As part of a long commissioned piece that I am currently writing, I use a joke. Would any Mormon Jeremy Lott’s Diary readers please let me know if the highlighted part in the first sentence is correct. Bonus: If you read all the way to the end of the joke, I may have improved the punchline. Here it is: There’s an old joke about the flood and the true believer that gets recycled endlessly in sermons from Protestant, Catholic and... Read more
1. John 8:32: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” 2. Mark 9:24b: “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief.” 3. Psalm 137:9: “Blessed is he who seizes the Babylonian baby and dashes it against the rocks.” (more…) Read more
In today’s installment of “John Allison, Show Us the Tape,” let me grab a posted comment and break it out for wider viewing. The writer is Irfan Khawaja, an Objectivist scholar I quoted when I broke the story that Allison, president-to-be of the Cato Institute and long-time associate of the Ayn Rand Institute, may have plans in store for Cato that are troubling. These plans may include turning it into a more Ayn Rand-centric place and changing its current pro-peace... Read more
Your diarist bought this inspirational painting of a drunk pig at Lynden’s pho restaurant. Read more
To play you out for the week, dear reader, here is Pomplamoose performing “Bust Your Knee Caps.” It’s a song about a jilted lover who happens to be part of a “small family business.” She doesn’t take it so well. Read more
In case you ever feel the overwhelming urge to argue with me. Read more
Meant to follow up on the John Allison thing yesterday but I didn’t for two reasons: 1) I’m under the gun on a major (7,000 words or so) piece on a certain esoteric faith that’s currently enjoying a “moment”; 2) I wanted to give Allison’s words some prominence. More will be said on this, later today and tomorrow, and you’ll hear more from my source close to the Ayn Rand Institute, Deep Galt. But for now, let me just make... Read more
Last night I saw upon the chair A little man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today Oh, how I wish he’d go away Read more
In a letter today sent out to all Cato scholars, soon-to-be president John Allison addressed some concerns raised by Jeremy Lott’s Diary. Here is his response in full, with one bit of emphasis added. I have some opinions about the contents of the letter, but those can wait for later: All Cato Employees, I have now had the pleasure of meeting with almost all the Cato team. I’m impressed with the quality of Cato’s employees and their commitment to Cato’s... Read more
In the second excerpt of Deep Galt’s communique, my source schools me on how Ayn Rand Institute Objectivists, who had for years denounced libertarians, can suddenly do a 180 and send one of their top guys to run the Cato Institute. “What you have to understand about the ‘orthodox’ Objectivist movement, the ARI wing of it,” wrote Deep Galt, “is that it is essentially authority-based. Something is true and consistent with Objectivism if the top authorities in the movement say... Read more
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