Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Decades into the Left’s obsession with rewriting America’s history as a tale of unrelieved oppression, we’re still being told that the dark side of our national story is under-taught. It isn’t only the 1619 Project that has falsely flipped America’s narrative on its head. America’s story as an oppression narrative — and very little else … Read more
Frequently, when parents bring up concerns about LGBTQ children’s books, libraries cite the fact that these institutions are taxpayer-funded, and therefore can’t censor out any one ideology. So let’s take them at their word and test this claim by asking your library to display books that support a traditional, binary view of gender along with … Read more
A few days ago, 216 employees of Simon and Schuster, along with several thousand people from outside the trade publishing house, sent a petition to top executives of the company demanding that they stop publishing anyone who had anything to do with the Trump administration. Their rationale for making such a demand was that Trump’s … Read more
Why Americans Are Suckers for Quick Fixes From Psychologists From “power poses” to the self-esteem movement to implicit bias tests, we want to believe one small tweak will solve our problems, says Jesse Singal. “The goal of this book is to explain why we keep falling for the ideas that psychologists tell us … Read more
At 90 years of age, Sowell remains among the most prolific, influential, and penetrating minds of the past century. He understands the world in terms of trade-offs, incentives, constraints, systemic processes, feedback mechanisms, and human capital, an understanding developed by scrutinizing available data, considering human experience, and applying robust common sense. Sowell has written over … Read more
The Welsh writer and historian Norman Davies reflects in his magisterial book The Isles: A History that what sets the Irish apart from the British, and in particular the English, is that they retained their mythology. By this, Davies alludes to the fact that the Irish became Christian gradually and through a process of local … Read more
Half a century after its publication, Walker Percy’s ‘Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World’ may be more valuable today than ever before. For the contemporary reader, working through Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins is likely to induce something along the lines of déjà vu. While the … Read more
Back in the 1980s print media was booming. Life Magazine was still a major part of the Time Life brand. Its magazines sold in size amounts. And with the Reagan economy booming, major media logically searched for a “yes, but” when it came to an economy on the rise. Homelessness became a major issue. The … Read more
For Digital Rights Management reasons, all Kindle e-books are locked to Kindle hardware. These digital books use Amazon’s proprietary AZW file format, even though Kindle tablets also support MOBI files. That makes reading these e-books outside the Kindle bubble nearly impossible. However, you can convert them into PDFs. This guide shows you how to convert … Read more
A four-year university degree has become necessary for dignified work. Michael Sandel says that’s a huge mistake. . . . The Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel’s 10th book, The Tyranny of Merit, out this month from FSG, covers a lot of ground for a short text — especially in its sweeping second chapter, “A Brief … Read more
“Sex and the Unreal City: The Demolition of the Western Mind,” by Anthony Esolen, (Ignatius Press: July 2020), 209 pages, $17.95. A “rascal,” declared American satirist Ambrose Bierce, is “a fool considered under another aspect.” “Wit,” alternatively, is “the salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.” Prolific author … Read more
I would like to say a few things about forgiveness, because the mercy we practice in family life takes many forms. We encourage, we support, we carry one another. But the most necessary form of support is the ability to forgive. It’s not always easy to forgive, but it is necessary. If there is no … Read more
This week, I met a good friend of mine at a local restaurant, the first time we’d got together since before the onset of the pestilence. He is a Presbyterian pastor and a great lover of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It was, in fact, Tolkien who had introduced us to each other, in the … Read more
A few years ago Russell Maret, a New York artist, found himself puzzling over a question. In the 1920s and 1930s some preindustrial fonts were revived by Stanley Morison, a great British typographer. They transformed the quality of book-printing. But in the process of reviving them, Morison changed them. When he created the Poliphilus font … Read more
America’s forgotten communities — interview with Chris Arnade | VIEWPOINT Q&A with Chris Arnade on C-SPAN Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America Related PostsWhat About the Rotten Culture of the Rich? Chris Arnade on dignity and alienation in America’s working class