12/19 Merry Christmas!! There, I’ve said it. Lester Hunt wonders about the sometimes-odd linguistic maneuvers people make to avoid saying the C-word. And where can I buy the whole set on DVD? The Ten Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time. (Via Not PC, who reminds me of my reminder to touch base with this classic advice on how to survive the holiday party season.)
12/18 Fruits of the Enlightenment: a fascinating New Yorker piece on intensive care. (Thanks to Joe for the link.) Here is medical tourism: from the UK to Philippines for a kidney transplant. A related story on British physicians who are outsourcing themselves to India. And it’s time to free up the market for organs: one of Houston’s Clear Thinkers quotes from Sally Satel’s recent transplant experience.
12/17 What the Reformation can teach us about militant Islam:
“we see the same phenomenon: newly literate people claiming that the sacred text speaks for itself, and legitimates violence and repression.” Here is a website keeping tabs on the track record of the religion of peace.
And Rudy Rummel on why terrorism is not caused by poverty.
12/15 Immanuel Kant—Clearly Wrong for America:
(Thanks to Bob H., Bob M., and Douglas W. for the link.) Now I’m waiting for the Committee-to-Elect-Kant’s response.
12/12 
John Sullivan’s Note from the Aboveground is a strongly-written, take-no-prisoners argument for a striking conclusion: “competition for power leads totalitarian man inexorably toward a libertarian order.” Sullivan has a dark view of human nature, drawing on Hobbes, Rousseau, Nietzsche, and the Dostoevsky his title alludes to, holding that we are driven by zero-sum competitions for power and sometimes-desperate status seeking. For those of us with more optimistic views of human nature, Sullivan’s book is a good testing ground.
12/10 Absurd signs of the times: proposed regulations to solve the problem of sub-standard Santas. (Via BusinessPundit.) Up next: I predict legislation targeting the Easter-Bunny-Big-Candy Complex and those pervy Tooth Fairies who sneak into kids’ bedrooms at night.
12/9 Via Shawn Klein’s Philosophy Blog, two classic Monty Python philosophy skits: The Argument Clinic:
And the Soccer Match:
12/8 Not that I’m bitter or anything: college professors’ versus football coaches’ salaries. Sympathy donation checks accepted. Meanwhile, Martin Morse Wooster of the Capital Research Center reminds college donors to remember the Princeton University case.
12/7 Shall we join in the art-establishment’s enthusiasm for this two-year old art prodigy? Maybe not. And the Advice Goddess has some carefully chosen words for the art world’s oh-so-brave avante garde. (Via InstaPundit.)
12/6 Stephen Browne reviews a book on growing up behind the Iron Curtain. And who remembers whether the Nazis were socialists?
12/4 As the semester winds down, here is a rather accurate typology of irritating professors and, for getting caught up on movies over the semester break, here is a helpful list of rules of success for evil overlords.
12/1 A report on AOL Chairman Emeritus Ted Leonsis’s keynote address: “It’s the Greatest Time to Be an Entrepreneur”. And here’s a link to his PowerPoint presentation.