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Author Archives: Anton
the purloined telegram
Thirty-odd years ago I read Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford B. Hicks (1963), which begins when a puzzling telegram falls into the hands of two boys. The only sentence in it that makes any kind of sense to them is … Continue reading
Posted in language
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medical waste
Because of Hugh Laurie, I watched the first episode of House, M.D., and that was enough: if the premiere is so formulaic (mysterious and scary illness, misdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, affirmation of the value of human life, intuitive leap, happy ending) there’s … Continue reading
Posted in cinema
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The Uses of Disaster
Interesting essay in Harpers (cited by the muted horn). The Scottish-born mathematician Eric Temple Bell, who witnessed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, saw “no running around the streets, or shrieking, or anything of that sort” but instead people … Continue reading
Posted in security theater
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and don’t stop until you catch your tail
That droll Mr Bush recently said it would be bad to stop killing people and breaking stuff in Iraq before “the mission” is completed. Say what? I thought the mission was to take Saddam’s nukes and war-germs and bad chemicals … Continue reading
Posted in militaria
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intentions sometimes count
Jacob Sullum observes: As I read the relevant Supreme Court decisions, if the [New York] police said they would randomly search bags [on the subway] for drugs, unlicensed guns or other contraband, mentioning in passing they would, of course, arrest … Continue reading
Posted in drugwar, security theater
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QotD
Will Wilkinson at TCS A president who fattened farm subsidies, installed tariffs for steel and lumber, doled out a massive new prescription drug benefit, and nationalized airline security, folding it into a vast, cumbersome, dangerously ineffectual bureaucracy, is hardly channeling … Continue reading
Posted in politics
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Horatio Bunce and Davy Crockett
A friend asked me why Ron Paul voted against a hurricane relief bill; was there something poisonous in it, or did he think it would be ineffective? I replied that I would expect Dr Paul to vote against any such … Continue reading
Posted in constitution, history
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