Friday Hodgepodge

Three Things

1. Alex Epstein has challenged Bill "The [Self-Proclaimed] Science Guy" Nye to "debate ... on the morality of fossil fuels," and has graciously offered to handle all the logistics.

To the best of my knowledge, Sir Robin -- I mean Nye -- has failed to respond in the nearly three weeks since.

2. There is a new blog called You Can and Did Build It, which focuses on free will:

This blog's entire purpose is ..., put positively, to prove, defend and promote the idea that [man] can choose his direction, make his own life and succeed on his own. Fundamentally, it will defend the idea that man has free will, or volition. This is a broad philosophical abstraction, and as such needs to be defined, put in context and concretized, which this blog will do over the course of many articles -- supported by philosophical argument, as well as historical references and concrete news stories.

The above comes from its introductory post. You will find new posts linked directly in the blogroll as they appear.

3. I'm way late to this party, but this toddler video-bomb is too good to pass up. The fun starts at 1:45.

As my mother put it after I texted this to her and a few other members of my family:

If you could watch adult TV, you would have seen it on the local and national news... Reminds me of something that might happen to you!

Hah! Right on both counts.

Weekend Reading

"On the basis of this classic moral justification for all property rights -- that people should have the fruits of their productive labors secured to them as their property -- early American legislators and judges secured stable and effective property rights to innovators and creators." -- Adam Mossoff, in "Patents Are Property Rights, Not a 'Bizarre Regulatory Lobby'" at Townhall

"Parents might not have the opportunity to send their child to a Montessori school, but these enlightened ideas can still help kids navigate through the early years of life." -- Michael Hurd, in "It's Not All about the Warm Fuzzies" at The Delaware Wave

"To fight these ideas and the culture they've spawned on campus will require more than complaining about college 'snowflakes' or political correctness." -- Steve Simpson, in "Why Our Campuses Are Boiling Over in Left-Wing Rage Instead of Discourse" at The Hill

"Therapy, or some similar commitment to ongoing self-change, is the only sure-fire way to move beyond mere functioning and into the realm of actual happiness." -- Michael Hurd, in "How to Improve Yourself WITHOUT Excuses!" at The Delaware Coast Press

-- CAV