Eric Scheske

I've never really understood the appeal of Franz Oppenheimer's The State, yet it is the seminal work of the political worldview I adhere to: the State constitutes a class within society. From this, a person logically concludes that, if you're within the class, you

H.I.F. The best pithy parenthetical of the month comes courtesy of Zero Hedge, which posted today that Ohio does not have enough of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital to carry out a scheduled execution next month. Zero Hedge writes [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-28/ohio-runs-out-pentobarbital-cant-hold-scheduled-executions] : > Ohio

That's a picture from the Clear Creek Abbey's October grape harvest [http://www.clearcreekmonks.org/news.html]. From their e-newsletter: "The monks of Saint Benedict engage in many forms of manual labor. Recently it was harvest time in our vineyard. We grow grapes of the

H.I.F. Apparently no one read new health law very carefully. In two spots, it says tax credits are available for people who buy insurance "through an exchange established by the state." But 36 states opted not to establish exchanges, so is the act effectively dead in

H.I.F. The insightful Arnold Kling breaks down the Obamacare website. The debacle borders on the scary [http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/the-obamacare-suitsgeeks-divide/]: "This is not a technical screw-up, and it will not be fixed by technical people. It is an organizational screw-up. And until that is recognized,

BYCU A long-time TDE reader sends along this great anecdote about fin de siècle medicine [http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/09/walthers-peptonized-port-sold-in.html] . "Peptonized Port was helpful for 'people who are nervous, cannot stand noise, start at the least unusual sound” and “get that fly-to-pieces feeling often.

Seen at Reddit:

Pope Francis suspended a bishop for spending too much on home renovations. The Pope caught the bishop filming an episode of "Flip This Church." A new study says that due to debt, 20-somethings will retire 12 years later than their parents do. When they heard this, 20-somethings said,