Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
This piece originally dates from 2005. Christmas is over. The cat (and probably the children too) has found that the boxes and the wrapping paper are more fun than the presents were. Now we turn to the celebration of Hanukkah, late this year but better late than never. Hanukkah is not the greatest Jewish feast—that …
Continue reading "Blast from the Past: Hanukkah: Opening Shot in the Culture Wars"
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organised brigandage? For, what are bands of brigands but petty kingdoms? They also are groups of men, under the rule of a leader, bound together by a common agreement, dividing their booty according to settled principle. If this band of criminals, by recruiting more criminals, acquires …
Continue reading "St. Augustine: When Government and Brigands are Hard to Tell Apart"
Ever since growing up in Palm Beach, I've always heard that Americans are hopeless, naïve "babes in the woods" on foreign policy because they're always pursuing some moral cause without reference to the realities of the situation. I was also told that we should emulate the Europeans in their more "realistic" and "sophisticated" approach to …
Continue reading "The Sophisticated Just Don’t Get It on Tibet"
Barack Obama has some ambitious plans for upgrading the U.S.'s infrastructure: President-elect Barack Obama said he’ll make the “single largest new investment” in roads, bridges and public buildings since the Eisenhower Administration to lift the sagging economy and create jobs. Obama, in his weekly radio speech today, said his plan to create or preserve 2.5 …
Continue reading "The Tricky Part of Obama’s Infrastructure Plans"
The rather silly decision by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to leave the Christmas trees out of the library brings me to a rather strange question: why are Christmas trees specifically Christian? One of the problems of living long in a fast changing world is that one remembers things that everyone else forgets. …
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George Barna's latest poll on how the economic crash is affecting churches is spot on, as anyone involved in church finance will attest: During the past three months, one of the ways that adults have adjusted to their financial hardships has been by reducing their charitable giving. In total, one out of every five households …
Continue reading "George Barna: Change They Really Didn’t Believe In"
A friend in Indonesia recently sent me a paper by Olena Antonaccio and Charles Tittle from North Carolina State University entitled "A Cross-National Test of Bonger's Theory of Criminality and Economic Conditions." In 1905 the Dutch Marxist Willam Adrian Bonger had hypothesised that capitalism, by its de-moralisation (i.e., reduce the moral feelings that people had …
The Fix's Chris Cillizza evidently doesn't have a lot to do with his time, since he is trying to figure out who are the "stars" is what's left of the Republican Party. So let's look at his list from the criterion that has worked since 1988: who are the Ivy Leaguers in the group? I …
Continue reading "Applying the Ivy League Test to the Republican Stars (Such as They Are)"
I've been making this connnection here and here since shortly after the election. Now the International Herald-Tribune joins in: A faltering auto giant whose brands are synonymous with the open road. Hundreds of thousands of unionized workers with powerful political backers. An urgent plea for the government to write a virtual blank check. This is …
Continue reading "Making the Connection Between the U.S. Auto Bailout and British Leyland"
I'm sure that some of you budding theonomists guffawed at the following, from an old post of mine: Let's take a look at this: quote: I exhort therefore that above all things prayers, supplications, petitions, and giving of thanks, be had for all men: for kings, and for all that are in preeminence, that we …
Continue reading "Federal Air Marshals in Cuffs Teach Us a Bible Lesson"
Positive Infinity 