Bertrand Cantat

From the Cell to the Stage

Concerts by a singer called Bertrand Cantat in Paris were canceled recently because the organizers said they could not guarantee the maintenance of public order at them. Whether ...

Pope Francis

Maxims for Life, an Antidote to Hope: Part Two

Morality is a mixed thing. “Do we really want peace?” Pope Francis asks on Twitter. Believing the answer is yes, one of the most influential men on earth answers: “Then ...

Lies and Literature

The first writer of supposedly classic status whom I ever read was W.W. Jacobs. He is not accorded that status now, and indeed is very largely forgotten (a warning to all writers ...

The Age of Expert Ignorance

Last year Tom Nichols, an ardent Never Trump Republican, published a popular book called The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Expertise and Why It Matters. “Americans ...

A Question of Quackery

One cannot blame anyone for having failed to do the impossible, but the fact is, roughly speaking, the science (or study) of psychology has added nothing whatever to human ...

The Sham of Equality

Equality has become one of the most insidious ideas in the language. I do not mean, of course, equality before the law or equal pay for equal work, things that are more accurately ...

The Loneliness Epidemic

Nations throughout the West have come to view loneliness as an epidemic, for it is increasingly a source of anxiety and unhappiness, and is widely believed to exacerbate health ...

Taylor Swift

A Tay–Bey Melee

The celebrity battles of the 21st century tend to be fought most fanatically by foot-soldier fans who assume that they will in some way benefit from their idol’s ...

Conformity and Manipulation: The American Virtues

“My biggest flaw and strength,” says James Damore, “may be that I see things very differently than normal.” This simple sentence reveals the essence of our fraying social ...

The Case for Loafers

No doubt it is a sign of advancing age, and also of retirement, that these days I always take a siesta. This increases my productivity greatly, for I am energetically clearheaded ...

The Grand Illusion

My best books are the ones I haven’t written. They are not yet even in the larval stage, but I know them to be profound and original in content and perfect in form. I am very ...

The Pain Principle

I hesitate, in this vale of tears, to bring before the public, however small it might be, my own personal travails, but at least I can claim to be an expert on them, insofar as I ...

The Pain Principle

I hesitate, in this vale of tears, to bring before the public, however small it might be, my own personal travails, but at least I can claim to be an expert on them, insofar as I ...

Isis flag

Should it Be a Crime to Hurt Allah’s Feelings?

Is there any evidence in the past 50 years of anyone, anywhere being charged with a “hate crime” for mocking Christianity? If there is, I haven"€™t seen it. I ...

Fare-Minded

I have long admired taxi drivers. They are often well-informed and have a clear-eyed view of human nature that is neither cynical nor sentimental. In the days when there were such ...

Trust Your Neighbors

I hesitate to show myself in a good light"€”it seems so much more honest, somehow, to confess to being a complete swine"€”but the other day I did something that was ...


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