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Worth Reading - 2005 Archive 12/31 Year 2005 round-ups: a Lileksian chronology of the year’s events; the Internet has passed the one-billion-users mark; Roger Ebert’s top ten movies of the year; and the American Institute of Physics’ top physics stories of the year. 12/30 Fruits of the Enlightenment: Edward Hudgins remembers a very cool entrepreneur. And a post at Café Hayek on philosophy’s contribution to the wealth of nations: “Capital largely is a process of peaceful cooperation; a division of labor ever-deepened by market signals that contain more information than noise; an openness to economic dynamism; a culture of suppressing envy and applauding (or at least tolerating) honest success; a widespread acceptance of the difference between mine and thine, and an abhorrence of those who refuse to accept this distinction; an acceptance, at least in practical affairs, of science, logic, and reason and a rejection in these affairs of faith, mysticism, and tradition-for-the-sake-of-tradition.” 12/28 Philosopher Andrew Bernstein’s new book: The Capitalist Manifesto (which I am using as a text in my Business and Economic Ethics course next semester)—a wide-ranging historical and philosophical companion to economist George Reisman’s Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics. At The Atlasphere, Joshua Zader has a review of Bernstein’s book. 12/28 At 88 Keys: a 1927 interview with Rachmaninoff. 12/26 Creativity in the graphic design process: The development of a map of travel times on the London Underground. And creativity in the dating scene: Joel demonstrates why you should date him. 12/24 Reason’s Jesse Walker on Santa versus Jesus. Worth revisiting are Steven Landsburg, who hails Ebenezer Scrooge as a great benefactor of mankind, and Doug Kerns, who imagines the results if Ayn Rand, Richard Dawkins, or Stephen King had written A Christmas Carol. Here is a rash of Bad Santas. Meanwhile, these morally-deficient individuals make me want to max out my credit card this Christmas. Finally, David Mayer praises the commerce of Christmas. 12/23 Novelist Erika Holzer has a new book out: Ayn Rand: My Fiction-Writing Teacher. And here is William Thomas’s helpful review of two short books on Ayn Rand: philosopher Allan Gotthelf’s On Ayn Rand and philosopher Tibor Machan’s Ayn Rand. 12/22 A problem looking for a solution: While primary schools do a decent job of educating students, Jay P. Greene has data showing high schoolers merely tread water. And at the D.C. Education Blog, Nathan writes about a charter school success story. (Via Mark Lerner.) 12/21 Something old: Archaeologists have unearthed a city in Syria that was wiped out 5,500 years ago. And something new: New Jersey has become the first U. S. state to fund stem cell research. 12/20 A fine collection of Bible Quizzes over at Landover Baptist Church. And here is Sam Harris’s strongly written Atheist Manifesto. 12/19 Peter Cresswell has a great post on Eric Clapton’s playing of Robert Johnson’s blues music, creativity and the psychology of “flow”. 12/17 In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Lindsay Waters calls for literary aesthetics to abandon sterile “interpretation” and return to robust literary criticism. (Via About Last Night.) 12/16 The Idea Shop—where the dismal science gets groovy: Andrew Chamberlain has a good eye for economically intriguing phenomena. Check out these posts on the economics of prostitution, taxes then and now (ouch), Australia's baby economics, and advertising as self-defense against antitrust fervor. 12/15 Marsha Enright is a philosophically-astute and Montessori- trained educator. Check out her wonderfully ambitious new project: The College of the United States. 12/14 George Washington died on this day in 1799. Here are Thomas Jefferson’s fine, considered remarks in remembrance of George Washington, the White House’s official overview of Washington’s life and presidency, and the web site for Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. I also enjoyed reading several years ago Richard Brookhiser’s brief, biographical character study of Washington: Founding Father. 12/13 Fruits of the Enlightenment: Business Week has its round-up of best-of-the-web sites. And what is the state of the science of aging? (Via InstaPundit.) 12/12 German feminist Alice Schwarzer on the anti-woman dysfunctionalism of Islamism and its role in European crime and the French riots. And on dysfunctionalism closer to home, the wise David Mayer has a comprehensive Hurricane Katrina post-mortem, three months after the disaster. 12/10 Good advice on how to survive this season’s holiday parties. 12/9 Wow: A philosophical interview with “Batman Begins” director Christopher Nolan. (Via Stan Rozenfeld’s Journal.) And for those who like action thrillers, Robert Bidinotto has recommendations. I second his recommendations of Stephen Hunter, the early Alistair MacLean, the early Wilbur Smith, and the early Robert B. Parker. The rest I haven’t read yet. 12/8 Michael Blowhard happily acknowledges that he is an arthritic coot who thinks much of the contemporary art world is given over to masturbatory pointlessness—but nonetheless he has a good discussion and pictures of aesthetic revivalism in painting and architecture. And for more revivalism, check out this site lovingly dedicated to the Pre-Raphaelites. 12/7 In what country is it easiest to start a business? Where are the most onerous licensing hurdles? Where are contracts best protected? At DoingBusiness.org, 155 countries are ranked along ten dimensions. And: The internet makes us more productive, right? Merlin at 43 Folders explores the trade-off between increased productivity and being able to “procrastinate with lightning efficiency”. 12/6 At Health Care Renewal, professor of medicine Roy Poses asks: Is postmodernism threatening the teaching of medical science? And at Tech Central Station, Michael Cook comments on a recent scandal in cloning and stem cell research. 12/5 The Huygens probe has landed on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and here are the latest reports. (Thanks to Karen for the link.) If you have never seen the Powers of Ten, check out this fascinating perspective on our universe. 12/3
12/2 Mark Lerner of Washington, D.C., was a guest lecturer in my Philosophy of Education class on Wednesday evening. He talked about charter schools and vouchers. Thanks, Mark! Here is Mark’s web log, devoted to education, art, and political issues. And at Reason, here is more on teachers’ unions versus education. 12/1 Unintended consequences of expansive government: Journalist John Stossel explains how government aid drives out private aid. (Via Not PC.) And here is economist Gordon Tullock’s introductory article on government spending and rent-seeking. FDA Review explains why the regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have an incentive to delay the approval of beneficial drugs. And while we’re on the topic of safety, here is a strident call for an end to SUV violence. 11/30 Episteme Links, a valuable philosophy resources site, has several useful new features. Also check out these fun and serious philosophy-related products as well. 11/29 Read Peter Gordon's web log. 11/28 The proceedings of the 2005 Libertarian Alliance Conference in London are now online. 11/26 Orangutan pee collector? Popular Science has the ten worst jobs in science. (Via Geek Press.) And you’ve probably been wondering: What’s up with Mozart’s skull these days? 11/25 Now this is cool: Interesting data and fascinating presentation: Human Development Trends 2005. 11/24 The morality of Thanksgiving: worth reading again are Roger Donway on whom we should thank and David Mayer on why we celebrate Thanksgiving. And Alex Tabarrok puts it well. 11/23 A free trade success story: Peter Mork on Mexican avocados and Chinese shoes. 11/22 A Saudi schoolteacher spoke freely about religion with his students—and was found guilty and sentenced to 750 lashes. (Thanks to Joe K. for the link.) 11/21 Fruits of the Enlightenment: From anesthesia to arthroscopic surgery. Here is a brief overview of arthroscopic surgery at the ESPN site. And here is Dr. Henry Bigelow’s 1846 account of dentist William Thomas Green Morton’s demonstration of the use of ether as an anesthetic during tooth extractions. 11/19 Architect Peter Creswell has pictures and comments on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City concept. And here are pictures of Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazetto dello Sport, built for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. 11/18 Two articles from the latest The New Individualist are now online: Bruce Thornton on multiculturalism and immigration and Edward Hudgins on the means and ends of the Islamists. 11/17
11/16 Roger Sandall on the significance of Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) 11/15 So sad: Gay marriage has ruined Massachusetts. (Via Tom Palmer.) 11/14 Creativity in advertising facelifts: ReBrand's 2005 award winners. Urban facelifts and trompe l’oeil: Eric Grohe’s Middle American makeovers. (Thanks to Beverly for the link.) And a short article with pictures of trompe l’oeil in art history. 11/12 Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War is a timeless philosophical history of war and human nature. Here is a brief biography of Thucydides and assessment of his significance as the first to separate myth from history and to assess the credibility of his sources. Also check out Robert Strassler’s indispensable edition, The Landmark Thucydides, which contains the text with accompanying maps, timelines, and sketches of the major actors. 11/11 The always-thoughtful Will Wilkinson has started a Happiness and Public Policy web log. 11/10 Coming soon: the complete works of Charles Darwin online. And if you will be in New York City at some point between now and May, check out the Darwin Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History. (Via Philosophy of Biology.) 11/9 Technology and education: a brief The New York Times article on podcasting and the future of education. Race and education: Uriah Kriegel explains one reason why blacks are underrepresented in academia. 11/8 The Newberry Archive gets bigger and better with excellent cross-listings by date, subject, and medium. And, after his move to New York City, here is Newberry’s latest studio update for November. 11/7 Socialism versus human health: Dead Meat is an online documentary about the Canadian medical system. Religion versus human health: one more skirmish in the ongoing battle. 11/5 Gruesome, even if you already know the history of communism: A review of the new biography of Mao. And the Left’s Western fellow-travelers do not come out too well either. 11/4 Philosopher Max Hocutt reviews Theodore Dalrymple’s Life at the Bottom. Hocutt is also the author of a justly scathing essay on Jean-Jacques Rousseau in The Independent Review. 11/3 Making arguments clear: Truth-mapping is an online, interactive graphical diagramming of arguments and debates. 11/2 Ayn Rand as literary artist. Three recent collections of essays worth adding to your library: William Thomas’s The Literary Art of Ayn Rand; and Robert Mayhew’s two volumes, Essays on Ayn Rand’s We the Living and Essays on Ayn Rand’s Anthem. 11/1 Fruits of the Enlightenment—or, Why we don’t have to worry about the following anymore: “Faeces discharged into water made China the world reservoir of lung, liver and intestinal flukes and the Oriental schistosome, all serious causes of chronic illness. Human excreta were used as a fertilizer, and soil-transmitted helminth infestation was an occupational hazard for the farmer. According to Han Suyin there was ninety percent worm infestation among children in Peking in the early twentieth century and worms were visible everywhere on paths and alongside buildings. … . India, with the unhygienic habit of defecating in public space, often in streams and rivers that also served for washing and drinking, may have been in even worse shape.” (Eric Jones, The European Miracle, pp. 6-7, quoted in David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, n. p. 21) 10/31 So you’ve always wanted to learn witchcraft. Now your tuition may be tax-deductible. 10/29 College football and air travel: Craig Depken on the efficiency of decentralized markets. (Not that I’m envious or anything.) And on the enormous value of free, decentralized trade when compared to centralized tariffs and controls, Johan Norberg cites this striking datum. 10/28 Does the legal system still encourage personal responsibility? Overlawyered's archive of personal irresponsibility lawsuits. 10/27 Alex Tabarrok on the secret history of the minimum wage: Minimum wages lead to unemployment and, early in the 20th century that was the whole point. Here is Linda Gorman’s clear overview of the unintended consequences of minimum wages. 10/26 Historian Keith Windschuttle has a collection of lectures and essays on postmodernism that are worth browsing. 10/25 Three giants from Renaissance medical history—passion, hard work, and the new scientific method in action: Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, and Anton Leeuwenhoek. 10/24 Racism is alive and kicking in North America. And here is an analysis of another sickly symptom. 10/22 Are parents competent enough to feed their children breakfast? TOC’s Edward Hudgins on why we should not take yet another step toward the nanny state. 10/21 Kathy Sierra explains why conversational writing kicks formal writing’s ass. (Thanks to Joe K. for the link.) 10/20 A dramatic lessening of the number of wars and deaths in war: Johan Norberg summarizes the newly-released Human Security Report. And John Stossel explains why gun control laws don’t work—and may even kill people. (Via InstaPundit.com.) 10/19 And if not truth, character, and real liberalism, then what are colleges teaching? Non-judgmentalism, hiding behind euphemism, and tolerance for mass-murdering dogmatists? Mark Steyn rips into the foreign policy implications of fashionable multiculturalism. (Thanks to Barbara and Karen for the link.) 10/18 Do colleges really believe in truth, character, and liberal education anymore? Norman Levitt offers a simultaneously charming and disturbing portrait of the contemporary American university. Levitt is co-author with Paul Gross of Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science. (Via A&L Daily.) 10/17 In Business Week—another great engineering story: How P&G and Ideo developed the CarpetFlick. (Via Dynamist.) 10/15 Law professor David Mayer argues that, just as twenty-two Democratic senators voted irresponsibly against John Roberts, Republican senators would be irresponsible if they were to vote in favor of Harriet Miers. 10/14 At Tech Central Station, Edward J. Renehan Jr. introduces the historians’ War Over the Robber Barons. And Burton Folsom’s fine The Myth of the Robber Barons is a brief survey of the achievements of six great nineteenth-century capitalists, distinguishing “market entrepreneurs” who create value from “political entrepreneurs” who get money by playing Washington games. 10/13 Great idea: TIA Daily has a new Human Achievements blog. 10/12 Multi-sized replacement testicles, alarm clocks that run and hide, exploding trousers, and stressed-out frogs: This year’s Ig-Nobel Prize Winners. And The Onion profiles that one philosophy student who just needs to shut up. 10/11 Very helpful: Don Boudreaux has a brief, clear explanation of the distinction between micro- and macro-economics. And here is CEE’s profile of the great David Ricardo. 10/9 Are your politics Mussolini or Mandela? (Via Not PC.) Worth visiting again is the classic World’s Smallest Political Quiz. This sobering site is well worth exploring: R. J. Rummel’s Freedom, Democide, and War. And this study shows that economic freedom correlates strongly with peace. 10/7 One face of the future of textbook publishing: Wikibooks. And here is another face: Google Print. 10/6 In The New York Review of Books, Richard Lewontin reviews two recent books in the wars over evolution. 10/5 How many athletes, Jews, short people, nerds, and Asians should a college admit? Malcolm Gladwell explains and reflects upon elite college admissions processes. (Thanks to Joe K. for the link.) And at the excellent Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Samantha Harris exposes an illegal speech code at Northern Arizona University. 10/4 Phil Sage’s sage tips for modern life. (Via Not PC.) And at The Onion: Can philosophy help you find your true self? 10/3 Virginia Postrel asks: Which country is more liberal—Canada or the USA? And Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute has a directly relevant comparison of prostate cancer death rates in the U.S., Canada, and other countries. (Via Café Hayek.) 10/1 The great Gannibal of St. Petersburg: the Dark Star of the Enlightenment. 9/30 At The Wall Street Journal: Bloggers and economists Russell Roberts and William Polley discuss American economic literacy and hopeful prospects for improvement. (Thanks to Joe K. for the link.) Meanwhile, Joe Duarte compares the Fair-Tax and the Flat-Tax proposals and decides in favor of … 9/29 Taking the (sickly?) pulse of contemporary higher education: Victor Davis Hanson looks at four recent, high-profile cases. 9/28 Raymond Carver has advice and inspiration on being a good writer. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) 9/27 Fruits of the Enlightenment: Don Boudreaux on why hurricanes now kill many fewer people in the USA. And that in spite of large population increases and the destructive effects of counter-Enlightenment government policies: the welfare state, pork-barreling, and bureaucratic mismanagement. 9/26 In Lysistrata, a female character suggests a law to mandate that older women be serviced sexually by younger males. The Danes may decide to out-Aristophanes the great Aristophanes by passing a law to provide welfare benefits so that the disabled can pay prostitutes for sex. 9/24 At Washington State University: Using “dispositions theory” as a tool for enforcing ideological conformity. 9/23 Should professors who write textbooks make students buy their books? Ian Ayres feels badly about the money issue. Eugene Volokh and Aeon Skoble see no conflict of interest. I say: Show me the money! 9/22 James Watson of Watson-and-Crick fame on Darwin’s powerful legacy. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) 9/21 A new book by Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl: Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis For Non-perfectionist Politics. I have not read it yet, but it looks to be the cumulation of over two decades of thinking and writing about the foundations of politics. Jointly and severally, Den Uyl and Rasmussen are the authors of several earlier books, including Liberty and Nature, The Virtue of Prudence, and The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand. 9/20 In the context of a case in New Zealand, Peter Cresswell has some clear thoughts on environmental values and property rights. And here is Richard Stroup’s introduction to Free Market Environmentalism. 9/19 Capitalism as the best foreign policy: Columbia University’s Eric Gartzke on the strong connection between capitalism and peace. Check out especially his strongly-written three concluding paragraphs on pages 38-39. 9/17 What Dallas, Texas can teach us about how to educate MBA’s. And one professor’s advice: How to cure students with ADHD. 9/16 A new web log focusing on private sector development instead of standard government aid: Private Sector Development Blog, under the auspices of the World Bank. (Via Johan Norberg, author of In Defense of Global Capitalism.) And Tyler Cowen notes the encouraging development of private safety networks in Africa. 9/15 The Fraser Institute’s 2005 Economic Freedom of the World Report has been released. (Via Division of Labor.) 9/14 Is poverty declining in America? Russell Roberts looks closely at some key indicators. And here is Stanley Lebergott’s fine survey of impressive improvements in wages and working conditions in the US during the 20th century. 9/13 Brooklyn College is using intimidation tactics to silence a dissenting professor. Update: Good news. 9/12 David Mayer delineates the criteria by which the chief justice of the Supreme Court should be chosen. And in "Confirmation Abuse", Professor Mayer speaks directly to the nomination of John Roberts and the Senate’s advise and consent role. 9/11
9/9 Kathy Sierra has some cool brain-charging suggestions—or, as she puts it, ways to blow your own mind. And Grant McCracken has a brief, evocative essay on “Madeleine” objects and his Uncle Meyer’s crudely stitched canvas wallet. 9/8 I am not a conservative—but Bill Whittle is the kind of conservative I admire. Read his “Tribes”. (Thanks to Robert for the link.) 9/7 How much longer will you live? The Death Clock. And visit The Blog of Death, an online obituary column. Lloyd Cohen and David Undis have a fine proposal to increase the number of organ donors. Here again is LifeSharers, a network of voluntary organ donors. 9/6 Jonathan Rauch argues that the next challenge to limited-government politics will not come from leftists but from communitarian right-wingers such as Rick Santorum. (Via Dynamist.) Tom Palmer has more on Santorum as representative of the Openly Anti-Individualist, Bigoted, Collectivist, Anti-Liberty Right.
9/3 Daniel Dennett wonders how the intellectual hoax that is “Intelligent Design” came to prominence. At the Philosophy of Biology blog: Michael Ruse, who was one of my professors at my undergraduate university, posts a letter he received on biology textbooks and the evolution-creation controversy. Johan Norberg has a great quotation from Richard Dawkins. And the cartoon is via Franz Kiekeben. 9/2 Michael Totten explains who the Islamists’ long-term strategic enemies are. Christopher Hitchens summarizes what has been achieved since 2001, in contrast to the preceding weak and vacillating decade. Confessions of a neo-neocon includes a psychological hypothesis about Western apologists for terrorism. And Wretchard takes us back to the Left responses to the Nazis and the Gulag and explores the true-believer mindset of the hard and anti-American Left. 9/1 An extended interview with philosopher John Searle. 8/31 David M. Brown notes another counter-productive political solution to high gas prices—rationing—and gives some good links to understand the problem and workable solutions. And Don Boudreaux reacts wearily to one politician’s stupid reaction to high gas prices. Meanwhile, tomorrow is No Gas Day!, and here are my suggestions to help the cause. Update: Rand Simburg explains Econ 101, once again, and why we should love price gougers. 8/30 Anna Volk reports on the slave traffic in Belarus. And here is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s 2005 Trafficking in Persons report. 8/29 As the new academic year begins: Dave’s Daily identifies twenty-five differences between high school and college. And here is a survival tip for college students: Get enough sleep. Also: while students usually hear all the sermons in the world about responsible drinking, here’s Radley Balko with some advice parents may not have heard. 8/26 Michael Blowhard asks: Is something wrong with economics?—and has a useful summary and links to thinking about homo economicus and economic methodology given that economic behavior is not always rational or self-interested. Here is Arnold C. Harberger’s introductory article on the field of microeconomics in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. And Russell Roberts at Café Hayek explains why the US economy has been creating so many new jobs for the last several years. 8/25 Ridiculous college speech code of the month. And Bryan Caplan asks a good question: Should egalitarian professors assign grades based on merit? 8/24 At Spiked-Online, Sandy Starr celebrates mankind’s making its mark upon the Earth. 8/23 Physician Henry I. Miller on race and personalized medicine. And here is Sally Satel’s "I Am a Racially Profiling Doctor". 8/22 In The New York Times, Jodi Wilgoren reports on the anti-evolution marketing device known as "Intelligent Design". And The Onion gets to the heart of the matter with this report on anti-gravity religionists who advocate "Intelligent Falling". (Thanks to Joe for the link.) 8/20 As part of the "Conversations with History" series, an extended interview with Victor Davis Hanson, ranging from his background to classical Greek culture to military history and foreign policy. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) And here is the web log of the series’ host, Harry Kreisler. 8/19 Architect Peter Cresswell on why and how architecture is an art. And check out architect John Gillis’s beautiful site. 8/18 By far the best version of the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God that I have ever read. Which goes to show that philosophy is perhaps best practised as a drinking sport. And for the other side of the debate, here’s the God F.A.Q. page. 8/17 Comic books to teach economics? Here are some produced by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. And the Foundation for Economic Education has a useful series of lesson plans on basic economics. 8/16 Liberty Fund’s excellent online collection of 1,100 classic works in philosophy, politics, history, economics and more. Excellent not only for the number of works available and the editorial judgment about what to include, but also for the fact that many selections are available in your choice of PDF, HTML, or E-book formats. 8/15 Are all religions created equal? James from Worthing on some significant differences between contemporary Christianity and contemporary Islam. (Via Jason Pappas.) And for comparison’s sake, here’s a round-up of some harsh quotations from the Koran and the Bible. 8/13 Ronald Bailey on the shift of some conservatives to embracing stem-cell research. And here is Bailey’s new book, Liberation Biology, which I am using as one of the texts in my Biomedical Ethics course this coming semester. 8/12 The horrors of war: Thomas C. Reeves reflects on the bombing of Dresden, sixty years later. Here is the American Air Force Historical Office’s report, providing details of the reasons and methods used in the bombings and comparing the Dresden bombings to those of the other major German cities. And here is the Wikipedia entry on the bombing, including pictures. 8/11 Fascinating: Paleolithic cave art at Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc. And Friedrich von Blowhard considers a recent explanation. 8/10 At the Atlasphere: Jeff Perren on another great engineer—Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit. 8/9 Paul Graham is thinking about what open source and web logs teach us about creativity, working because you love it, and free markets in ideas and products. (Thanks to Joe for the link.) 8/8 A surprise explanation of why Africa goes hungry. Part of the solution? I’m with Arnold Kling: Africa needs more sweatshops. 8/6 Pomo’s death throes? James Seaton hopes so, in a review of Theory’s Empire, edited by Daphne Patai and Wilfrido Corral. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) 8/5 Irfan Khawaja has a comment on Thomas Paine as a founding father of American secular individualism. Here are a brief biography and links to Paine’s major works online. I recommend Isaac Kramnick’s The Portable Enlightenment Reader, which has well-chosen excerpts from Paine’s works and those of many other major Enlightenment thinkers and activists. 8/4 Is philosophy dying? And what about the few women in philosophy? Will Wilkinson reflects on Camille Paglia’s worries. 8/3 Martin Peretz reviews Ronald and Allis Radosh’s Red Star Over Hollywood: The Film Colony's Long Romance with the Left. 8/2 A profile of Shawn Klein, co-editor of Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. 8/1 Julie Burchill explains, quite firmly, why we should not tolerate the Islamofascists. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) 7/30 The politics of education: Lisa Snell of the Reason Foundation’s web log: Education Weak. Mark Lerner has a brief item on an increase in educational “looping”, in which a teacher stays with a group of students for two years. And check out this alternative school focusing on independence and choice. 7/29 Cuba, North Korea — and Canada — are the only countries in the world that ban private health insurance. The Wall Street Journal reflects on a recent challenge in the Canadian Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Mark Steyn is of two minds about the Canadian socialized and American mixed healthcare systems. 7/28 At the Academy of Achievement, an interview with Fred Smith, founder of FedEx. 7/27 In Reason: Melinda Ammann reviews Robert Guest’s The Shackled Continent: bad politics keeps Africa poor. (Via Will Wilkinson.) 7/26 Jason Pappas has a good series of reflections on Islam, Islamism, terrorism, and the multi-cultural and anti-American Left. 7/25 Safety rules that kill: David Mayer on how the Eastland disaster killed more passengers than the Titanic disaster did. 7/23 After a trip to western New York, Michael of the Blowhards itemizes the core beliefs of artsy culture. 7/22 Rebutting an article by Paul Krugman on trade with China, Alex Tabarrok explains the harmony of interests among producing nations. And at Café Hayek, Russell Roberts evaluates the sales-often and low-price-everyday strategies. 7/21 Evan Coyne Maloney offers another example of politicized education. And CNN reports on a tricky case in which an African-American isn’t the politically correct kind of African-American. 7/20 On this day in 1969, my brother was two weeks old and Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Here are NASA’s page devoted to the Apollo 11 landing and an excerpt from Ayn Rand’s classic essay written after she viewed the July 16 launch from Cape Kennedy. 7/19 Nick Cohen’s personal and perceptive review of Paul Berman’s important book, Terrorism and Liberalism. 7/18 Solving poverty in Africa: Erich Wiedemann and Thilo Thielke on how some parts of Africa are choking on aid money. And Max Boot suggests, only partly tongue-in-cheek, that sending mercenaries would be more helpful than music concerts. Update: Johan Norberg straightens the record about why Zambia is still poor. 7/16 Paula Fredriksen reviews James O’Donnell’s new biography of Augustine. (Thanks to Virginia for the link.) 7/15 Julian Baggini playfully plugs for David Hume as the greatest philosopher of all time. Methinks not. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) 7/14 Mohammed Bouyeri has confessed to killing Theo Van Gogh and to feeling absolutely nothing for non-believers. Christopher Hitchens sees the London bombings starkly: It’s civilization versus barbarism. 7/13 An inspiring speech to Stanford’s graduates by Apple co-founder Steven Jobs. (Via TomPalmer.com.) 7/12 Friedrich of the Blowhards on the culture shift among American art critics in the second half of the nineteenth century. 7/8 The dessicated philosophy and anti-human politics of Jean-Paul Sartre. (Via Arts and Letters Daily.) Light and pithy commentary; Always with a poem that’s very Charming.7/6 David Boaz’s encouraging list of liberty-themed Hollywood movies. (Via The Atlasphere.) 7/5 Margaret Soltan ruminates upon nihilism, comedy, and Woody Allen's tragic sense of life. 7/2 David Mayer explains why the United States is a republic, not a democracy, and provides an overview of the charged decades leading up to the American Revolution. 7/1 Reason Papers has a newly-designed website and archives worth browsing. 6/30 David V. Cohn’s founders of biomedical science web site. 6/29 Hong Zhang’s first-hand account of Beijing immediately before and after Tiananmen Square. And check out this inspiring poster, One Man. 6/27 Michael Newberry discusses Kant’s aesthetics and reviews sculptor Stuart Mark Feldman’s The Future Is in Our Hands. And here are Brett Holverstott’s fine photographs of the sculpture group in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 6/25 The Supreme Court delivers strike two against liberty and property rights: first was the Raich decision and now Kelo. A round-up of news and commentary: Yahoo News, Edward Hudgins, George Will, Don Boudreaux, Tyler Cowen, and a number of posts by Todd Zywicki and others at The Volokh Conspiracy. To fight back, check out the The Castle Coalition, a project of The Institute for Justice. (Thanks to Virginia and Douglas.) Update: Logan Darrow Clements wants to build a socially-useful hotel on Justice Souter’s private property. 6/24 A fine economics group web log: Division of Labor. 6/23 Postmodernist Michel Foucault’s irresponsible infatuation with Iranian Islamism. 6/22 At Dissecting Leftism, John Ray on one of the sources of Mussolini’s fascism: the American Progressives of the early 20th century. Also see these two fascinating Hitler and Mussolini posters. 6/20 Arnold Kling explains why libertarians and collectivists usually talk past each other. 6/17 The New Individualist has several takes on the debate over Social Security privatization: Ed Hudgins stresses the moral themes of autonomy and independence; Frank Bubb focuses on a potential Trojan Horse of partial privatization; David Kelley offers an essentialized history of Social Security. And economist George Reisman looks at the sorry economic story and offers a solution. 6/16 Philosopher of mathematics Rebecca Goldstein’s interview on Kurt Gödel’s theorem and his and Einstein’s realism. Here is her new book, Incompleteness. 6/15 King Banaian discusses a recent interview with Milton Friedman on education and has some related links. 6/14 James D. Miller responds to those who criticize WalMart for charging low prices and hiring unskilled workers. 6/13 Winds of Change provides a pointed overview of the disaster that is contemporary Zimbabwe. And Cao has a justly unflattering assessment of the U.N.’s track record in peacekeeping. 6/11 After his wife’s stroke, David Asman learns the differences between medical care in Britain and in the USA. 6/10 InstaPunk’s wry relating of the travails of doing business in the Garden State. 6/9 Mao: sadist and mass-killer. Michael Yahuda reviews a new book by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) 6/8 A round-up of reactions to the Supreme Court’s terrible Raich decision: Citizens Against Government Waste, Radley Balko, and a variety of legal commentators on June 6 at ScotusBlog.com. Orin Kerr offers a small comfort. Meanwhile, my native country, Canada, has legalized medical marijuana. 6/7 Outstanding engineering: Jeff Perren tells the dramatic story of the building of the new Hong Kong airport. Worth reading again is engineering professor Gordon Stubley’s classic case studies of integrity – one failure causing the Challenger disaster, and one success preserving the Citibank building in Manhattan. And here are some fun statistics about the world’s 20 busiest airports. 6/6 Cato’s Alan Reynolds has some straight thinking about income inequality. And Will Wilkinson does not care much about all the fuss about income mobility. 6/4 Peter Berkowitz reviews Donald Downs’s important new book on free speech on campus. 6/3 Who were the greatest killers of the twentieth century? Hitler? Stalin? Mao? Maybe not. (Thanks to Peter for the link.) And on the numbers of people killed intentionally by authoritarian governments, political scientist R. J. Rummel has the staggering statistics. 6/2 George Ayittey of The Free Africa Foundation ponders the reasons for Africa’s economic woes and its future prospects. And Frank Vorhies explains the lessons of colonialism and agriculture in Africa. 6/1 Business advice and connections: The Long Tail (Thanks to Joe for the link.) And: Do you have a great business idea but need some engineering or technical advice? BusinessPundit.com links to an organization that connects entrepreneurs with free technical advice. Or are you looking to outsource a job that’s part of a bigger project you’re working on? Guru.com is like eBay for services, as my friend Eric put it, letting providers bid on your job. 5/30 Apostate from Islam: Azam Kamguian argues that we need to export the Enlightenment to the East. 5/24 Two important essays by philosopher David Kelley on morality and freedom: Altruism and Capitalism and Two Strains of Altruism. (Thanks to Peter for the reminder.) 5/23 The Pacific Research Center has released its 2005 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators. And check out the Kyoto Count Up at JunkScience.com. 5/21 It’s the height of spring, and David Mayer writes in defense of sex. In the heat of the moment, however, you will want to have your lawyer present to help you distinguish a lack of reasonable foreseeability from wanton negligence: Ouch. (Via Overlawyered.com.) 5/20 For clear thinkers and logic geeks alike: The Adam Smith Institute has a useful round-up and discussion of common logical fallacies. 5/19 At Butterflies and Wheels, a fun quiz to test your moral principles in some, umm, odd situations. (Via Marginal Revolution.) 5/18 At the Intersection of Anthropology and Culture has a fine list of readings: Be it resolved: that commercial culture is compromised culture. I’m with Tyler Cowen on this one. 5/17 How much tsunami aid has actually been delivered and put to use? Mark Steyn is keeping track. Update: Peter Cresswell has further thoughts. 5/16 Get rid of tenure for college professors? Victor Davis Hanson has a point. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link. Note: Requires login at the Chicago Tribune site.) 5/14 Andy Borowitz suggests ten new hoaxes to pull for fun and entertainment in contemporary culture. (Via A&L Daily.) 5/13 Walter Williams on the increasing number of millionaires in America. 5/12 Why don’t people have more sex? It’s all about search costs and marginal utilities. With sweet talk like that, perhaps we now know why economists don’t have more sex. Will Wilkinson probes further. And worth revisiting is this summary of data on sex, education, marriage, money, and happiness. 5/11 We’ve seen public education’s results. We’ve seen public housing’s results. How about public medicine? The U.A.W. uses General Motors to push toward socialized medicine. And the Econoclast reports an increase in medical tourism by Canadians, given Canada’s lengthy waiting lists for many surgical procedures. As P. J. O’Rourke put it pithily, “If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it’s free.” Update: Alex Tabarrok links to a report on outsourcing of medical experts from the U.S. to India and Thailand. 5/10 Johan Norberg points out that Arabs generally do very well educationally and financially—outside Arab countries, and draws the conclusion that in Arab countries Islam is not to blame, bad politics is. 5/9 In Forbes: the ten laws of business success in the modern world. I wonder why “Always use PowerPoint” is not on the list. Which leads to the question: What if Abraham Lincoln had delivered his Gettysburg Address with PowerPoint? 5/7 The Academy of Achievement: Profiles of contemporaries who have done extraordinary things in business, art, the sciences, sports, and other endeavors. 5/6 In The Wall Street Journal, the excellent Thomas Sowell summarizes the theme of his latest book on race and culture, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. 5/5 Artist Michael Newberry’s latest Studio Update, including an amazing pencil study for his work-in-progress, Kimberly. Also check out his latest available works at RomanticRealism.net. 5/4 In Reason, Steven Vincent on archaeology, incentives, and property rights. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) And for keeping up with the excavations at Troy, here is the website for Project Troia. 5/3 Genetically-modified foods have been around for ten years. Peter Cresswell has some thoughts on their anniversary and some good, related links. And worth reading again is ABetterEarth.org’s profile of the great Norman Borlaug. 5/2 Catallarchy: A lively and provocative economics group blog. 4/30 Mathematical brilliance, hard work, and the serendipity of cultural networks combine to solve a priceless tapestry puzzle. And here is a solid piece of applied math for business professionals on calculating the sometimes-awesome economic value of networks. (Thanks to Joe for the link.) 4/29 The web log of philosopher Irfan Khawaja of The College of New Jersey, where I taught for two years back in the early 1990s. Khawaja is also the new Executive Director of the worthy Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society. 4/28 Why the F.D.A.’s regulations kill more people than they save. Check out DB’s rants on government-run health care. And for some good news: stem cells cure dog. 4/27 Law professor Larry Ribstein’s essay on Hollywood’s anti-capitalist bias. (Note: PDF format. Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) 4/26 Historian Ralph Raico on authentic liberalism in 19th century German thought. (Thanks to Brent for the link.) 4/25 Lisa Snell of the Reason Public Policy Institute wonders why the math abilities of America 15-year olds lag behind those of comparable students in other developed nations. Here is the Carnival of Education, a round-up of blog postings on education. And keep up with Mark Lerner, who often blogs on education issues from the D. C. area. 4/23 William Shakespeare died on this day in 1616. Here are the complete plays of Shakespeare online. And at the Blowhards’: What Renaissance urban demographics can teach us about Romeo and Juliet. 4/22 Robert Bidinotto explains the psychology of conspiracy theories. And worth reading again is this answer to the question: Are the Masons secretly running the universe? 4/21 In The New York Times Magazine, a mostly-fine discussion of the Constitution in Exile movement, with profiles of luminaries Richard Epstein, Chip Mellor, Michael Greve, and Randy Barnett. (Note: requires login at the NYT’s site.) Barnett is also the winner of this year’s Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty for his fine book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty. 4/20 Actress and leftist activist Jane Fonda has published her controversial memoirs. Columnist Michelle Malkin diagnoses a case of Aging Celebrity Hippie Syndrome. (Thanks to Erika for the link.) And lawyer Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer’s book, Aid and Comfort: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam, indicts Fonda for her Vietnam activities. 4/19 The Art Renewal Center announces the winners of its second annual International ARC Salon Competition. 4/18 Peter Cresswell’s ironically-named blog, Not PC, which is, in fact, entirely P.C. 4/16 The future of the environmental movements? Stewart Brand makes some bold predictions. Here is a good source for environmental data and indicators. And here is Charles Krauthammer’s classic sane, humanistic approach to environmental values. (Thanks to Bob H. for the latter suggestion.) 4/15 The Objectivist Center’s Ed Hudgins on April 15 as a day of moral shame. And in the Washington Times, Hudgins argues that the tax code encourages predatory pocket-picking. Update: This year, Tax Freedom Day is April 17. Aaarrgghhhhhh. 4/14 Photographs of The Future Is In Our Hands, a masterpiece of sculpture in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Thanks to Brett for the link.) Here is the website of the sculptor, Stuart Mark Feldman. 4/13 Today is Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. Historian David Mayer on remembering Jefferson. And here are Jefferson’s official White House biography and the website for his home at Monticello. 4/12 From Delhi, India: The Liberty Institute’s profile of Ayn Rand. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) And Bettina Greaves reviews the latest issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies and asks: To what extent was Rand a Misesian? 4/11 Reflecting upon the death of Pope John Paul II, Lindsay Perigo launches a spirited discussion of what Objectivists can learn from Catholics. 4/9 Alvaro Vargas Llosa on the individualist legacy in Latin America. 4/8 Canada versus free speech: When an idiot makes anti-Semitic remarks, what should one do – laugh at him, sneer at him, ignore him, or put him on trial for hate crimes? 4/7 A writer who would have been: Hong Zhang’s touching vignette of a literary soul growing up during communist China’s stifling Cultural Revolution. And a sobering reminiscence of life under communism in Albania – and measures taken against that dangerous capitalist weapon, the saxophone. 4/6 The Institute for Liberal Values, based in New Zealand, has a fine archive of articles worth browsing. 4/4 Gene Callahan's review of Jared Diamond's geography-is-destiny theory of history. Philosopher Roderick Long takes on Diamond’s interpretation of the Icelandic minimal-government era. And here is my introduction to the fascinating field of philosophy of history. 4/2 Keeping up with Junk Science. 4/1 At the Independent Institute, Donald Downs summarizes attacks on free speech from both left and right. And here is a link to Professor Downs’s Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, published last year by Cambridge. 3/31 At PointofLaw.com, a valuable collection of to-the-point columns on the current state of the U. S. litigation system. 3/30 Are we running out of oil? Two arguments conclude “No” – one from Robert Bradley, Jr. at the Institute for Energy Research and one from M. A. Adelman at the Cato Institute. (Note: Both are in PDF format.) 3/29 Wired magazine profiles Jimmy Wales, the founder of the intriguing Wikipedia. (Via The Atlasphere.) 3/28 Non-bleeding-heart libertarian Bryan Caplan suggests conditional welfare for the poor: Let them get roommates. (Via Marginal Revolution.) 3/26 A debate on free speech by law professors Geoffrey Stone and Eugene Volokh. (Via InstaPundit.com.) And worth ridiculing is a pending Florida law to muzzle professors who say things that hurt students’ feelings. 3/25 The Manhattan Institute’s profile of the prolific Walter Olson. And definitely keep up with Olson’s timely, infuriating, amusing, and occasionally bizarre Overlawyered.com. 3/24 Der Spiegel reviews (in English) a new book on the role of the welfare state in promoting Hitler's National Socialism. (Via Tom Palmer.) 3/23 An excellent online library of constitutional classics. 3/22 Dr. Edward Hudgins on confronting deeply savage cultures. 3/21 In this first week of spring, here is art historian Cristina Paolicchi’s telling of the legends of Demeter and Persephone. 3/19 Two fine, scholarly books on Nietzsche: Lester Hunt’s Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue, and R. Kevin Hill’s Nietzsche’s Critiques. Professor Hunt of the University of Wisconsin interprets and applies Nietzsche as a virtue ethicist, while Professor Hill of Portland State University explores Nietzsche’s Kantian roots. 3/18 The excellent Walter E. Williams’s website. Check out his backlist of syndicated columns. 3/17 Historian Keith Windschuttle reviews Gertrude Himmelfarb’s Roads to Modernity. Windschuttle is the author of the fine book The Killing of History. 3/16 A group web log tracking and arguing about developments in the intellectually rich field of Philosophy of Biology. And on the still-relevant grandfather of philosophy of biology, check out James Lennox’s well-reviewed Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology, published by Cambridge in 2000. 3/15 Donald Pittenger on the education of an artist in the 1950s. And The Foundation for the Advancement of Art has re-focused its website to provide links to articles and essays on the divide between representational and postmodern art. 3/14 Frank Furedi of the University of Kent vigorously defends academic freedom against the new inquisitors. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is relentless in seeking out and confronting the worst violators. Jim Peron of New Zealand’s Institute for Liberal Values surveys hate speech around the world. And here is my analysis of the postmodern arguments behind many speech codes. 3/12 Two articles on the shortage of non-whiny female intellectuals. Heather MacDonald has little patience for feminist hysterics and Ilana Mercer wonders about the number of female Nobel Prize winners. 3/11 Who are the world’s top ten most brutal dictators this year? (Via JohanNorberg.net.) 3/10 I am re-reading Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman’s hilarious and inspiring memoirs and reflections on the scientific enterprise: “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious Character. And here is science writer James Gleick’s outstanding biography: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard P. Feynman. 3/9 Distributed Proofreaders: A worthy project to make more classic writings available online. 3/8 How Austrian is your economics? Take the Mises Institute’s quiz. 3/7 While we’re in ancient Rome: For the next several generations of Roman caesars, make it a priority to watch or re-watch the outstanding BBC series, I, Claudius. The movie series I, Claudius was based on Robert Graves’s novel of the same name, which draws heavily from second-century Roman historian Suetonius’ frank and racy portraits in The Twelve Caesars. 3/5 I watched and enjoyed the 2002 version of Julius Caesar —especially the riveting scene of the first meeting of Sulla and the young Julius Caesar. For another fictional version of the mature Caesar’s life and thinking, Thornton Wilder’s epistolary novel The Ides of March is very good. 3/4 Economist George Reisman on why we should kill the prescription drug benefit. And here is a link to a site with Dr. Reisman’s books and essays on capitalism and free markets. 3/3 Why Ayn Rand Matters, by Elaine Sternberg, a research fellow at the University of Leeds. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) Check out Dr. Sternberg’s Just Business: Business Ethics in Action, published by Oxford University Press. And Johan Norberg reports on the success of the new Swedish translation of Atlas Shrugged. 3/2 The A.C.L.U.’s amusing-yet-chilling video projecting threats to privacy from the combination of government paternalism and information technology. (Thanks to Doug R. for the link.) 3/1 The Oscar goes to … . Robert Bidinotto’s predictions and mini-reviews of this year’s Oscar-nominated films. Good calls, Robert, given the actual winners. 2/28 Are dog owners evil? George Cordero’s bite is probably as fierce as his bark. Worth reading again is Shawn Klein on the moral status of animals. And here is philosopher Tibor Machan’s controversial Putting Humans First. 2/26 Wired magazine says it’s time to re-think nuclear power. And worth checking out is energy researcher Rob Bradley’s book: Energy: The Master Resource. 2/25 In The Nation, a fine article on the deism and atheism of America’s Founding Fathers. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) And for a to-the-point take on an age-old question, here’s the God F.A.Q. page. 2/24 Law professor Larry Ribstein lists and categorizes dozens of films and the moral messages they send about business and capitalism. And here are the top box-office-grossing movies of all time. (Via The Brutality of Reason.) 2/23 The excellent F.I.R.E. has taken up the cause of a student who kicked out of college for daring to write a paper expressing an unpopular opinion. 2/22 Four lively web logs worth checking out: Mark Lerner, Robert Bidinotto, Atlas Shrugged, and Jason Pappas. 2/21 John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis debunks Five Myths of Socialized Medicine. And John Enright captures poetically the economics of high medical costs. 2/18 1859: The Year in Publishing. In Modern and Postmodern, an Honors course I am co-teaching with chemistry professor Fred Hadley, we have read Wordsworth, Tocqueville, Marx and Engels, Bakunin, Darwin – and we are now starting John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. Both On Liberty and Origin of Species were published in 1859, which is also the year that Tocqueville died. Also published in 1859 were Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Hospitals, and Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help. (An excellent year to belong to The Book-of-the-Month Club.) 2/17 The Adam Smith Institute web log: classically liberal commentary from a major British free market think tank. Includes links to online editions of Smith’s major works, including The Wealth of Nations. 2/16 University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos explains the disgusting Ward Churchill affair as a lesson on affirmative action. Update: The Rocky Mountain News reports on Churchill’s odd route to tenure. 2/15 Isabel Paterson and Ayn Rand had an intellectually fruitful and complicated relationship. Stephen Cox has published his book on Isabel Paterson: The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America. Brian Doherty has a review of Cox’s book. And Alec Mouhibian asks, provocatively, Who’s afraid of Ayn Rand? 2/14 In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nobel Laureate in Physics Robert Laughlin on reductionism and emergentism in causal systems. (Via Marginal Revolution.) 2/12 Reason’s Hit and Run excerpts an interview with environmental scientist Bjorn Lomborg and links to articles on the controversy over doomster environmentalism he has generated. 2/10 Fruits of the Enlightenment: the doubling of life expectancies since 1850. 2/9 Law and History professor David Mayer’s web log. Here are a thought-filled interview with Dr. Mayer in Navigator and the Amazon link to his fine book, The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson. 2/8 Postmodern architect Philip Johnson has died. Art critic Roger Kimball, architect Peter Cresswell, and columnist Anne Applebaum assess his career and significance. Cresswell follows up with a list of recommended reading: So You Want to Study Architecture? 2/7 Johan Norberg asks: When a Bozo is inconsistent, does economic self interest explain the inconsistency? 2/5 Has the American experiment run its course? Victor Davis Hanson considers some arguments. 2/4 Roger Kimball on Hamilton College’s downward spiral into Left lunacy. And here are economics professor Meir Kohn’s refreshing remarks on political correctness, given while introducing Daniel Pipes for a talk at Dartmouth College. 2/3 In The American Lawyer, Tony Mauro’s profile of the excellent The Institute for Justice. (Via Instapundit.) IJ is currently appealing a case before the Ohio State Supreme Court to stop the city of Norwood from condemning a couple’s home in order to allow a developer to tear it down. 2/2 Today is 100 years since Ayn Rand’s birth. To celebrate the event, The Objectivist Center is holding a one-day conference in Washington, D.C. Signet has published centenary editions of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. In The Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman has a tribute to Rand’s enormous influence. And here is novelist Erika Holzer’s reminiscence of Rand’s choices for the cast of a movie version of Atlas Shrugged. Update: Arts and Letters Daily has a fine Ayn Rand at 100 collection, and Catallarchy has a round-up of comments on Rand by public intellectuals. 1/31 Update: Tim Blair has an excellent set of jubilant, cynical, and cautiously optimistic reactions to the Iraq elections. Time magazine has a brief photo-essay on the Iraq election. And a helpful round-up of lead-up-to-the-election news at The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. (Via The Volokh Conspiracy.) 1/30 Philosopher Robert Mayhew’s new book: The Female in Aristotle’s Biology. And required reading for students of Aristotle’s politics is Fred Miller’s classic study, Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle's Politics. 1/28 Gregg Easterbrook of The Brookings Institute asks: Does it matter which college you go to – or that you go to college? And at 2 Blowhards: What is a good college? 1/27 At the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Henry Miller explains why the FDA’s drug-approval process is dangerously cautious. And worth reading again is Steven Den Beste on how the Food and Drug Administration's incentive to be overly cautious increases human death and suffering. 1/26 Two more great men, while I’m on my Renaissance Florence kick: The Wikipedia entry on Lorenzo the Magnificent, republican and patron of philosophers and artists; and Adam Gopnik’s review of two new books on Leonardo da Vinci. 1/25 Forester Charles Tomlinson’s charming, wise, and delightfully idiosyncratic collection of essays: A View from My Stump. 1/24 Socialist economist Robert Heilbroner has died at age 85. David Boaz reflects on Heilbroner’s intellectual honesty. And worth reading again is historian Alan Kors’s essay pointing out that Western leftist intellectuals are still avoiding the moral lesson of socialism’s disastrous history. 1/22 Joseph Haydn – the man and his music: Terry Teachout and Michael von Blowhard offer their appreciations. 1/21 The Federal Reserve Bank sponsors an essay contest for high school juniors and seniors: Why are some countries so rich while others are so poor? (Thanks to Michael M. at SOLO for the link.) 1/20 The first issue of the New York University Journal of Law & Liberty is devoted to the work of Friedrich Hayek. And in case you have not seen this all-important challenge to Friedrich’s significance: Salma Hayek versus Friedrich Hayek. 1/19 “The Aviator”: Ed Hudgins reviews Martin Scorsese's film of Howard Hughes’s heroic-scale life. 1/18 Political scientist R. J. Rummel observes how the horrible events at Abu Ghraib were handled and identifies six signs of a healthy society. (Via Johan Norberg.) 1/17 Columnist Mark Steyn notes that when disaster strikes Muslim nations, the Great Satan helps out the most. And philosopher David Kelley has a new article on generosity and self interest. 1/15 Walter Donway reviews Paul Hollander’s Discontents: Postmodern & Postcommunist. 1/14 Artist Timothy Tyler’s new painting: The Deconstructionist. 1/13 At Space.com, the best images of 2004. 1/7 While it’s cold up here in the northland, warm up with philosopher Lester Hunt's fascinating account of his travels in Batopilas, Satebó, and the Sierra Tarahumara. 1/6 The ever-clear-and-insightful Walter Williams explains why the United States is fundamentally a republic rather than fundamentally a democracy. And philosopher David Schmidtz is thinking about equality and meritocracy. 1/5 William Beaty’s fun and fact-filled corrections to common mistakes in K-6 science textbooks. Great pictures at the NASA/JPL site for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. And here is a fascinating range of responses – from thoughtful to wishful to bizarrely speculative – to a provocative question put to the world’s leading scientists: What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it? (Via Arts and Letters Daily.) 1/4 In The New Yorker, Ian Buruma reports on how Theo van Gogh's murder has altered Dutch attitudes toward tolerance. (Via AndrewSullivan.com.) 1/3 Over-population or under-population? Philip Longman on the global baby bust. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) 1/1 Shall we make a national New Year’s Resolution? The Cato Institute’s Will Wilkinson on competing proposals to tame the out-of-control budget deficit. Archives: Worth Reading 2008, Worth Reading 2007, Worth Reading 2006, Worth Reading 2005, Worth Reading 2004, Worth Reading 2003. |
© Stephen Hicks
Yesterday I became an American citizen. Here are two documents that mean a great deal to me:
Is Red Lobster restaurant a tool of Satan? Clearly, 
"I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? And then people tell me about pilgrimages to some dank pesthole in a jungle where they go to do homage to a crumbling temple, to a leering stone monster with a pot belly, created by some leprous savage. Is it beauty and genius they want to see? Do they seek a sense of the sublime? Let them come to New York, stand on the shore of the Hudson, look and kneel. When I see the city from my window—no, I don't feel how small I am—but I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body." (Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead)
