A reader passes along a Roger Ebert post on exactly the same topic. He made the decision I have: In the future I will avoid NSFW content in general, and label it when appropriate. What a long way around I’ve taken to say I apologize. Readers are now criticizing me for agreeing to the censorship … Continue reading Dissents Of The Day, Ctd
One of countless complaints from the in-tray: I am surprised and disappointed by your dismissiveness of the apparently widespread concern among the Dish community about the scrotum-shot as it relates to workplace propriety. The nannyism of corporate America is clearly not the issue and your mention of it effectively neutralized the “I’m sorry” that preceded … Continue reading Dissents Of The Day
It was good to see a true conservative celebrated at National Review for a change. His works endure as classics, especially “The Liberal Mind“. A deep thinker in the classical liberal tradition of Constant and de Tocqueville, he escaped the religious fanaticism and pseudo-conservatism that has come, alas, to define much of the American right. … Continue reading Kenneth Minogue, RIP
Emma Green traces back the word “innovator” to when it wasn’t such a positive buzzword: According to [Canadian historian Benoît Godin], innovation is the most late-blooming incarnation of previously used terms like imitation and invention. When “novation” first appeared in thirteenth century law texts as a term for renewing contracts, it wasn’t a term for creation … Continue reading When Innovation Was A Crime
Below are the many posts across which Andrew examines the motives of the Boston Marathon bombers, including debate with other bloggers as well as readers. Apr 22, 2013 @ 11:30am There are many nuances to the story of Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev – and there is no doubt that, like all human beings their acts … Continue reading Yes, Of Course It Was Jihad
There are many nuances to the story of Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev – and there is no doubt that, like all human beings their acts were, as my shrink often unhelpfully puts it, “multi-determined.” And there is a huge amount to learn from the stoner kid who got caught up in his brother’s religious fanaticism. … Continue reading Yes, Of Course It Was Jihad
Mara Hvistendahl argues that China isn't undergoing a sexual revolution; it's rediscovering its past:
Roughly half of the emperors of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 AD) kept young male lovers — a fact we know because imperial scribes dutifully recorded their affairs in works like Biographies of the Emperors’ Male Favorites. Such tolerance prevailed up through the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when artists produced sex scrolls depicting intercourse between men.
What changed?
It was only in the second half of the 19th century, as Western values seeped into China following the Opium Wars, that puritanism became more entrenched.
Keegan Hamilton is skeptical that marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington will seriously weaken Mexican cartels: Not only have the cartels diversified their portfolios (to borrow language applied to other multinational, multibillion dollar operations); the Mexican suppliers have already been edged out of the local markets in the two new green states. … The only way cartels … Continue reading Do The Cartels Need Cannabis?
In a history of steroids in sports, Greg Downey touches on the expansion of drugs into our daily lives: Using steroids because we no longer get the same erections we once had, or because a middle-aged man has less energy than he did at twenty (or a woman has less libido than considered ideal), is … Continue reading The Roid Paradox
Mitt won all 20 of the island's delegates on Sunday. The landslide victory in context:
Puerto Rico usually supports the well-known national frontrunner in primaries and caucuses by enormous margins. George Bush won 99 percent of the vote there in 1992, Bob Dole 98 percent in 1996, George W. Bush 94 percent in 2000, and John McCain 90 percent in 2000. Romney characteristically underperformed a bit but still won by a large landslide. Romney also enjoyed the support of Gov. Gov. Luis Fortuno, the commonwealth's most prominent Republican and a rising conservative star.
No doubt Catholics, as elsewhere, also found Santorum's prissy puritanism repellent. Michael Barone questions Santorum's island strategy:
