A representative government, however it starts, naturally expands. This is because the elected official's position is dependent on the majority of people voting for him. Therefore, he (or more often his party) is incentivized to offer them anything he can. If they have problems, he'll offer to solve them and try to make them as … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Subsidiarity and Democracy
Thought of the Day
Thought of the Day: On Breaking Laws
When you break the law, you do not in fact find chaos. You find older, stronger laws. This is true whether the law be of man, God, or nature. All created things that we know of are composite beings, formed of smaller natures set in a particular relation to each other. A car, for instance, … Continue reading Thought of the Day: On Breaking Laws
Thought of the Day: Contraceptive Charity
A...certain company I am familiar with strikes me as one of the more absurd examples of spending a lot of money on really useless junk. For instance, a couple weeks back they brought in football star Tom Brady to give a half-hour interview / pep-talk. All told, booking him must have cost the company a … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Contraceptive Charity
Thought of the Day: The Addams Family
I’ve started watching episodes of The Addams Family (the original series, naturally), and it seems to me that (ironically enough) this is probably one of the more traditionalist-minded sitcoms of all time. Peek under the kookiness and ookiness and what you have is a close-knit, loyal clan of aristocrats with a strong sense of tradition … Continue reading Thought of the Day: The Addams Family
Thought of the Day: Twitter
Progressives: "It's horrible that Twitter is now owned by a rich businessman!"Me: "Uh, who do you think owned it before?"
Thought of the Day: Spring Cleaning
It seems that, traditionally, the three days between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday are devoted to thoroughly cleaning the house in preparation for Easter. By coincidence, I actually spent most of the weekend cleaning up, including organizing my old paper files. As usual when I look back over the last few years of my life, … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Spring Cleaning
The Power of Nerves
I found a few videos showing just how effective standing your ground can be. Against an Elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8R50nvv5gc A gorilla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KujmrcF0ZxU And a bear (the second video then provides a an explanation of what's going on): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZqRbpb5gg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb2skHOryJI I'd have more to say here, but I'm currently in a cold-induced haze that leaves very little … Continue reading The Power of Nerves
Thought of the Day: Unbelievable Premises
Audiences will accept even the most ridiculous and unbelievable premises for a story, provided the storyteller knows what he's doing. For instance, the premise of Rear Window begins with "There's a man who doesn't want to marry Grace Kelly..."
Flotsam: Heir to the Empire and New Filmmaking
1. I'm dipping my toes into the 'Star Wars' expanded universe with Heir to the Empire. I'm about half-way through, and my impression so far is that it's a lot of fun and a genuinely pretty good extension of the story. There's a good sense that, yes, this is a logical scenario for 'what happens … Continue reading Flotsam: Heir to the Empire and New Filmmaking
Thought of the Day: IQ
Of course, the real IQ test is "Do you think intelligence is the sort of thing that can be adequately expressed with numbers?"
Serpent's Den 