Miscellaneous

H.I.F. Retail sales of alcohol are up 10% over the past year. Link [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-22/how-americans-are-celebrating-recovery] . That's a pretty phenomenal number.

Did you go see The Wolf of Wall Street? I thought about going to it, but after reading this open letter [http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/12/wolf_of_wall_street_prousalis.php?page=2] from the daughter of one of the protagonist's partners in crime, I

H.I.F. I remember reading (5? 10?) years ago that 10% of Americans are ex-Catholics, so this is no surprise: "According to recent demographic surveys, it seems there are presently 30 million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as 'former Catholics.'" Link [http:

H.I.F. "The halo effect discussed earlier contributes to coherence, because it inclines us to match our view of all the qualities of a person to our judgment of one attribute that is particularly significant. If we think a baseball pitcher is handsome and athletic, for example, we

Let me be as blunt yet precise about this as possible: If you are a Tolkien fan, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug sucks. I am not making an unqualified statement about the cinematic merit of the film. I am simply speaking as a long-time Tolkien fan. I bristled at

BYCU The headline from this article [http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/12/no_author/reject-teetolitarianism/] appears to be the misleading: "Regular but moderate consumption of alcohol makes you healthier and happier than total abstinence." I'm happy to see such a study, of course, but the headline

H.I.F. 7 Foods and Herbs to Fight the Common Cold: Vitamin C, Kiwi, Apple Cider Vinegar, Ginger, Echinacea, Oregano Oil, Zinc. Link [http://naturalsociety.com/7-foods-herbs-fight-common-cold/]. It's hard to say, but I think I've had success with zinc and echinacea.

Miscellaneous Rambling Professor Charles Rice used to comment during jurisprudence class that a person didn't need long hair and sandals to be a radical. A person just needed to be a good Catholic. I've long sympathized with that observation. It was brought to mind when I

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

A Random Passage Kind of interesting: "The anarchist sensibility made its first appearance amongst the Taoists of ancient China." Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. I've spent a fair amount of time studying the other major religions, especially those of the Far East: