Utopias Unlimited, III: Slaves of Duty
There is nothing wrong with duty, but, under the sinister influence of Immanuel Kant, the public morality of the 19th century was dangerously deontological, that is, duty-bound.
Author: Thomas Fleming
Jerks 01.B: Peter Pans
In learning how not to be a Jerk, the hardest part is to listen to criticism from friends and colleagues who may be bigger Jerks than we are.
The Weekly Dilemma: Mandated Vaccines
The Biden Administration has been running into roadblocks from federal judges and state governors who reject his sweeping program of compulsory vaccination. Is there a case that can be made for requiring federal government employees to be vaccinated?
Poems: Autumn
The thistledown’s flying, though the winds are all still,
On the green grass now lying, now mounting the hill
Brain-Teaser for Today
Question: What is the principal difference between President Biden and President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in the movie Idiocracy? I await your responses…..
The Myth of American Regional Cuisines
I take it as a given that the strength of local and regional cultures can be measured in part by their distinctive cuisines.
Jerks 01.A–National Stereoptyes
Every human society has had its share of offensive or annoying people: busybodies and bores, poseurs and bullies, cheapskates and check-grabbers, hypocrites and egomaniacs. You might even be able to define some societies by the offensive characters they tend to produce or by the qualities they find most offensive.
Go West, Men Young and Old: A Call for Help
Stephen has talked me into another pop culture series, this one on Western movies. Each of us will pick perhaps 6 movies to discuss, alternating classics chosen by me and post-1960 junk chosen by Stephen “the kid” Heiner. My entirely objective and non-judgmental language here anticipates the tenor of the discussion. The question for me, and perhaps also for Stephen, is: Which movies to pick?
A Common Place for Commonplaces: Pope on religion and government
This letter, from Alexander Pope to Francis Atterbury, Anglican Bishop of Rochester, is a coherent and dignified explanation of the poet’s determination to remain a Catholic, despite the renewed persecution of Catholics that took place following the Hanoverian succession. It breathes an air of sweet reason and political sanity that is desperately needed by Americans today, left and right, who seem to plunge into fanaticism on the slightest pretext.
