Monthly Archives: April 2010

Palin Inc.

Posted on April 26, 2010 by David Hume

New York Magazine has a long profile of Sarah Palin up right now. Its focus is more publicity, personality and celebrity, than politics. The profile reduces my probability that Palin will make a serious run (as opposed to a pro … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged | 40 Comments

Gray vs. Grayling

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

It’s worth spending some time on this devastating review by British philosopher John Gray of a new book by British philosopher A.C. Grayling. Neither man is a religious believer, but, after reading this review, it’s difficult not to think that … Continue reading →

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

Bad News Bear

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

If Comedy Central ever had a reputation for being an “edgy” channel it has lost it now. The story of the channel’s decision to, uh, tinker with episode 201 of South Park ought to be well known to many who … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Happy St. George’s (Yester)day!

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

For the most part, I’m no great fan of saints, a rum bunch of characters too often found teetering uneasily between insanity, hysteria and fable. England’s (and I use that national qualifier deliberately) St. George, however, is an exception, decent, brave, … Continue reading →

Posted in culture | Tagged | 2 Comments

Pataki for 2012?

Posted on April 19, 2010 by David Hume

Pataki for Prez?. He needs to flip to being pro-life very soon if he wants to be viable. The only reason I point to this is to illustrate how many names are going to emerge from the woodwork before 2011. … Continue reading →

Posted in politics | Tagged | 10 Comments

Okey Dokey

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

Via AP: LOUISVILLE, KY. (AP) – Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of about 16,000 attending an evangelical Christian women’s conference in Louisville Friday night. The Courier-Journal reports the 2008 Republican candidate for vice president mixed stories of personal struggles … Continue reading →

Posted in politics | Tagged | 8 Comments

Natural-Born Supernaturalists?

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

This WSJ piece by Michael Shermer is well worth a look. Some key extracts: According to Oxford University Press’s “World Christian Encyclopedia,” 84% of the world’s population belongs to some form of organized religion. That equals 5.7 billion people who … Continue reading →

Posted in Science & Faith | Tagged | 14 Comments

Cato on Mitt Romney

Posted on April 15, 2010 by David Hume

I talked about this possibility before. Don’t know if it has legs to push into the 2012 primary season. If it doesn’t knock Romney out, I believe we can take this as evidence of the power of establishment Republicanism despite … Continue reading →

Posted in politics | Tagged | 14 Comments

The Wrong Lesson

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Bradlaugh

Here’s a curious little sequence of video clips from BBC News. They show us how education goes in Finland. Then we get a clip of schooling in South Korea. And then the BBC’s Matt Frei interviews Arne Duncan, our federal … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, politics | 10 Comments

From the Glass House

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

The effort by some, mainly Islamic, nations to use the United Nations in an attempt to muzzle what they refer to as “defamation” of religion on the pretense that it constitutes some sort of infringement of the rights of the faithful … Continue reading →

Posted in politics | Tagged , , | 5 Comments