Assistant Village Idiot

Things look different when we are sick. Much of our rationality and nobility erodes under duress.   This is the section I am having ...

V Hidden Message In all discussions of the cost of health care, the amount that is spent on one’s last illness always looms large.   I...

CS Lewis was quite wise in pointing out that if you cannot say what you mean clearly in plain English, it means you have not clearly thought...

After serving in Washington, the economist Herbert Stein , in 1979: We woke up to discover we were living in the long run, and were suffer...

I have a habit of looking at familiar objects with strange eyes.  It occurred to me that the fourth line is ridiculously lame... I've ...

For those of you familiar with the Evangelical Covenant Church, we just sent Kyle to CHIC . Jonathan in 1994, Ben in 2000, John-Adrian in 20...

The song only fits with my social worker rant as a generality.  But this is just so far and away the best version out there that I didn'...

In American mythology, mankind always stands together, unified under great need in fine fellow-feeling if aliens are coming.  If they are co...

I also thought this post might be named "Whack-a-Mole."  For a few solid years I picked on liberal arguments - no, the lack of a...

Rant on. When a social worker says "well I'm a believer in basic human rights" in a discussion about...well, a discussion ab...

I heard that Ray Allen is going to the Heat and some Celtic fans are upset. Please reconsider.  Rajon Rondo is a talented head-case, and man...

I have been quite sick and not posting - better now - and just went back to add to the recent comments.  I encourage the regulars to drop by...

Sykes, as I noted, got his view of America from movies and the biases of social science academics.  There's noting wrong with getting yo...

Disappointing.  But I learned some useful things, and reflecting on why the book was disappointing was a vault-launch to other speculations....

European Moles, that is. 1. Contrary to popular belief the mole is not blind. 2. Except at breeding time moles are solitary and very terr...

These costumes are deeply reminiscent of the sex-education pamphlets my mother used to leave around the house, because she was too embarrass...

Is there some rule of style that says when you buy a Mini, you have to get vanity plates?

We went to an air show at Pease.  I had never been to one and found it moderately interesting.  I did learn something new about the Doolitt...

It's good to keep the local paper in the basket of reading material in the bathroom. I'm sorry? You don't have a basket with ...

I finally decided I had read as much as I am going to of van den Berghe's The Ethnic Phenomenon , which I referenced before in Orphans a...