Across Difficult Country

An item on an inexplicably esteemed ‘litblog’ complains about a recent essay in the WSJ by John Miller that criticized H.G. Wells: "Finally, Miller leaves us with a few bizarre insinuations about Wells' beliefs in science, evolution, and materialism. It is a peculiar claim of today's "conservatives" that by embracing evolutionary theory, the left has also embraced social Darwinism, thus destroying individual dignity and ushering in a merciless, survival-of-the-fittest world. Of course, it was the uber-capitalists of the Gilded Age who turned the theory of natural selection into a pseudo-scientific social creed. And the victory of laissez-faire, dog-eat-dog capitalism -- and the abolition of civilizing regulatory and social policies that guard against its worst excesses -- have been the central causes of the Republican Party for the last thirty years." H.G. Wells, in his own words: "It seemed to me that to discourage the multiplication of people below ...

"Within a single generation," writes David Ritchie, "paranoia has become as American as baseball and Mom’s apple pie." ...Ritchie, a bearded man of about 50 who has lived and worked in Seoul, Korea, since the mid-90s, is a specialist in geophysics and aerospace technology. Over the past two decades, he’s written books about everything from volcanoes and earthquakes to artificial intelligence and the history of American space-based weapons systems. He’s also written countless articles on science and technology for a variety of magazines. It’s only been in the last few years, however, that he’s turned his attentions toward conspiracy theories. Or, more specifically, what he has labeled "techno-paranoia"–those particular conspiracies that revolve around technological issues–UFOs, "scalar weapons," antigravity engines and the like. ...As it turns out, nearly every aspect of most of these stories can be traced back to some particular movie or tv show–...

Some really old jokes - 5th Century AD old, from the Philogelos : 57. An intellectual got a slave pregnant. At the birth, his father suggested that the child be killed. The intellectual replied: "First murder your own children and then tell me to kill mine." #227B. While an intellectual was imbibing in a tavern, someone approached and told him: "Your wife is dead." The intellectual said: "Time, my good man, to mix me some dark wine #247B. While a misogynist was paying his last respects to his wife, someone asked him: "Who has gone to rest?" He replied: "Me, now that I'm alone." #248A. A misogynist was sick, at death's door. When his wife said to him, "If anything bad happens to you, I'll hang myself," he looked up at her and said: "Do me the favor while I'm still alive."

New allegations of ‘Koran abuse’: LAHORE, Pakistan, June 28 -- Pakistanis freed from jail here after being held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleged Monday that they saw American interrogators throw, tear and stand on copies of the Koran... As has been noted elsewhere , the simplest way to put a stop to allegations of Koran abuse by Guantanamo prisoners is to take away the Korans . One former detainee also alleges, “naked women sat on prisoners' chests during questioning.” It isn’t clear to me if he is complaining or bragging, but he should be grateful to America for having provided him with the only instance in his life he will ever have contact with a naked woman who is less hairy than he is.

By now everyone knows of Live 8 , a series of concerts various has-been rock stars are staging to raise money for the blighted Negroes of Africa ( it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it ). An unintended consequence of this over-hyped charity event is that those closer to home in need get overlooked. Our old friend Stephen Bainbridge, for instance. Despite the six-figure plus salary he's paid as a professor of law at UCLA, Professor Bainbridge seems to have fallen on hard times to such an extent he’s been begging readers of his blog to send him money to pay for household items . I’m not alone in worrying the Professor’s oenophilia may have progressed to oenomania, or even dipsomania. Given that he’s on summer break in California, one might think Professor Bainbridge could supplement his income by picking grapes. But, as the Professor himself has noted, all the grape picking jobs have already been taken by illegal aliens. It’s so terribly sad.

Senator Patty ‘ Osama Daycare ’ Murray will be attending a "Town Hall" forum in Seattle tomorrow to hear suggestions on how to make it easier for Muslims to immigrate to the United States. Remind me again, why I would want it to be easier for Muslims to immigrate to the United States? I’m also unable to think of the last time a Senator was interested in making anything easier for me . It’s all very mysterious. In other mysterious local news, 58 years ago today the famous Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred over Washington State: "Nine bright saucer-like objects flying at "incredible speed" at 10,000 feet altitude were reported here today by Kenneth Arnold, a Boise, Idaho, pilot who said he could not hazard a guess as to what they were. Arnold, a United States Forest Service employee engaged in searching for a missing plane, said he sighted the mysterious objects yesterday at 3 P.M. They were flying between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, in Washington state, ...

A new book by someone named Ed Klein reports that Chelsea Clinton was conceived as the result of the rape of Hillary Clinton by Bill Clinton. This is a dubious claim to those of us who are ‘insiders’, for it is widely known (but little reported) that Hillary Clinton has a penis. In fact one of my left-wing college chums (a reliable fellow except for his politics) who briefly worked in the Clinton White House had to suffer the trauma of an aroused Hillary Clinton exposing her penis in front of him (a family habit, it seems). Though it occurs to me that there is a way to reconcile the allegations of Ed Klein with the incident described by my friend: perhaps Hillary has male and female genitalia? This form of deviancy has become quite popular in recent years, so much so that the practice has spread to the animal kingdom. See, for instance, this perverted crab some fisherman recently caught, which is half male and half female, or, to use the scientific term, a 'bilateral gynandromo...