Enjoying the view from Limbo
All those self-described conservative or constitutionalist Americans who last week were condemning Donald Trump for “not doing enough” to combat the coronavirus outbreak — as if a friggin’ head of state can stop a highly contagious flu bug — are apparently about to get yet another real-life lesson in being careful what you wish for. Trump, a vainglorious ignoramus who (a) makes most...
A headline I just read: NY calls in national guard to help curb outbreak Seriously. And what is the national guard going to do? Round up viruses and take them to FEMA camps? Another headline I just read: US coronavirus cases pass 1000, at least 28 dead So now the media and the anonymous online experts can tell us that the American “mortality...
Today, I saw a headline on my MSN homepage: “Coronavirus keeps spreading as governments clamp down.” The headline linked to a New York Times (wouldn’t you know it?) item about the new draconian measures being implemented by the Italian government to basically prevent anyone from going anywhere out of his or her home without explicit government permission, in hopes of curtailing the coronavirus...
I have often said, of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, that the extent to which the Washington establishment now owns the souls of the American people may be measured by the fact that the supposed “two-party system” presented a choice between arguably the two worst human beings in the entire country, and almost every voter — a hundred and twenty-eight million adults —...
For decades, conservatives, libertarians, and just plain semi-reasonable homo sapiens have returned, with a combination of wonder and incredulity, to the question of how anyone, barring outright malevolence, could possibly continue to see socialism as in any way superior to, let alone more just than, the glorious success that is the American experiment in economic freedom and constitutionally limited government. Here’s the answer:...
I see that the head of the World Health Organization is quoted as saying of the current coronavirus outbreak, “This is not a drill.” Very helpful, I’m sure. Apparently, a lot of people out there thought this was a drill. That wisdom to one side, I shall carry on with my concluding unscientific postscript on the current Pandemic That Ate a Planet: A...
One of my least favorite things in the Sound of Music, which is itself one of my least favorite things in the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue, is the hokey and saccharine “My Favorite Things.” As performed in the 1965 film version by Julie Andrews, the thing is enough to send you screaming from the twentieth century with your hands over your ears. But...
Today I begin what will surely become a series of observations on the many dangerous psychological certainties running wild through our modern world, behind our age’s thin, self-congratulatory veils of relativism, nihilism, and skepticism. That is to say, we are an era of unquestioning true believers and romantic dogmatists, particularly with regard to our comforts and pleasures, and yet we continually market ourselves...
Jordan Peterson, Canadian professor of clinical psychology cum politically incorrect lightening rod cum global celebrity self-help guru, has, unfortunately, fallen prey to the demons of fame, self-importance, and the sense of irrational urgency — “it has to be me, it has to be now” — that attends the sudden explosion of unexpected praise and mass admiration in the life of a thoughtful but...
Over the past week, I have seen a number of alarmists online — some of them accredited scientific experts with big degrees and fancy job titles — comparing the current coronavirus pandemic to the “Spanish Flu” outbreak of 1918. One such scientific expert is Dr. Bryan Lewis, a professor at the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia, who has stated publicly (though...
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