January 2002

Picturing the Blogosphere — The photo frenzy over at Samizdata inspired me to search my archives for a picture of myself wearing camouflage, shooting automatic weapons, releasing a falcon, or something equally manful. I came up empty handed. Instead, I offer myself at seventeen years wearing a dress and wig in the classic drag farce, [...]

Perry… So Very — Patriotic! Samizdata’s Perry de Havilland has some great thoughts on the meaning of patriotism for those of us with little allegiance to the notion of citizenship or the nation state. Recommended!

Nozick vs. Friedman: Apocryphal? — I just got this message from David Friedman that casts doubt on my secondhand story in the Nozick piece below:
“A philosopher friend once related a story of Nozick’s one-upping David Friedman in a discussion first of philosophy, then of economics, and finally of particle physics. ”
David Friedman:
It isn’t impossible, [...]

The Frigging Enlightenment — Conservatives take a “chinese menu” attitude toward the Enlightment, picking up threads they deem properly sanctified by heaven and history, while leaving out some of the best parts — like men’s clubs that celebrated the liberating power of regular wanking, as this Guardian review reveals.
Best line:
Forward- looking proponents of commerce, members [...]

The Far Left in A Nutshell — The antiglobalization postmodernist left is easy to understand if you see the position as a way to bring the following unstable convictions into equilibrium.
Old Left:
(1) Logic, reason and evidence (science) is good.
(2) Progress is good.
(3) Socialism is supported by logic, reason and evidence (it’s scientific!).
(4) Socialism is [...]

Snap, Crackle, Popper — It’s bizarre that glass-eating mercenary independent scholar, Rafe Champion, suggests that I am a “true believer” for not developing a critical preference for Popperianism. I’m tempted to say, “Right back at ya, buddy.” I grew up philsophically among Ayn Rand devotees, and I sense a similarity in conviction among the Randians [...]

Popper’s Champion — It is daunting indeed to debate a man named “Rafe Champion“, a name that evokes race car-driving secret agents, or a dangerous, seething, family-wrecking hunks from a “daytime drama”. Shows what you get when you disagree with the redoubtable Perry de Havilland: set upon by mercenary indedependent scholars named “Rafe Champion”.
Anyway, [...]

Bush as Boromir & The Shire as Anarchist Paradise — Debate has raged over at Andrew Sullivan about Bush’s counterpart in The Fellowship of the Rings. Having just completed the novel (I saw the movie, but in German, which I don’t speak), I am ready to make sagacious pronouncements!
Perry de Haviland has intelligently suggested [...]

Faith & Boyle-ing Nihilism — Dawson Jackson asserts that atheists have “faith that God absolutely does not exist.” This is a common claim, but it rests on an elementary confusion. Theists are ever making atheism into a strong positive conviction, like their own, but it is nothing of the sort. To believe that something exists [...]

I Don’t Really Want to be Having This Debate — But Christopher Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal also misses the distinction between total harm and net benefit. And in any case, my original point was only that questions of better require answers to questions of better for what. I have no clear idea whether the [...]

Fighting the Good War on Film – Check out Michael Valdez Moses’s fascinating Reason essay on the way the recent spate of films about WWII express unfulfilled boomer fantasies.

Goldberg Redux — Sadly, I learned of my mention by Goldberg, and of his further ramblings, only just as I was embarking on my holiday trip and I was unable to reply. Although the topic is rather stale, by blog standards, I do want to say a few things. And I will say them tomorrow.