Monthly Archives: September 2011

In Memoriam

My impressions of that Friday night can be found here.

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The Eternal Appeal of the Apocalyptic (2)

Cross-posted earlier on the Corner: And while we’re on the topic of doom-mongering, at least one enormously wealthy, lavishly consuming, aristocratic idler has (reports the Daily Telegraph) a few dark words for the peons. Warning that the human race itself … Continue reading

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The Eternal Appeal of the Apocalyptic

Posted earlier on the Corner: It helps sell religions, movies, political agendas: Is there nothing that the prospect of apocalypse cannot do? Via AP: Abel Ferrara made his new film “4:44 Last Day on Earth” to serve as a wake-up … Continue reading

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Prayer doesn’t bring rain

If any believers want to hazard a guess as to why God decided to ignore Texans’ official three-day prayer session for rain, it would be illuminating.  Perhaps prayers are sent without any serious expectation that they will be answered (and … Continue reading

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Death by Commission

Amy Zegart,  a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, warns in the Los Angeles Times today that the U.S. sure as heck better not ratchet down its massive anti-terrorism efforts and its still-lingering fear rhetoric: The fight is nowhere close … Continue reading

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Magical Thinking Watch: Whiteboards in every classroom, a literate student in every home

Education technology does not seem to be solving our education woes.  So concludes this impressively-reported New York Times story on an Arizona school district that has spent $33 million since 2006 on the ed. establishment’s usual panaceas of “whiteboards,” laptops, and … Continue reading

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No roads for me but a new hospital for thee?

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s on-again, off-again suggestion that federal disaster relief for Hurrican Irene victims be offset by cuts elsewhere in the federal budget is a courageous precedent to set against further deficit spending.   And yet I wonder how … Continue reading

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Diversity at the NIH

Heather: Good post on the Columbia "diversity" rackets. On the general issue of racially-proportionate representation in this and that, I’ve done a couple of rounds with the NIH’s Office of Extramural Research at their website. The topic is the recent … Continue reading

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Columbia Prez. Lee Bollinger is accused of not valuing “diversity”

Occasionally, the racial victimology and extortion complex provides some entertaining and pleasant justice.  The accusation that Columbia University President Lee Bollinger is insufficiently committed to diversity, and, by implication, is racist, is one of those moments.  The departure of two … Continue reading

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There’s liberal, and liberal….

Most of the time I think that American liberal shift from that term to “progressive” is kind of strange, since everyone knows that progressive means liberal. But sometimes I wonder if one of its positive benefits is to dampen the … Continue reading

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