On this, the eve of this blog’s Month of Feminism, let us pause for a moment to honor a manly man, James Tiberius Kirk, and a self-consciously girly man, Klaus Nomi.
There’s a marvelous and unexpected moment in the new trailer for next year’s J.J. Abrams Star Trek relaunch film when we hear a figure [...]
One reason I’m thankful that P.J. O’Rourke has not succumbed to his recently-revealed (treatable) ass cancer is that his ongoing existence allows him to write great articles like this very funny one summarizing the grim and frustrating situation of Republicans at this juncture in history.
Where do we go from here? I for one spend [...]
Many people have said Obama will inevitably disappoint people because he’s raised expectations for “change” so high. I don’t think that’s true. Despite everyone’s (healthy) pretense that the election had nothing to do with race, as soon as he won, professional broadcasters were openly weeping on-air over the fact that simply by electing [...]
I don’t know if I can get someone whose name I don’t know and who I have little hope of tracking down fired, but it may be worth a try. I’m talking about you, Person Who Cues Up the Commercials for Channel 11 During the Weeknight 7:30 Family Guy Reruns.
Someone’s clearly been leaning on a [...]
Today, I’m not only scheduled to do another PJTV appearance (here’s the previous one) but to have lunch with theatre guy/philosopher Richard Ryan and one of the John Stossel producers I used to work with, Kristi Kendall — with whose help I have made one more small but important mark on pop culture. I [...]
…is available exclusively at Best Buy, it’s worth noting, and I’m listening to it now.
Given that the very first song (the title track) really does seem to be a hymn to the potential for political change in China — and rhymes “masturbation” with “rule a nation” in a verse also derisively mentioning “your iron fist” [...]
•One more Helen thought left over after yesterday’s entry, and then I’ll stop going on about her: If, as she’s blogged, she likes conservatism, punk, religion, and (contra utilitarianism) suffering, I really must ask her what she thinks of notorious punk GG Allin (whose Wikipedia entry is one of the most disturbing things I’ve read).
As [...]
In 1997, I gave up on trying to keep track of what’s cool when even U2, who I had thought were not only cool (back in the 80s and early 90s, at least) but popular, had an ABC concert special and it got nearly the lowest ratings of any broadcast in the network’s history — [...]
Is it just me, or does the question asked by this trailer for Roland Emmerich’s upcoming doomsday movie, 2012, kind of make you think of the financial crisis?
Emmerich is responsible for such dopey films as the American Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, and 10,000 BC — but he’s got a brilliant viral marketing idea in [...]
While one of the two most famous “response” books to Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (all three books depicting a galactic war against a hive-mind insect race, with major sociological consequences), Ender’s Game, may or may not get turned into a movie, it now looks likely that something even better will happen: Ridley Scott, after working for [...]
The world is full of people with preferences not only about how to live but with tons of advice for others on how to live. Freedom means they can give all the advice they want, and you are free to ignore it — as long they don’t violate your property rights (including your right [...]
In case you didn’t see it, here’s something to read while awaiting (forgive me) more comments on how to define libertarianism: the New York Times’ attempt to write a front-page political epitaph for both Phil Gramm and deregulation. (But wait, you may ask, does Todd mean forgive him for the wait or for the [...]
Kerry Howley recommended this essay by Roderick Long and Charles Johnson as a more-thoughtful exploration of libertarianism-feminism parallels than some of us have supposedly offered.
I will just say as a broad reaction and tease of more-complex future discussion:
•Isn’t libertarianism’s great strength (such as it is) precisely that it does not attempt to smuggle some specific [...]
One question I hadn’t anticipated in yesterday’s PJTV interview about libertarians was whether libertarians have regional differences. It’s such a universalist (and predictable) philosophy, I said, that the answer is basically no, but I added that southern ones, like Texan Ron Paul (and the paleolibertarians at LewRockwell.com) may be more prone to right-wing [...]
All right, rather than bicker with libertarians or non-libertarians, I’ll just spend two weeks trying to define freedom, and then take a big holiday break — actually, an important “working holiday” — starting on Thanksgiving.
But I’ll kick it all off today with something on another website: If all goes according to plan, you’ll see me [...]