10/30 Another minority group that needs protection: This Hallowe’en let’s all try to be a little more sensitive and not hurt witches’ feelings. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) And at a neo-pagan site, The Witches’ Voice,
a brief history of Samhain, commonly known as Hallowe’en.
10/29 Liberty magazine’s four perspectives on voting for president: Bill Bradford likes Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik; Stephen Cox gives two cheers for George Bush; Sally McCarthy defends John Kerry’s flip flops; and Douglas Casey decides to opt out. (Thanks to Alec at SOLO for the link.)
10/28 Now viewable online: the proceedings of The Cato Institute and The Objectivist Center’s conference in Washington: Lessons from the Iraq War: Reconciling Liberty and Security.
10/27 I am reading The Agony and The Ecstacy, Irving Stone’s compelling biographical novel of Michelangelo. And here is a good website devoted to Michelangelo’s art, life, and historical context.
10/26 Walter Olson and the latest zaniness from the world of crazy lawsuits.
10/25 In The Independent Review, sociologist Erich Weede shows how globalization creates prosperity and lessens incentives for war.
10/23 Law professor Richard Epstein’s remarks on the 35th anniversary of The Reason Foundation.
10/21 The Bastiat Prize for Journalism. Named for the great 19th century French defender of economic freedom and awarded each year to those journalists who advance significantly the cause of liberty: This year’s winners.
10/20 Now that both Foucault and Derrida have merged with the Big Word-Processing Program in the Sky: Justly unflattering assessments of Derrida’s significance in The New York Times and at
JohannHari.com. And here is my brief assessment on October 14th of reactions to Derrida at the Laissez-Faire web log. Finally: Please explain to me why post-modernist Michel Foucault praised the pre-modernist Iranian revolution. Update: Mark Goldblatt’s 2003 review of Derrida and Derrida. (Thanks to Michele for the link.)
10/19 The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is taking on repression and double standards at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
10/18 Evan Coyne Maloney’s documentary on the worsening of political correctness on three American campuses: Brainwashing 101.
10/16 The Alexander renaissance: Victor Davis Hanson reviews four recent books on Alexander the Great.
10/15 The Belmont Club on the kidnapping and beheading of Kenneth Bigley:
Are we in the West really committed to war with Islamic fascism? (Via InstaPundit.)
10/14 Michael of the 2 Blowhards speculates on the future of book publishing. And at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen is thinking about the high cost of textbooks.
10/13 Law professor David E. Bernstein on
the march of the Canadian Thought Police. More information about Professor Bernstein’s very fine book is here:
You Can’t Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws.
10/12 Roger Sandall on the continuing tragedy of
African socialism, tribal hatreds, and religious warfare. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.)
10/11 Greg Perkins gives an Objectivist answer to the philosophical question, “Why is there something and not nothing?” And Eyal Mozes takes up related questions about time and the Big Bang.
10/9 David R. Henderson’s excellent The Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics, first published in 1993, is now available online as The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
10/8 An election option for those who favor third-party candidates but who worry about throwing away their vote: the Condorcet method. (Thanks to Anja for the link.)
10/7 Forest manager Charles Tomlinson on
the healthy state of southern forests.
10/6 The always-worth-reading Johan Norberg.
10/5 Nikolai Getman’s paintings from the Soviet Gulag.
10/4 Natalie Angier has a God problem. (Thanks to Fred for the link.)
10/2 Screenwriter Thomas Keneally’s charming tale of how the story for Schindler’s List found him while he was shopping for a briefcase. And here is the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Films list.
10/1 Literary scholar Susan McCloskey asks:
Was Shakespeare a determinist? And in The Chronicle of Higher Education, a review of Stephen Greenblatt’s recent biography of Shakespeare.