I have found that YouTube is something that can swallow lots of one’s time. Particularly given the “similar recommendations” column down the right-hand side. Recently, for example, I got sucked into the Sterek phenomena. The interest by fans in imagining that there is some budding (or actual) relationship between the characters Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale in [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Art, Blogging, Music, Popular culture, Saturday chit-chat
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Tagged Basketball Math Guy, Dylan O'Brien, films, James, music videos, Placebo, Sterek, Teen Wolf, The Boy Next Door, The Love Within, The Matrix, Tyler Hoechlin, Water, Wavey Davey, We Once Were Tide, YouTube
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April 26, 2013 – 10:30 am
The term that is. There seem to be few usages that are a greater barrier to clear thought and debate than free markets. Whether used as a term of sneering abuse to create straw-person arguments or as a slogan of the right and proper, it is ready-made to close minds and abstract away from the issues [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Law, Marriage, Middle east, Personal liberty, Public Policy, Racism, Religion, Taxation
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Tagged American Revolution, Arnold Kling, banking, barriers to entry, building design, Cato Institute, Clarence Thomas, David Boaz, Debt, discretion, discrimination, economic freedom, Equity, free markets, gains from trade, German Constitution, house design, Latin America, liability, logical fallacy, Political donations, rules v discretion, social mercantilism, time inconsistency, too big to fail, transaction costs, Wells Fargo, zoning laws
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Three priests and a former priest have said that they felt “vindicated” after Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien admitted sexual misconduct. The group had accused the senior Roman Catholic clergyman of “inappropriate behaviour” towards them in the 1980s. Catherine Deveney, the journalist who broke the story in The Observer, said she had spoken to the four [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Britain, Fark!, Funnies, Popular culture, Religion, scotland, Society
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Tagged archbishop of glasgow, archbishop of st andrews and edinburgh, cardinal keith o'brien, cardinal tartaglia, homosexuality, Roman Catholic Church
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February 13, 2013 – 9:15 am
Not that this is a startling revelation. Growing up, I used to love vampire movies. After all, where else could you see guys hug each other, throw their head back with intense feeling then climax with their eyes rolling back in their heads? And, if you gave them this experience, they went on and shared [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Art, Popular culture
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Tagged Anne Rice, Brad Pitt, Charlaine Harris, Corey Haim, films, Jason Patric, Joss Whedon, Keifer Sutherland, Kirsten Dunst, muppets, Nelsan Ellis, roman polanski, shonen ai, Tom Cruise, vampires
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January 16, 2013 – 9:30 am
Conservative humourist P J O’Rourke once observed, after flying over West and East Germany, that one should probably try to avoid public policy mistakes you can see from 20,000 feet up. Then there are public policy mistakes one can see from orbit. The two Germanys and the two Koreas constituted natural public policy experiments. Take [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Politics, Public Policy, Society, Technology
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Tagged Botswana, Castro regime, Chiang Kai-shek, china, CPC, Cuba, cult of personality, DPP, East Germany, hyperinflation, Ian Smith, KMT, Latin America, legitimacy, Mao Zedong, Nelson Mandela, North America, north korea, P J O'Rourke, property rights, Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe, south korea, Taiwan, West Germany, Xavier Marquez, Zimbabwe
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January 10, 2013 – 9:30 am
The further back you can look, the further forward you are likely to see. Winston Churchill. With the release of the first film of The Hobbit trilogy, An Unexpected Journey, the blogosphere is rife with Middle Earth allusions. My favourite is Frances Woolley’s wonderful post (with some great comments) The Macroeconomics of Middle Earth, though [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Blogging, Economics, England, Environment, History, Law, Literature, Marriage, Politics, Popular culture, Public Policy, Religion, Society, Technology, Welfare
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Tagged Andy Warhol, consanguinity, deepak Lal, Distributism, Eric Crampton, Fascism, films, Frances Woolley, Industrialisation, J R R Tolkien, Kingdom of Wessex, luxury good, Matthew Akers, Morton, Niall Ferguson, Pope Gregory, Scott Sumner, Winston Churchill, world war one
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November 26, 2012 – 3:00 am
Prisoners in relationships will be prevented from sharing jail cells in a crackdown on sex in prison by the new Justice Secretary. Chris Grayling, who took over the role in the September re-shuffle, is understood to be looking at banning prisoners from setting up “cosy, domestic” living arrangements as part of his drive to make [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Britain, Fark!, Funnies, Human/Civil rights, Law, Politics
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Tagged Chris Grayling, her majesty's prison service, HMP Haverigg, HMPS, justice secretary, ministry of justice, prison reform
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November 2, 2012 – 11:20 pm
‘We are lawyers, words are our tools’ was one of my pupil-master’s favourite lines, and if anything, lawyering has made me even more careful with how I speak and write than literature and publishing ever did. Yes, I know, the way lawyers parse a statute or a case can seem like mindless pettifogging. There are [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Britain, Personal liberty, Politics, scotland
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Tagged Alex Salmond, Barclays, Bigot of the Year, cardinal keith o'brien, Coutts, equal marriage, LIBOR, Ruth Davidson, Stonewall
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October 16, 2012 – 9:38 am
In Skeptical circles, Poe’s Law is an axiom suggesting that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between parodists of religious or other fundamentalism and genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane. ‘Poe’ as a noun has become almost as ubiquitous as Poe’s Law itself. In this context, a Poe refers to either a person, post or news story that [...]
October 8, 2012 – 9:30 am
A feature of modern life is the creation of sub-cultures. Goth, punk, gay, BDSM, etc. Or sub-cultures within sub-cultures, such as the bear community with the gay community. Given the creation of large, anonymous cities, mobility, capacity to produce for niche markets and human diversity, subcultures are likely a natural creation of modern life. Culturally [...]
