As documented in this piece today on CBS This Morning: https://youtu.be/nlPoLrghcow I can remember growing up on the Miami Herald and seeing the horoscope buried well past the front page. Now publications like Cosmopolitan put it front and centre. That piece reminded me of a pithy observation by John McKenzie in his The Two-Edged Sword: …
Eating People Doesn’t Stop with Babies
The recent "proposal" to eat babies recently set forth at one of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' town hall meetings reminds me of a memorable quote from the great Chinese author Lu Xun. I've used this quote before (once in relation to the Chinese themselves) but it bears repeating with all of the cheap moralism that comes …
Book Review: Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage by Grady McWhiney and Perry Jamieson
Most of you who stop by here regularly know that I am a big fan of Grady McWhiney's "Celtic South" idea. That adherence didn't come from theoretical considerations, but from hard experience. Some people characterize McWhiney's thesis as a form of "white supremacy," but that only shows the decline of reading comprehension among Americans. I …
Hong Kong and the Straits of Hormuz: It’s Amazing It Took This Long — vulcanhammer.info
Although Vulcan exported its pile driving equipment from the start, it was it’s foray into the offshore oil business that gave Vulcan a truly international perspective. That perspective put some of the world’s “hot spots” into its field of interest, and two of them are very active these days: Hong Kong and the Straits of […] …
Pete Buttigieg, Episcopal Snob
The first round of Democratic Presidential debates is, mercifully, over. Winners and losers will sort themselves out in due season, but in the meanwhile let's consider one whom the media fawned over: Pete Buttigieg, South Bend's mayor. He's made quite a career doing something that none of his rivals have done to the extent that …
A Lesson from Herodotus About the Perils of Invading Iran
There's a lot of talk these days about why we should or shouldn't invade Iran, but I would submit this cautionary note, from all places my devotional book Month of Sundays: King Cyrus was on top of the world. From mountainous Persia he ruled a vast empire; he was secure enough to allow the Jews …
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Law Students Protest Their Way out of a Job
They many not realise it but that's what they're doing as in the case of Ronald Sullivan at Harvard: Harvard said on Saturday that a law professor who is representing Harvey Weinstein would not continue as faculty dean of an undergraduate house after his term ends on June 30, bowing to months of pressure from …
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Changing the Bankruptcy Laws and Social Unrest
Front and centre in political debates these days is student loan debt. It's led to much of the romance of socialism amongst the Millennials (never mind that a good portion of that debt was spent in state schools, socialist institutions par excellence.) One of the nasty things about student loan debt is that it is …
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The “Acceptable Religion” Concept Makes a Comeback
Historical amnesia is a common American malady. One of those aspects of American life that is oft forgotten is that of the "acceptable religion," the idea that certain religions are more socially acceptable (and thus more amenable to their adherents moving up) than others. In the past, this was mostly an intramural contest within Christianity …
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Settling for Lehigh Isn’t the Worst Thing That Could Happen
In Caitlin Flanagan's interesting piece on the college admissions scandal, she makes this statement that jumped out at me: I just about got an ulcer sitting in that office listening to rich people complaining bitterly about an “unfair” or a “rigged” system. Sometimes they would say things so outlandish that I would just stare at …
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Positive Infinity 