It’s a mystery where the mystery is 500 years old, and everyone already knows the solution. Or at least they think they do. The detective is stuck in a hospital bed for the entire novel. There is no action whatsoever. We never leave the hospital room. Only three characters have any kind of substantial roles, and only a handful of other characters appear at all. It was voted Number One on the list of Top Crime Novels of All Time... Read more
By now everyone has probably heard about the white NAACP leader who lied for years in order to pass herself off as black. No doubt this emerged from a sincere affection for black culture and causes that ultimately took over her life and caused her to alter her identity. I don’t doubt she thinks of herself as black, and I have no idea how anyone following the typical modernist logic of identity politics can possibly deny her claims. If a man... Read more
This just in from the Social Justice Warriors: John Byrne is evil. This very stupid year is already, quite obviously, the Year of the Transsexuals, because the rage-fits of a tiny cadre of deeply troubled people must be part of Our National Dialog all day every day. The latest Enemy of the People is Byrne, one of the giants of the 70s and 80s, best known for his runs on X-Men, Fantastic Four, and, most spectacularly, the reinvention of Superman for... Read more
Slavery is a default condition in human society. Only as culture and Christianity advanced were we able to finally make headway against it, but it’s far from gone. Americans have a particularly narrow understanding of the issue because of our history with African slavery and the Civil War that ended it. We tend to think all forms of slavery are like ours: brutal and violent, socially-sanctioned, and racially based. Modern slavery is more insidious, blurring the line between wage-slavery and actual human... Read more
I was genuinely saddened to learn that Christopher Lee died last Sunday. For some of us, he wasn’t just great talent, but an iconic figure from our childhood. I was a Monster Kid of the 1970s: raised on Saturday matinees, the 4:30 movie, Chiller Theatre on channel 11 (that hand!), and Famous Monsters of Filmland. I didn’t do sports and wasn’t much of a student. I did Karloff and Chaney and Cushing and Lee. And he was the last. They’re... Read more
Another Papal Visit logo: It reminds me of something… Is it just me? Probably. I kid, I kid. I actually don’t mind it that much. It’s clean and simple and does the logo thing well enough. Read more
You won’t believe what has the Social Justice Warriors of geekdom riled up this time. DC Comics was tweeting answers to fan questions in a chat about Bizarro, a DC villain who’s Superman’s opposite. Some SJW asked what they always ask now about everything: will people of color be included? Because nothing’s more important to a story about a comic-relief Superman villain than making sure they hit their quota of designated minorities. Bizarro is grey, so I hope you’re counting him.... Read more
Blank on Blank makes animated shorts from interview clips, and now they’re treating us to love advice from Ayn Rand. That this repellant woman is the It Girl of the contemporary Republican Party (decades after Buckley and Chambers identified the evil at the heart of her philosophy) is just depressing. Read more
The domestication of the dog was one of the pivotal moments in the development of human civilization. Most likely, wolves gathered by human campfires after a hunt. The humans allowed the wolves to scavenge, which disposed of animal remains and may have served as a deterrent to other predators. Both wolf and human gained from this uneasy peace, and in time the wolf, through selective breeding, became the working dogs we know today. Their ability to protect and control herds... Read more
A survey of 239 patients who had eyes surgically removed has turned up an interesting phenomenon. Some 60% of them report phantom images from their missing eyes. We’re familiar with phantom limbs: tingling and other sensations from limbs that are no longer there. Phantom Eye Syndrome (PES) is not new, but a recent study of patients who lost one eye to uveal melanoma is the most thorough to date, and the results provide an interesting window into the way we process visual perception.... Read more
God and the Machine
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