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Archive for 2016
July 9, 2016
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
My basic point of view…went back to my early teens, and has never changed in any essential during the half century since. Under the influence of my father…I emerged into sentience with an almost instinctive distrust of all schemes of revolution and reform. They were, to me, only signs and symptoms of a fundamental hallucination, to wit, the hallucination that human nature could be changed by passing statutes and preaching gospels—that natural law could be repealed by taking thought.
—H.L. Mencken on socialism in 1910, as quoted by Edward Short in “Heavens on Earth, the creation of perfection, American-style” at the Weekly Standard, a review of Paradise Now — The Story of American Utopianism, by Chris Jennings.
JUST A LITTLE BIT. NEXT QUESTION? Does the Dallas Attack Bolster the ‘War on Cops’ Narrative?
THE LATEST CAPITAL CRIME IN NORTH KOREA: Using a cell phone messaging app. North Korea’s dictatorship says using messaging apps like Kakao Talk, Line, and WeChat are criminal because:
…Those caught using these apps on Chinese cell phones may be executed. The reason is that these apps enable users near the border to send messages so quickly, and then hang up, that even the high-tech cell phone detectors used by the border guards and secret police, cannot catch the culprits.
Read the whole thing.
I DUNNO, THAT MIGHT PRODUCE A HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR ANY POLICE OFFICERS ENROLLED IN HIS CLASS: Law Professor Pens 6-Page Response To Students Who Criticized His ‘Black Lives Matter’ Shirt.
Anyway, standing up for lefty shibboleths in the academy requires no courage.
AND YET, IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE HE’S BEEN CHECKED OR BALANCED: Obama Has Lost The Supreme Court More Than Any Modern President.
BLACK LIVES MATTER ISSUES ASTONISHING STATEMENT CONDEMNING VIOLENCE IN DALLAS: Claim they’re for “justice and dignity” while their supporters call for the murder of police.
DATA-BASED MEDICINE: Telephone Hotline Data Forecasts Dengue Outbreaks Three Weeks Ahead.
ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: Obama: ‘Very Hard to Untangle’ Dallas Shooter’s Motive.
UPDATE [FROM GLENN]: On Facebook, Micah Johnson, the Dallas sniper, liked the New Black Panther Party and the African American Defense League. We may never know why he did what he did.
THE HOUSE CUTS THE IRS BUDGET. “Basically, this backs out the one-time spending approved last year to fight identity theft and continues a hard budget freeze at the agency. Keeping spending at this level means that the IRS will have to prioritize their resources away from things like Obamacare implementation and harassing ordinary families and small businesses. The IRS will still have plenty of money to go after actual criminals and tax cheats, but hopefully not enough money for fishing expeditions elsewhere.”
SO I READ THIS FROM JOHN BIRMINGHAM, Stalin’s Hammer: Cairo: A novel of the Axis of Time. It was good! He tells me he’s restarting the Axis of Time series because there’s been so much reader demand.
He’s also got two Dave books out: A Protocol for Monsters, and Soul Full Of Guns.
GEORGE COSTANZA TAKE NOTE: Why You Really Shouldn’t Double-Dip The Chip.
DOES THE RIGHT TO MARRY INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO POLYGAMY? My Tennessee Law colleague Michael Higdon explores the issue.
LIFE BEHIND THE STACKS: The Secret Apartments of New York Libraries.
(Via Terry Teachout.)
THE VERY FIRST DOSE OF IBUPROFEN EVER CONSUMED was as a hangover cure.
BUILDING A BETTER WORLD THROUGH BOOZE! James Lileks looks back at mid-WWII ads promising battle-weary Americans better tomorrow, brought to you by “The Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow!” “Remember: men who think up things like this prefer Seagram’s.” Specifically, Seagram’s V.O., which was my dad’s favorite hooch.
Give Seagram credit for living up to their motto; all that V.O. the ads sold built a pretty nifty piece of mid-century modernism a decade later — designed by the drinkingest modern architect of the 20th century, appropriately enough.