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Month: August 2016

The center cannot hold

I recall, from the hallucinatory mists of childhood, much public advice to “worship every week at the church or synagogue of your choice.” Memory says there were televised PSAs. It was certainly common political and social “wisdom,” often spoken. Even then, even as a kid, I didn’t get it. I could not grasp this notion that everybody should simply believe in something — no matter what — and trot off obediently every week to confirm that belief — no matter what. This is nothing against religion. Nothing against churchgoing, for those so inclined. This is nothing against sincere belief in…

45 Comments

What the Second Amendment actually protects

At first this may seem like a standard (though well-done) lib-conserv historical analysis of the 2A. But the conclusion about what the Second actually protects? Now that’s a bit more intriguing. (Via Jerry the Geek) The Adaptive Curmudgeon has some related thoughts. Not directly about the 2A. But about the state of mind of a seemingly complacent populace.

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Help me out with a little blog “housekeeping”

We could use some relief after yesterday’s heavy (and eventually contentious to the point of closing comments) discussion. So I thought maybe you could help with a little blog “housekeeping.” Everybody seems to like the new blog (thank you). But I’m still tinkering with fine points of design. On two of those, I’d like to know your preferences. Organizing comments When Living Freedom was at BHM, comments were displayed strictly in chronological order. Here, we’ve got nesting comments. When you reply to another Commentariat member, your comment goes beneath theirs, slightly offset, instead of in the order it was posted.…

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Midweek links

  • Okay, in the great debate over victim disarmament, this is trivial. But still: “Get out of gun control, Apple.”
  • Uh oh. All those Loompanicsy books and articles about hiding stuff in your walls just got even more obsolete than they already were. Nifty app for home remodelers, though. (H/T MJR)
  • What a beautiful and unusual piece. Wendy McElroy talks about her experiences as a homeless teenager in “Try a Little Tenderness.” 13 Comments
  • Tuesday links

  • David Codrea writes the last word on Mike Vanderboegh.
  • Clearly, though, we haven’t heard the last word from Mike’s son Matt, who has just proposed a monkeywrenching use for all that hacked DNC contact info. May not be the best use of time, but it’s still interesting thinking.
  • Man, now there’s a headline for you: “The SEC has questions about a company with no revenue, $1,000 in the bank, and a $35 billion market cap.” 2 Comments
  • Debt and preparedness, part 1.75

    Okay, getting back to that rudely truncated reader survey on debt and preparedness … the survey company was kind enough to give me a couple of free days in which I could grab the accumulated results. Technically, I could have continued taking data after that, but I didn’t know when access would be cut off again (though I did learn I could pay $19.99 to go on surveying after that). So I made a pdf of the results and here you go: Debt and Preparedness Survey Results as of August 14, 2016. There’s more detail in the pdf, including graphs.…

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    Free book for Pacific Northwesterners, geology buffs, and lovers of scientific detective stories

    Via Firehand, I see that the book The Orphan Tsunami of 1700 is available free online via the U.S. Geological Survey.

    Though technically a research paper, it is in fact, a lively, well-illustrated account of how researchers in two countries gradually came to realize that Cascadia was never the seismically moderate region once imagined, but is in fact prone to some of the largest earthquakes possible — with accompanying tsunamis (that in this case helped solve the puzzle of the Cascadia subduction zone).

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    Doggies, pirates and of course let’s not forget the Village People

    Friend G. and I went to a dog-rescue fundraising event this weekend with her dog Annabelle. Ava, known as the Queen of Mean around other dogs, was not invited to attend. Mer Majesty stayed home, well attended by neighbor J. At the event, there were elegant purebreds … And hapless little mutt-pups. The woman trying to corral that rambunctious little guy is his foster mom. The pup, now 14 weeks old, came into rescue after an unconscionable jackass deliberately stomped on his leg. Abuse hasn’t stopped him from loving everybody and wanting to get into everything. (The foster mom said…

    3 Comments