No, they’re not gay. They are two bachelors who are criss-crossing the country interviewing hundreds of couples who have been married for 40 years or longer, trying to find the secret to a happy marriage. They have been documenting their “Project Everlasting” on a website, but a book has just been published, and a film is in the works. Check out their FAQ page for a quick summary of what they’ve learned thus far.
Contrary to popular belief, traditional marriage is definitely not dead.
Categories: Book reviews · Culture
Britney, Paris, and Lindsay may be getting all the headlines, but watchers of the cultural scene say that America’s young women are rebelling against the super-sexed image that has been foisted on them by an earlier generation.
A spate of articles in Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, and ABC News have followed the release of Wendy Shalit’s new book, Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good. This book follows her earlier work, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue.
In this latest tome, the author
claims that more and more young women today, put off by our hypersexualized culture, are reverting to an earlier idea of femininity. They wear modest clothing and even act with unbrazen kindness. They don’t mind abstinence programs at school, and they prefer a version of feminism based on self-respect rather than sex-performance parity. They also take matters into their own hands when craven adults neglect to object to the objectionable.
Some fashion designers are beginning to take notice of this shift in values, and are marketing clothing that covers more and reveals less.
A number of websites are providing an outlet for these women to express their desire for more traditional femininity. See, for example:
Come to think of it, maybe Britney, Paris, and Lindsay are actually doing us a big favor by their outrageous behavior. Young girls are so turned off by these losers that they’re hungering for something more solid, more fulfilling. Hollywood and Madison Avenue are finally beginning to look as shallow as they really are.
This grandfather is encouraged. You go girls!
Categories: Book reviews · Culture
I understand the Democratic presidential candidates are staging another “debate” as I write this.
I think I’ll go for a nice long walk this evening.
Categories: Politics
Being a firstborn myself, I couldn’t pass this one up.
Dinesh D’Souza reports on a new study out of Norway indicating that firstborn children have IQs that are, on average, three points higher than their siblings. D’Souza’s conclusion: “Firstborns tend to be Numero Uno when it comes to brains.”
Ah, yes. It’s tough being Number One, but somebody’s gotta fill the role.
Categories: Something Different
This is Enya in a “live” performance before an audience. She is obviously lip-synching the lyrics, and there’s no way that only one piano and two cellos could produce the complex instrumentals. Nevertheless, as one commenter noted, “Enya could lip-sync half of the words and be covered in mud, and it would still just nail me.”
Categories: Music
Finally, something that can pull all Iraqis together in one great outpouring of nationalistic pride.
Categories: Islam
As readers of this blog know, I post a lot of links to contrarian articles on the global warming debate, if only to make sure that people know there is still an ongoing debate on the subject.
Dr. Roy Spencer, principle research scientist at the University of Alabama, and former Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, has published an excellent primer on the whole global warming issue, detailing the known facts–and pondering the unknown variables–that make certitude on this subject so difficult. (Link requires Adobe Reader.)
Dr. Spencer’s conclusion:
If there is only one single message I could get out to the public on the global warming issue, it would be this:
Even if future global warming turns out to be a serious problem, there is very little we can do without the development of new energy technologies.
Every currently proposed policy “solution” to the global warming problem will have little effect on future levels of warming. Conservation approaches such as buying compact fluorescent bulbs and hybrid cars might make us feel better about ourselves, but those things will have an unmeasurable effect on future warming.
. . . Unfortunately, all currently proposed approaches to attacking global warming will punish economic growth, and for very little environmental gain. It is imperative that we all become better informed on global warming issues, both the science and the policy. The energy problem is too important to be wasting time and money on “solutions” that will have very little effect. It is only through smart, informed decisions that we will make the world a better place for our children and grandchildren.
This is a must read for anyone who wants the complete story on global warming, without shrill hype.
Categories: Global Warming
Dean Barnett, writing in The Weekly Standard, chronicles anecdotal evidence that the “9/11 generation,” as he calls it, is following the example of their grandparents–”the greatest generation”–who answered their nation’s call in a time of peril and helped defeat tyranny. Many of these young warriors are college-educated, highly motivated, and imbued with a deep sense of historical purpose, unlike their baby-boomer parents, who largely spent their youth despising the military and avoiding responsibility.
As one young Marine Corps officer (recently graduated from Harvard) expressed it:
Our highest calling: To defend our way of life and Western Civilization; fight for the freedom of others; protect our friends, family, and country; and give hope to a people long without it.
My dad, a WWII vet, would have understood that sentiment perfectly.
Martin Durkin recently produced the documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, a counterweight to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The documentary was recently shown on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), with surprising results. Durkin writes:
When I agreed to make The Great Global Warming Swindle, I was warned a middle-class fatwa would be placed on my head.
So I wasn’t shocked that the film was attacked on the same night it was broadcast on ABC television last week, although I was impressed at the vehemence of the attack. I was more surprised, and delighted, by the response of the Australian public.
The ABC studio assault, led by Tony Jones, was so vitriolic it appears to have backfired. We have been inundated with messages of support, and the ABC, I am told, has been flooded with complaints. I have been trying to understand why.
Durkin thinks he has finally found the answer:
After a year of arguing with people about this, I am convinced that it’s because global warming is first and foremost a political theory. It is an expression of a whole middle-class political world view. This view is summed up in the oft-repeated phrase “we consume too much”. I have also come to the conclusion that this is code for “they consume too much”. People who believe it tend also to think that exotic foreign places are being ruined because vulgar oiks can afford to go there in significant numbers, they hate plastic toys from factories and prefer wooden ones from craftsmen, and so on.
All this backward-looking bigotry has found perfect expression in the idea of man-made climate disaster. It has cohered a bunch of disparate reactionary prejudices (anti-car, anti-supermarkets, anti-globalisation) into a single unquestionable truth and cause. So when you have a dig at global warming, you commit a grievous breach of social etiquette. Among the chattering classes you’re a leper.
. . . Many important people and institutions have staked their reputations on it. There’s a lot riding on this theory. And it has bugger-all to do with sea levels. That is why the warmers greeted my film with red glowing eyes.
Last week on the ABC they closed ranks. They were not interested in a genuine debate. They wanted to shut it down. And thousands of wonderful, sane, bolshie Australian viewers saw right through it.
Australians have always impressed me as a common-sensical lot. This seems to confirm it.
Categories: Global Warming
For two hours and five minutes this morning, Dick Cheney was the acting President, while George W. Bush was undergoing a colonoscopy.
Much to the relief of our nation’s lefty loonies, Cheney did not use his temporary powers to pardon Scooter Libby, attack Iran, or order an IRS audit of Michael Moore.
The country can breathe again.
Categories: Politics
On August 9, A. D. 378, a large Roman army was destroyed by the Goths near Hadrianople, not far from present-day Istanbul. The defeat marked the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire, especially in the West. The Barbarians soon overran the Western Empire, and the glory of Rome was no more.
Oxford University Press Blog has posted an article on the battle by historian Peter Heather. The article is excellent in its own right, but it whets the reader’s appetite for Heather’s recent book, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians.
In a follow-up interview to the article, Heather makes this important observation:
The really pertinent lesson, I think, is that the very act of being an Empire – dominating a space and using your power to set up relations across it which benefit yourself – generates an entirely natural reaction amongst everyone else. Outsiders organize themselves to make the best of this set of circumstances, and, in the long term, this naturally and inevitably undermines the power advantage which made you an Empire in the first place.
Categories: Book reviews · History
Then listen to these simple comparisons by Newt Gingrich, illustrating how the real world works versus how government works.
And some want to turn over our entire health care system to this bureaucracy?
Categories: Politics
A few months ago usability guru Jacob Neilsen wrote a great piece on the Top Ten Usability Bloopers in the Movies — basically, a list of the most common unrealistic computer features that show up in the movies. Like the hero instantly recognizing and using the interface on a strange computer system; or the huge blinking fonts that shout “Access Denied.”
The whole article is a hoot, but even better was a follow-up article detailing the corny computer action in the 1996 film Independence Day. The highlight of incredulity occurs when Jeff Goldbloom reaches the alien mothership with his trusty laptop, instantly connects with the alien network, and uploads a virus that destroys the ship and saves planet Earth. I rolled my eyes when I first saw that scene, but Neilsen and his readers really have fun with it. For example:
If the interface was wireless – was that 802.11a/b/c/g/n/whatever, some WiMax variation, some cellular platform etc. and how nice that the FCC allocated a compatible frequency range to the aliens.
Also:
Did the aliens really design their APIs with a call to blowUpTheShipAsSoonAsTheGoodGuysGetFarEnoughAway(), as an easy-to-get-to routine? (sadly the answer is probably yes)
One reader notes that the aliens obviously failed to protect their network with “Norton Anti-virus, Alien Mothership Edition.” But another reader counters that
They disabled Norton Mothership Edition – it kept on pestering them to get updates and to upgrade. It’s difficult to get new antivirus signatures when the nearest MotherShip Software Authorized Retailer is 100 light-years away.
Only computer geeks will really get the humor in all this, but it amply illustrates the license that scriptwriters take with technology when the scene calls for a computer.
Categories: Humor · Movie reviews · Technology
Here’s a video about a garage workshop inventor who has discovered a novel new source of power: salt water. It appears to be legit.
UPDATE: Some critics explain that the system this guy rigged up to ignite the salt water consumes more energy than it produces. Still, this is an intriguing development that could open doors hitherto unknown.
Categories: Technology
Australia is struggling with one of its coldest winters in years. The national power company has reported several days of record power consumption, as Australians crank up their heaters to stay warm.
Meanwhile, one study has projected that in order for Australia to do its part to get carbon dioxide levels down to 450 ppm, “Australia’s emissions would have to be reduced by 55 per cent by 2015 and 95 per cent by 2020.” In other words, they would just about have to shut the country down.
Naturally, this will have no impact on Al Gore’s campaign to save the planet — even if it drives all of us back to the Stone Age.
Categories: Global Warming
A U. S. Army news dispatch describes the outcome of Operation Ithaca, a major attack on al Qaeda forces in Iraq’s Diyala River valley region.
The operation was a great success and caught al Qaeda “completely by surprise,” Lt. Col. Poppas said, noting U.S. ground troops were inserted into the battle space at multiple landing zones by helicopter.
Meanwhile, Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthogs,” Army attack helicopters, and Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters fired on the insurgents from the air, Lt. Col. Poppas said. Unmanned aerial vehicles kept an eye on insurgent movements during the battle, he added.
Each of the aircraft was assigned “very specific, detailed areas” for engaging the al Qaeda forces, Lt. Col. Poppas said. In this way, he noted, the enemy lost the ability to control the battle and was blocked by coalition air or ground troops at every turn.
“In a direct firefight, American Soldiers are going to win every time,” Lt. Col. Poppas said, noting there were no U.S. casualties during the operation.
Twenty-nine al Qaeda operatives were killed and 23 others were captured during the operation. Also, three enemy weapons caches were discovered and a safe house was destroyed. Additionally, eight Iraqis who’d been held hostage by the insurgents were freed.
Local Iraqis fed up with al Qaeda had delivered hand-written maps and other information about the enemy that were used during pre-operational planning, Lt. Col. Poppas said.
Clearly, this is more evidence that we MUST pull out of Iraq NOW. Any more operations like this, and we run the danger of winning. Intolerable, just intolerable.
Yet another article has come out exploring the growing body of evidence that reveals significant differences between how men and women think. The research increasingly confirms that gender differences are not the result of social conditioning, but are hard-wired in the male and female brains. As one researcher summed it up:
We have to stop assuming men and women are basically the same because they’re not, which represents a fundamental change in how neuroscience has been doing business—a major zeitgeist change is afoot.
Actually, the research provides scientific explanations for behavior differences that — until recently — society always accepted as common knowledge. For example:
We also know that the brain’s right hemisphere distills the essence of a situation, the central idea, while the left side mulls the finer points and tracks the details. Consequently, this right-left amygdala division may also illuminate why women remember every excruciating detail of a blowup they had on their honeymoon—where they were, what they were wearing, the time of day—while their husbands barely recall the tiff.
So the next time I get pinged for shrugging my shoulders and saying, “Huh?”, I can blame it on that amyg-thingamajigger in my brain. Hey, dear, I was made that way; deal with it.
Categories: Gender
Our oldest son drew attention to this article in the Wall Street Journal recently about the resurgence of religion in Europe.
After decades of secularization, religion in Europe has slowed its slide toward what had seemed inevitable oblivion. There are even nascent signs of a modest comeback. Most church pews are still empty. But belief in heaven, hell and concepts such as the soul has risen in parts of Europe, especially among the young, according to surveys. Religion, once a dead issue, now figures prominently in public discourse.
The author, Andrew Higgins, also draws attention to an interesting theory on why America has not followed Europe’s lead in abandoning faith: Religion, like the economy, thrives in a free market environment. Monopolies stifle it.
The enemy of faith, say the supply-siders, is not modernity but state-regulated markets that shield big, established churches from competition. In America, where church and state stand apart, more than 50% of the population worships at least once a month. In Europe, where the state has often supported — but also controlled — the church with money and favors, the rate in many countries is 20% or less.
Supposedly, it is the rise of non-state churches that is fueling this growth of religion in Europe.
Categories: Faith
Previously in this space, we have noted the rise of militant atheism in our society (here, here, and here). Popular tomes by Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens aggressively market the skeptic’s philosophy to a culture that has a lot to be skeptical of.
This onslaught of unbelief has been met by a chorus of challengers. The latest is by Peter Berkowitz, who has written an excellent review of Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
Berkowitz takes up the major arguments in Hitchens’ book and exposes the fallacy of each. I was especially impressed with his observation that by painting all religions with the same black brush, Hitchens and his cohorts are sowing seeds that may someday wreak havoc with our fragile political system.
Playing into the anger and enmities that debase our politics today, the new new atheism blurs the deep commitment to the freedom and equality of individuals that binds atheists and believers in America. At the same time, by treating all religion as one great evil pathology, today’s bestselling atheists suppress crucial distinctions between the forms of faith embraced by the vast majority of American citizens and the militant Islam that at this very moment is pledged to America’s destruction.
The political ramifications of this aggressive atheism concern even some atheists, who acknowledge at least some benefit from America’s religious heritage, and wish their brethren would back off.
This song, “Wild Child,” came out about the same time our first grandchild was born, and ever since then, I’ve always associated it with her. (No, Lauren, I don’t think you’re a wild child!)
Categories: Music
Dr. Marvin Folkertsma sees chilling parallels between the current orchestrated campaign to overwhelm global warming skeptics, and the propaganda machinery of an earlier era.
When global warming crusaders resort to tactics resembling the Nuremburg Rallies, the point is to create hysteria, not advance reasoned debate; have you ever tried to think at a rock concert? And where hysteria rules, reason is silenced. This is the real danger of the current turmoil about global warming.
Categories: Global Warming
Robert Matthews cites an example of how a prestigious scientific journal abandoned its usual journalistic rigor for more sensational — and erroneous — reporting on climate change.
Hardly less worrying is a potential collapse of confidence in the scientific community, if its leading journals turn out to have preferred spurious certainty over judicious doubt.
I can shrug off the thousands of groupies who swarm to rock concerts to “raise awareness” of global warming. But when our leading scientific journals start bending the facts to fit preconceived conclusions, we’re in serious trouble.
The herd mentality that is driving this whole global warming “crisis” will someday be taught in universities as an example of how not to do science.
Categories: Global Warming
Austan Goolsbee is an economic advisor to Barak Obama. He has written a pretty good critique of Michael Moore’s latest movie, Sicko, a propaganda piece for socialized health care. Goolsbee exposes Moore’s use of cherry-picked anecdotes and selective facts to hide the real truth about what a free nationalized health care system would cost.
So, to do as Moore wants in the United States, you would need to do more than just overcome the insurance industry. You would need to cut the salaries of doctors, reform the legal system, enrage our allies by causing their prescription drug costs to escalate, and accustom patients to a central decision-maker authorized to determine what procedures they are and are not allowed to get. Unless every one of these changes comes together, Moore’s new system would end up costing an enormous amount of money.
Everybody agrees that the present system is flawed, and I doubt that I would agree with Goolsbee’s own prescription for improvement. But Moore’s solution is a dishonest attempt to dupe Americans into chasing a something-for-nothing fantasy.
Categories: Health · Movie reviews · Politics
ABC news correspondant — and limited government advocate — John Stossel recently interviewed Michael Moore for an upcoming 20/20 segment. The interview gave Stossel plenty of grist for a great article exposing the fallacy of liberalism’s support for government as the answer to our social ills.
Moore thinks respecting others’ freedom means refusing to help the less fortunate. But where’s the connection? All it means is that the libertarian refuses to sanction the use of physical force (which is what government is) to help others. Peaceful methods — like voluntary charity — are the only morally consistent methods. . . .
I’m not a theologian, but I do know that when people are ordered by the government to be charitable, it’s not virtuous; it’s compelled. Why would anyone get into heaven because he pays taxes under threat of imprisonment? Moral action is freely chosen action.
On my way back from Colorado, I passed by the Spearville Wind Energy Facility, just east of Dodge City. The picture below doesn’t capture the immense size of these gargantuan wind turbines. There are 67 of them scattered over 5,000 acres, producing over 100 megawatts of clean, renewable power for Kansas City Power & Light. (See an album of much better photos here.)
Kansas is doing its part to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet. Hey, Teddy Kennedy — what are you doing to reduce yours?
Categories: Global Warming · Kansas · Technology
Last Memorial Day weekend, we took the grandkids to Wild West World, the new theme park that just opened here in Wichita.
Good thing we took them when we did. The park has already closed down and is going into bankruptcy. The owners blame its demise on consistently bad weather in the two months it was open. Others point to poor planning and/or management. Either way, it’s too bad for Wichita.
South America is getting hammered by record-setting cold weather. Argentines in Buenos Aires are seeing the first snow there in 89 years. Chile, Bolivia, and Peru are all struggling with the effects of this antarctic cold snap.
This recent cold wave follows one of the coldest Mays on record for South America.
May 2007 will go to history as one of the coldest starts to climatic winter ever observed in South America. A brutal cold wave brought record low temperatures, widespread frost, snow and major energy disruption. The death toll for the 10-day cold wave was the highest for any single weather event in Argentina in recent history.
Yeah, yeah, I know — you can’t project global climate conditions on the basis of an isolated weather pattern. But somehow that rule doesn’t apply here in the States, where the MSM makes sure we all know that it reached 116 degrees in Las Vegas in July.
Categories: Global Warming
I’m finally back from my Colorado backpacking trip. I’ve created a new page to narrate the details of the adventure. Enjoy!
Categories: Personal
