Mike Huckabee makes me nervous. He gives me the willies — to wit, the fantods. Other than all the potential fun games we might have with his name — Huckaboom, Huckabust, and after the first great scandal of his administration, Huckagate — the whole thing gives me cold duck bumps all over. The first round …
What Are the Rules For?
“While reactionaries seek rules that would ban change and technocrats want rules that will control outcomes, dynamists look for rules that let people forge new bonds, invent new institutions, and find better ways of doing things” (Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies, p. 112).
A Little Cyber-Anarchy
“The Net not only managed to become big and important before any would-be regulator noticed, it evolved both software rules and social norms without official direction” (Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies, p. 36).
Entirely the Stuff of Legend
The Archbishop of Canterbury has informed us, just in time for Christmas, that the story of the three wise men was nothing more than a “legend.” HT: Frank Turk. Yes, I can see how the concept of “wise men” would seem to a churchman in Bishop Rowan’s environment to be entirely the stuff of legend. …
Stodgies and Planners
“Our new awareness of how dynamic the world really is has united two types of stasists who would have once been bitter enemies: reactionaries, whose central value is stability, and technocrats, who central value is control” (Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies, p. 7).
I Age Mine in the Basement, Like a Fine Wine
“It takes judgment to know when prejudice should be maintained and when abandoned. Prejudices are like friendships: they should be kept in good repair. Friends sometimes grow apart, and so sometimes should men from their prejudices; but friends often grows deeper with age and experience, and so should some prejudices. They are what give men …
Genesis of Domestic Violence
“It proved far easier in the event to remove sexual restraint than to overcome each individual’s desire for the exclusive sexual possession of another; and it takes little effort of the imagination, even if we would rather not make it, to understand the result.” (Theodore Dalrymple, In Praise of Prejudice, p. 108).
Glorify God and Play the Bass
A group of young men in our church have had themselves a band for a few years now, and they have just completed an album. They were kind enough to give me a copy, which I have listened through a couple times now. They are quite good — one of the band members, when he …
First Things First
“It is from social prejudice that one learns social virtue. Metaphysical thought and reflection come later” (Theodore Dalrymple, In Praise of Prejudice, p. 83).
A Special Form of Naivete
“One convention has been replaced by another. When I attended a bourgeois bohemian funeral in Paris recently, it was I who stood out in my dark suit and tie—so provincial, so conventional! Everyone else looked as if he or she had just popped into the cemetery after a bit of shopping in the local grocery …