it's utter idiocy.

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Charles Krauthammer on the subject in the Weekly Standard.

Your first thought on reading this story is, "what, why are we only at 1000?"

Overall, it was good. It is, of course, always dangerous to give Hollywood any good literature; it's like tossing all the pearls of the Teleri before Ungoliant.
However, in this case, things turned out ok. Not perfectly, and the BBC version remains the best film adaptation, but pretty good. There were only a few moments where I cringed at specific changes, and they weren't significant.
The greatest change was in the way they chose to play Darcy, which was as more shy and awkward than proud. Social Ineptitude and Prejudice was more the order of things.
Still, despite some flaws, it was a largely faithful adaptation of one of the most beloved books ever, and is well worth your viewing.

George Will's tribute to the great one.

One of my better columns recently, in my opinion.

Meanwhile, here's an interesting piece on the brighter side of hell.

John Leo is leaving U.S. News and World Report, which is quite sad; I've been reading his stuff since high school. Still, he left with a great piece.

From the Federalist Patriot.

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http://www.chesterton.org/acs/merchandise.htm

What's this? Dating services accused of fraud? You mean the perfect man/woman isn't to be found on an internet match-making service?

The rest of us are laughing.

A couple chaps who had been released from Gitmo were just picked up, hard at work on terrorism.

A bit long and the writing could have used an editor. Still, here's a good piece on modesty in the Washington Post.

Read this if you need more reasons to loath the human species.

An interesting Weekly Standard article about a woman's experience with anti-military folk at Harvard:

AS MY FELLOW MINNESOTAN Garrison Keillor likes to say, I am a tax-and-spend liberal. I have always been one and I suppose I always will be. I'm also a first lieutenant in the United States Army, attending Harvard Law School in preparation for active duty as a Judge Advocate General's Corps officer.

Oregon State will mourn the day they decided to snub the Liberty. They will come to find that messing with us is like wrestling with a pig; everyone gets dirty and the pig likes it.

While I'm citing Dante, this woman belongs in the 9th circle of hell, Caina region.

Is up.

I'm too lazy to check on whether this link was posted already, but it will likely appear as the subject of next week's column. I love indignant people. They make my life easier.

I think I'm still stuck on celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. It must be a residual of the YAF conference this weekend. I wish I had posted this picture last Wednesday.

It's going to be Bork all over again, only this time we can win. And we have to win, because for almost two decades liberals have blocked (or attempted to block) overt conservatives from the Supreme Court, and that cannot be allowed to continue.

The abortion bit is the big thing in the story, but I like this:

"Alito wrote that he believed "very strongly in limited government, federalism, free enterprise, the supremacy of the elected branches of government, the need for a strong defense and effective law enforcement and the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values."

In the document, Alito said he drew inspiration from the "writings of William F. Buckley, Jr., The National Review and Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign.""

Apparently John Roberts is also a subscriber to National Review.

Everyone's a victim now. John Leo's latest is great.

The army is developing a new chewing gum to help soldiers who aren't able to brush regularly. Slashdot claims this will also be excellent for the geek on the go, but I'm going to note that they'd need to add something to it first.

I don't normally read Christianity Today, and I certainly wouldn't make a habit of linking articles from it. But I thought this interview with Douglas Gresham was interesting; just about anything related to C.S. Lewis is interesting.

If nothing else, note the irony of the final answer.

Charles Krauthammer just keeps the hits coming, with this piece on oil economics, which he makes downright entertaining.

He's right, we're doomed. The voters are idiots, and in this age of opinion polls and cowardly politicians, they're running the show.

Meanwhile, Eugene Robinson's piece should be avoided unless you really, really want further evidence that the human race has the intelligence of lettuce.

I haven't read much of MoDo's stuff since TimesSelect started, but I still love Tina Brown's jabs at her in this WaPo piece.

"Dowd's hunt for who or what to blame for her vaunted datelessness recalls Bush's correspondents' dinner routine about looking for Iraqi WMD under his Oval Office desk. The thought of Dowd's girls' nights with fellow Times sirens Alessandra Stanley and Michiko Kakutani sounds about as soft and yielding as Macbeth's three witches on a club crawl."

Burn, baby, burn.

Pink Floyd's song Waiting for the Worms started running through my head when I read this.

Waiting, to knock out the deadwood...waiting, to weed out the weaklings...

There is some knowledge that should remain hidden.

Here's my Barometer piece on the French riots.

He was the prime mover behind the Soviet collapse.

by Dinesh D'Souza

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Here's a handy list for all the liberals out there. You'll find #5 and #8 to be especially useful, I think.

The insurrection in France is spreading to Belgium.

Gay Anglican bishop Gene Robinson thinks it describes the Catholic church, I think it describes him.

In the WaPo today on divorce.

Back in 2002 Theodore Dalrymple saw the riots in Paris coming.

Barometer piece is up.

Since the Supreme Court may be hearing this case soon, this ruling by Alito on the 3rd Circuit Court is encouraging.

My summer employers mention me on their website.

Even the United Methodists can get things right sometimes. And as always, to those who don't like Christianity's stance on homosexuality: find yourselves another religion.