July 17, 2005 Announcements

Reason Roundup

Be sure to stop by the Charlotte Capitalist for this week's installment!

The Capitalist Manifesto? In place of the World Trade Centers. Big mistake by parents. Lawyers in loath. "Investing" in Africa. Separation of church, economics, and state. A beautiful watercolor...and more.

Friday Ark

The Geckos that have commandeered my brother's domicile made an appearance at last Friday's Ark at the Modulator.

Ego hits 100k!

Congratulations to Martin Lindeskog over at Ego, whose blog saw its 100,000th visitor recently.

Blogroll Additions

I made a couple of interesting new additions to my blogroll in the past week.

Jason Roberts, whose passion is the classics, has started a blog called Letters from an Enthusiast. This promising new blog discusses the classics and their continued relevance. For example, one post takes a rebellion against Persia by ancient Greeks in Ionia as a starting point to discuss our looming confrontation with China over Taiwan.

The greatest blessing to liberty is peace. In times of peace, the people of free nations prosper. Goods increase, as does opportunity. Entertainment increases, as does the arts. Science and celebration dominate the people of free nations; peace allows them to exist free from any inhibition to their creative processes (internal because they are free, external because they are at peace). There is a catch however; the people tend to become softened to the harsher aspects of reality. Freedom from war tends to dull one to the possibility that it will happen and what to do when it occurs. This was the exact situation Dionysius of Phocaea faced when trying to prepare his men for war.

In addition to his own explorations of the classics, Jason's blog will occasionally include pieces by other writers called "feature articles." For someone like me who studied Latin for over four years and still maintains an interest in the classics, this blog is a real find. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself!

I have also linked to Andrew Dalton's blog, Venting Steam, which has been around since 2002, but somehow has escaped my notice until fairly recently. In one of his recent entries, he blogs about something I remember hearing about, but had not looked into: the web log of pederast and Idaho murder/kidnapping suspect Joseph Edward Duncan III.

Go back through his archives, and you will find much, much more stuff like this. Duncan seems to have absorbed a hodgepodge of Christian, New Age, and academic leftist bromides that all point in one direction: that Mr. Duncan and swine like him aren't responsible for their thoughts and actions.

Not surprising. Come to think of it, the jailhouse "conversions" to Christianity we hear about with such annoying frequency are doubtless not all merely hypocritical attempts to pretend one has changed. Some are not "conversions" in any substantive respect at all, but continuations of an already-accepted belief system. What dominant pre-philosophical system, after all, preaches unconditional love, and infinite mercy for the depraved?

From the Mailbag

Reader Adrian Hester tells me of two curiosities worth your attention. First, he mentions an interesting site that catalogues the known extrasolar planets. Second, in an email titled, "I'm gonna get me one!", he points me to a tee-shirt ad.


Translation: "I'm gettin' slapped in the face!" (By the first smart chick who sees him in this thing.)

-- CAV