I know it’s been a while, but it’s been an exciting start to the New Year. It’s not just that the temperatures have been very low, which makes working in my office very difficult.  Unlike every other writer I’ve ever heard of, I like to be able to look out and around when I work.…

JD sent me this in e mail http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/standing_up_to_the_new_paternalists/14174#.UsEHIo3hxiE And although I’d already seen the Conly book reviewed in NYRB, and posted the review here, I thought I’d put this out for people to see.    

I’ve spent the early morning handing in my grades and trying to explain to students that, no, you can’t make up 8 papers on the day after the term ends. So I’m depressed. Here, however http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/12/23/make_way_for_duck_dynasty_free_speech_double_standards_and_cultural_taboos_121043.html is an article by Cathy Young, one of my favorite writers.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about it some more.  I think I’ve gotten it a little more straightened out in my head. First, I’d say we’re still talking about luck, at least at base.  The African-America teenager who gets followed around Nordstroms because the security guard automatically suspects him of being a shoplifter would not…

My father had a principle of life that he used to hammer into us on a regular basis: if something goes wrong, hope to hell that it was your fault.  If it was your fault, you have a chance to fix it.  If it wasn’t, you’re screwed. I bring this up because I was monitoring…

As I go out to meet the ravening hordes. http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the_triumph_of_the_maternalists/14346#.UqY4hyeQM24 Except they’re not ravening.  They’re hyperventilating.  Which they wouldn’t be doing if they hadn’t left their term papers to the last minute, and beyond.  

I really do read the comments, most of the time.  I even follow the links to find out what everybody is doing. And I have heard the plaintive cry that I should put up something new. Unfortunately, we have reached one of those times of year when my time is not my own. Somewhere back…

It is Monday morning, and I will admit that what I thought I was going to be doing here in the cold wet drizzle that is a New England December is writing about  how the Obamacare website ran on the first day after its deadline. As it turns out, I have heard no Obamacare news…

So, another first of the month, and the November list runs as follows: 64) Mark Levin. The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic. 65) Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Lucifer’s Hammer. 66) Alison Weir. The Life of Elizabeth I. 67) Charlotte MacLeod. Exit the Milkman. It’s not a terribly exciting list as lists go, but…

Yesterday was yesterday, meaning Thanksgiving, meaning a day when I’d had way too much to eat for the day before 3 o’clock in the afternoon.  I even took a nap, which is virtually unheard of.  If I’m not majorly ill–and I’m not, at the moment–naps tend to be an overall negative for me.  I have…