Since there seems to be an endless roster of people ready, willing, and able to scold President Obama for something that he didn't say -- including South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley at last night's Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida -- I thought I'd reproduce Mike Thompson's editorial cartoon rebuttal from last Friday's (24 August) ( Read more... )

I've said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating here: can we please, please have a moratorium on all championing of Ayn Rand's Objectivist "philosophy" in mainstream political discourse in this country?

I've read enough about her over the years to determine that I've no real interest in actually reading her "masterpieces" Atlas Shrugged and The ( Read more... )

Well, another bit of adolescent ignorance has been rudely dispelled.

Spotted a CD copy of Canadian hard rock/prog rock band Rush's (well, back when they were actually hard rock/prog rock; the only other album of theirs that I previously had, 1982's Signals, was more keyboard/synth rock) 2112 (1976) in an outlet of a Michigan-based big box discount ( Read more... )

I'd somehow managed to make it through life in blissful ignorance that a minor, tongue-in-cheek American "holiday" -- Groundhog Day -- is also the day of nativity of the High Priestess of Objectivism ( Read more... )

The online only Q&A section of The New Yorker for the 22 November 2004 issue, posted on Monday, 16 November 2004, has an interview with Jane Kramer about her article about "the French 'veil law,' which prohibits the display of religious symbols, including Islamic head coverings, in French public schools." Unfortunately, the article itself is not ( Read more... )