This Wed., Dec. 2 (at 8pm) join us (at 266 Broome St. at Allen St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, one block south of the Delancey St. subway stop) for a debate on whether to get rid of our government-run space program:
•Greg Rehmke, lecturer and program director with the Economic Thinking project, argues [...]
About the time you read this, I should be reaching Norwich, CT on the astonishingly convenient NY-to-Foxwoods Casino Greyhound shuttle bus. A good cheap shuttle bus is as satisfying as teleportation, really. Thanksgiving dinner should also be satisfying.
I worry, though, about those who will not be feeling joy this holiday — I don’t mean because [...]
The things for which we’re thankful — like my superhuman girlfriend, Helen Rittelmeyer — help us deal with the things for which we’re not thankful, so let’s address some of those today.
First, let me note that director David Lynch is very grateful for something fairly stupid that he probably shouldn’t be grateful for: Transcendental Meditation, [...]
Interested in subletting an Upper East Side studio apartment that feels like a one-bedroom (nicely shaped) available from Dec. 24-Apr. 30 while its owner is out of town on an assignment?
(The fact that I’m asking is a reminder how far removed our real lives nowadays seem from the Utopia schemes I blogged about all [...]
ToddSeavey.com Book Selection of the Month (November 2009): Chronicles of the Lensmen, Vol. I by E.E. “Doc” Smith
Having recently abandoned comics and TV reception, the next step is to abandon sci-fi and fantasy novels (simply because life is short and there are other things in need of doing). I have arguably saved the goofiest [...]
The GQ article that quotes me (and fellow libertarians Michael Malice and Nick Gillespie) on the topic of Ayn Rand is now on newsstands, in their December issue — which happens to be a special Men of the Year edition with multiple covers. I have a copy of the Chris Pine version, and I figure [...]
Last night’s Upper Crust performance opened — as I predicted — with lead singer Lord Ben Dover greeting us as “Colonial” Williamsburg and soon progressed to a near bout of fisticuffs, since some cretin in the audience beaned Lord Ben Dover with a beverage container. The amazing thing is that even though the singer [...]
It’s nice to see the Onion-like site Op-Toons using Dungeons & Dragons to criticize socialized medicine, which may well be inflicted upon this already financially-collapsing nation as early as tomorrow. The Op-Toons spot is a reminder that more and more I find myself thinking that it’s neither philosophy nor policy that I need to master [...]
It’ll have been a music-filled couple of weeks, since (1) Helen and I saw the fine country band the Doc Marshalls, led by our friend Nick Beaudoing, down in Arlington a week ago Friday, (2) I saw Neko Case perform in NYC on Monday, (3) I’m seeing the Upper Crust tomorrow at 10pm at Public [...]
I still think Newt Gingrich is preferable to 99% of American politicians, and I’d be delighted to see the strategy he recommends here deployed, but nonetheless note his creepy, vague, focus-group-like use of the seemingly noble phrase “first principles” in these comments about RNC leader Michael Steele (noted by C-SPAN, SwampPolitics, and Drudge):
He is developing [...]
My real job consists of trying to disabuse people of unscientific beliefs, but as the hostess of the New York City Skeptics event I attended this past Saturday noted, the broader purpose of the skeptical movement is to encourage critical thinking in general, rather than just dividing the world into establishment science voices (including many [...]
This disaster-movie weekend just ended, with the world coming to an end in 2012, reminded me of my favorite Far Side cartoon, namely the one depicting the travails of a Crisis Clinic.
That in turn reminds me of an unfortunately-named institution just around the corner from the bar/restaurant where I host the monthly Manhattan Project social [...]
Having now seen 2012, which was everything I’d anticipated (stupid and spectacular), I’m reminded that a lot of us probably had the very same cultural artifact spring to mind the first time we heard stupid mystical predictions about the world ending in 2012: the Rush album 2112.
The Rush album, however, was not inspired by doomsday [...]
The first of my Newsmax columns on political media is up (from their November issue), and the second, I think, will be in the December issue on stands within the next couple weeks. Below, though, are seven items that didn’t make it into that short first column (and I really ought to start making my [...]
With 2012 out today, it might be a good time to read about changes in the tone of apocalypse tales over the past century, per this article from io9 pointed out to me by Charis Warchal.
And while we’re making charts of doomsday stories’ differences, feel free to use the short list below, which I’ve whipped [...]