Part three in a series. In an age and a culture dominated by scientism, the word “sample†tends to invoke the adjectival “representative,†and I cannot begin to imagine culling a meaningful representative sample from LIFE’s 400-plus issues. Still, it seems important to devote a few pages to what happened with LIFE and technology between the Fort Peck Dam and
Read moreOne of the great debates in the field of ethics centers around the thinking of Emmanuel Kant vs. the Utilitarians – most notably John Stuart Mill. To simplify, Kant’s philosophy suggests that the means justify the ends: we should always do the right thing and trust the results to work out for themselves. Mill, on the other hand, argued that
Read moreSome of you may have noticed that S&R has been down for the last hour or so, and we apologize. The Hillary Clinton/Rocky Balboa post we put up earlier caught fire on Digg and wound up on the top page there, which meant we were seeing more hits in an hour than we do most days. Short version: this level
Read moreMC Gravel is back with some decidedly trippy coverage of the military-industrial complex. Whatever else you may think about Mike Gravel – and there are many opinions to be had – he’s damned serious about his anti-war campaign and his critique of the state of American democracy at a time when not everyone is paying attention.
Read morePart two in a series. As I suggested in Part One, the messianic/utopian view of science and technology attributed to LIFE Magazine is consistent with an ideological bent that traces its lineage to the dawn of the Enlightenment in Europe. Francis Bacon’s highly influential New Atlantis, first published in 1626, recounts the narrator’s fictional shipwreck on the shores of Bensalem,
Read moreEric Haas and our friends over at the Rockridge Institute have a great Monday Weekly Workgroup feature that I encourage everybody to investigate. Today the subject is homeschooling, and that’s obviously one that’s going to matter to a lot of folks here. Several of us at S&R either are or were educators and it’s a topic our readers have demonstrated
Read moreWalt Whitman once said, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.” You could look it up. – Annie Savoy I’ll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand
Read morePart one in a series. During its 36-year run, LIFE Magazine traversed a period of technological innovation and peril unsurpassed in the recorded history of humanity. As the first issue was released in November of 1936, a resurgent Germany was constructing the most awesome war machine the world had yet seen, a development that literally threatened the very future of
Read moreHi folks, and welcome to SVR’s Halloween in March special. Today we’re going to have a look at things that just scare the bejeezus out of us. First up, Tiny Toons. I was never as big a fan of the series as some of my friends, but it did have its moments. The subtle homomegalomaniacism of Pinky & The Brain,
Read moreI’ve been hearing some ads lately on sports talk for the Fly Clear program, which allows you to speed through airport security. Seductive message, that – those security lines are a bitch, even now that the TSA has apparently concluded that I’m not a terrorist. It would damned sure be nice to be able to scoot through a special line
Read moreThe results of the latest S&R poll are in. The question was: What should happen to the FL and MI primary delegates? 1: Nothing; the states violated Dem rules (54) 2: Do-over primaries in both states (18) 3: Seat delegates from both (11) 4: Caucuses in both states (6) Each state should decide for itself (6) 6: Other (4) Our
Read moreMy old friend Adam Marsland has just released Daylight Kissing Night: Adam Marsland’s Greatest Hits, a greatest hits collection that draws from the best of both his solo and Cockeyed Ghost efforts, and boy howdy, am I jacked. If you don’t already know Adam’s music, let’s go ahead and get the triangulation out of the way. He’s kinda like a
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I guess there’s probably nothing Earth-shattering about revelations that FOX News “journalist” Sean Hannity was BFFs with a white supremacist. I mean, even if you don’t expect it, it’s not the sort of information that’s going to turn your whole worldview upside-down, you know? But the latest screed from Pat Buchanan almost buckles the knees. We don’t exactly look to
Read moreThe 2007 YouTube Video Award winners have been announced (see all the nominees here), and they certainly provide fodder for debate. Not that I think the criteria were necessarily about critical standards, of course, but still. For instance, have a look at the human tetris performance, which won the Creative category, and explain to me how it beats this.
Read moreThere’s not much that needs adding to this. And yeah, I’m going to be laughing over it for awhile. Thanks to Debby Levinson for calling this to our attention.
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