Comments on: Retro-Journal: End of an Era, Early 1989

by: Xine

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:04:58 +0000

Oh, Todd, I love it when you “Fix the Willie.”

by: Todd Seavey

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:26:15 +0000

Fixed the Willie passage above.

by: Funny

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:43:29 +0000

Rightists do it more by pretending or implying that all Democrat-leaning or left-leaning people support Communism and all redistribution of wealth…I’ve heard it all. (Although I guess you’ve heard frightfully similar complaints from the left toward your style o’ thinking.)

by: Dan Greenberg

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:52:41 +0000

I hate to make this thread less exciting, but it is arguably more correct to say that my dad, Paul Greenberg, *popularized* the term “Slick Willie.” Somewhere on the Net there is a column of his discussing the many possible origins of this remarkably apt name.

I think this webpage needs word-for-word reproductions of a few of Todd’s BDH columns — columns which were certainly the highlight of the BDH for me after I graduated from Brown but subscribed for a while longer.

by: Todd Seavey

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:02:50 +0000

Sheer madness to suggest this is a “rightist” problem and concede only parenthetically that it might be a leftist problem, though. The great danger of our epoch is the left attempting to institutionalize the “correct” amount of “charity” through forced redistribution — which is why come next Friday we’ll indeed learn about the best system for letting individuals work out their own, varied degrees and modes of involvement in this — and all areas of life.

by: Funny

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:33:05 +0000

In a world where everyone felt obliged to become, say, a social worker, would anyone become a Shakespeare, a daredevil, or a loner scientist?”

Um, Todd, why not do both?

A loner scientist can still volunteer on a Saturday or give to charity once he invents something great.

And what if everyone became Shakespeare and didn’t actually work to keep the world moving? Not the best example.

Anyway, there is no such thing as “everyone”, and that is where typical rightist (and of course, leftists do it to) reasoning becomes extremely faulty. Everyone is NOT going to be come a social worker, but everyone CAN try to minimize suffering in some way, and certainly try to make sure it doesn’t get worse.

In other words, moderation.

by: Brain

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:48:35 +0000

You know, that was one of the more frustrating things about roommates in college. They left you no privacy. If you had a girl with you, the code of honor allowed you to be left alone with her, but you couldn’t ask for a little quality alone time with just yourself.

:^\

by: Christopher

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:58:59 +0000

Brain,

You just need to read between the lines for the dirty stuff. For example:

“The hell with all of you — I’m going to go pursue this heroic project whether the rest of you like it or not, indeed, even if it upsets the rest of you, simply because I think it’s great”

is clearly about masturbation.

by: Clay

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:06:04 +0000

What is it about Ayn Rand that requires people to make accusations without giving any examples to justify their claims?

by: Brain

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:17:18 +0000

I’m looking forward the next journal entry, because so far it’s well into your second year and you haven’t so much as touched a tit or binge-drinked.