Category Archives: humanities

successful turns of phrase

The phrase “Iron Curtain” was coined by Churchill in a speech in Missouri, if memory serves. Is there a known source for “Cold War”? Update: Dan Kohn did the legwork and got the goods: Cold War This term for a … Continue reading

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to keep and bear lightning

David Kopel: Does God Believe in Gun Control?

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sovereignty ≠ liberty

USS Clueless defends American unilateralism again: [quoting a British paper] “a disdain for any treaty that might, even marginally, tie the administration’s hands”. We in the US refer to that as “liberty”. I know it’s a foreign notion in Europe, … Continue reading

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it strikes me as more Barbara Cartland

Pink Hello Kitty Laptop. (Thanks to Spastic Mutant for the link.)

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to everything there is a season

A little-appreciated advantage of the French Republican calendar: only three months have no R.

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what family doesn’t have its ups and downs?

If we persons of pallor are all descended from Charlemagne, we could still one-up each other on what fraction of our ancestry is royal, or how few of the links in the chain are female. If a genie offered me … Continue reading

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QotD

G Bernard Shaw Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

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