Charity

Chicago oral surgeon feeds the homeless twice a week.

The Pink Gang

Philosopher Roderick T. Long on India's feminist vigilantes.

Bryan Caplan is right

Libertarian Economist as Civil Rights Advocate:

If the NYPD bombed Harlem to kill one rampaging murderer, we'd condemn the NYPD agents as murderers. But if the USAF bombs a town in Afghanistan to kill one rampaging murderer, we forgive the bombers - or cheer them on. If the state of Alabama made it a crime for blacks to take white collar jobs, we'd damn them as racist monsters. But if the entire U.S. government makes it a crime for Mexican citizens to take any U.S. job whatsoever, we accept and justify the policy. What's the difference between "fighting crime" and "fighting terrorism"? Between "Jim Crow" and "protecting our borders"? The mere fact that the victims are foreigners, so up is down and wrong is right.

Gruss von Krampus

The Atlantic reports on Saint Nicholas' evil, Alpine companion.

Inside the mind of Gawker editor Neetzan Zimmerman

Melding together man and machine for a better tomorrow (or, how to survive in the brave new economy).

"The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism"

Thanissaro's "The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism" an excellent appraisal of the appropriation of Buddhism by modern Western societies. The only limitation is that Thanissaro does not also discuss the role of Enlightenment thinking in Western interpretations of Buddhism. But most of my job when teaching Buddhism to students, either as a philosophy or as a religion, is in disabusing them of their tendency to interpret Buddhism through the lens of Western Romanticism and its sundry offshoots.

Schooling higher ed

Part of the problem seems to be not enough money spent on the core mission--education.

Ericailcane

Italian street artist.

Did too many regulations doom implementation of the Affordable Care Act?

So argues economist Tyler Cowen:

For instance, the tangle known as government procurement has exacerbated problems with the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges. The required formal processes made it difficult to hire the best possible talent, led to nightmare organizational charts and resulted in blurred lines of accountability. It’s hard to turn on a dime and fix such problems overnight, no matter how pressing the need.

Chomsky on Kennedy

Noam Chomsky offers an unflattering portrait of John F. Kennedy, highlighting the aggressive military actions and lack of commitment to civil rights which characterized Kennedy's presidency, and discussing the cult of his memory which has grown up since his assassination.

A Vintage of Canaan

Archaeologists announced a discovery of an ancient wine cellar which stored vast quantities of Canaanite wine:

A chemical analysis of residues left in the three-foot-tall jars detected organic traces of acids that are common components of all wine, as well as ingredients popular in ancient winemaking. These included honey, mint, cinnamon bark, juniper berries and resins used as a preservative. The recipe was similar to medicinal wines used for 2,000 years in ancient Egypt and probably tasted something like retsina or other resinous Greek wines today.

In Memoriam

A post in honor of my dear friend, Bob Bashore (1926-2013), who passed away last week after a brief illness. 

Bob was an English professor at Bowling Green State University who specialized in 19th century American literature; he was especially interested in Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville. 

If Bob were still with us, I would have told him today about an article I recently read, about Western Buddhists' interpretation of the Pali Canon. In "The Buddha via the Bible", Thanissaro Bhikkhu argues persuasively that Western Buddhists interpret the Pali Canon through the lens of the Romantics' and Transcendentalists' reading of the Christian Bible.

Countdown to 2150 AD

Haw Par Villa Theme Park in Signapore

A vivid depiction of the Buddhist hell realms. 

The shape of things to come

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, yet with stranger eons, even death may die." -- H. P. Lovecraft

Meco

I recently learned that record producer Meco (Dominico Monardo) made a disco version of the Star Wars theme that went platinum, and a dance remix of the Ewok celebration ("Yub-Nub!") song.

Michael Wolf

German-born artist Michael Wolf's photo series 'The Real Toy Story'.

Pamela Colman Smith

Visionary artist Pamela Colman Smith; half-Jamaican, half-American, raised in England, illustrator of the Smith-Waite Tarot.

The Jeweler Philosopher

The Guardian has run a profile of philosophical charlatan David Birnbaum. 

Birnbaum is a famous New York jeweler who claims to have solved 'the mystery of existence'. According to this piece in The Guardian, Birnbaum has made fraudulent claims regarding the endorsement of his work by professional philosophers, and has illegally used the Harvard imprint for his books.

Atlas Moved to Chile

Feminist and individualist anarchist Wendy McElroy is moving to Galt's Gulch in Chile.

This is surprising for two reasons.

Firstly, while individualist anarchists and Objectivists both value liberty, the former are vocal critics of state capitalism, while the latter are defenders of it. It's not immediately clear that living among a band of Objectivists in Chile is going to be preferable to living in Canada (McElroy's current home).

Secondly, there's a "Galt's Gulch" in Chile?!