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Peloton vs. Sufferfest, Optimism vs. Reality
Peloton and COVID-19 have combined to lead an explosion in your in-home fitness experience. Yuppies around America now know the terms “FTP,” “Power-to-Weight ratio,” and “VO2 max,” schooled by the greatest fitness instructors in the country. It used to be that getting on a bike trainer was the equivalent of torture. You were only supposed […]
The Law of Time Magazine
The dreams of Winston Churchill
Stalin, the Will and the Inability to Change
From Robert Conquest’s “Stalin, Breaker of Nations” (mentioned in Mockingbird’s interview with Whit Stillman). One of [Stalin’s] outstanding characteristics was, in many respects, a profound mediocrity melded with a superhuman will-power. It is as though he had a very ordinary brain, but with some lobes extravagantly over-developed, like the horrible skulls in Dali’s early paintings. […]
Chinese Weather and the War Between CONTROL and CHAOS
It was big news last summer, when through strategic “cloud-seeding” the Chinese were able to hold an Olympics without rain and Olympic marathoners were able to run without smog. This week, the “Beijing Weather Modification Office” has failed to control the weather on a major scale that has resulted in November snow across the typically […]
Theophilus North on the Fears of Servants and Masters
Servants live in terror of being unjustly dismissed from a situation without a letter of recommendation. This usually takes the form of being charged with having stolen objects of value. As the reader knows I shrink from making a generalization, but when I do it’s a bold one: persons endowed with enormous inherited wealth tend […]
Grace For The Lockerbie Bomber
On December 21, 1988 Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, including all of the passengers and 11 people on the ground. It was a remarkably long time until authorities arrested their suspect, Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Basset al-Megrahi. When finally jailed on Jan 31st, 2001, Mr Megrahi received a sentence […]
Countdown to Madmen Season 3
Madmen on denial:
What does denial mean? It means that the consequences are so dire that you cannot think about them. That’s the nature of the human mind and it’s a part of our condition and it’s timeless; it has nothing to do with the 1960s.
For more of this and the 10 most shocking moments of Seasons 1 and 2:
Good News For People With Big Problems #3 "Check Out Any Time You Like (But You Can Never Leave): Depression, Addiction and the Christian Hope"
Last night, we tackled Big Problem #3 (sub-title: The Bondage of the Will), our inability to bridge the gap between how we ought to live and how we actually live. A problem that is especially highlighted when dealing with depression and addiction. To do so, we looked at the following sources: From Dorothy Martyn’s “Beyond […]
Green Shoots and the Law of the Stock Market
Many self-respecting optimists, especially those who are econ-optimists, are proclaiming to see “green shoots” and a return to the good ‘ole days. “The stimulus has worked,” people claim and justify the economy’s coming rebound by referencing housing starts and sales, oil and gas prices or something else. The stock market goes up and morale with […]
Powerlessness on Dr. Phil
After a discussion on snorting powder drink and the potential for maggot infestation of the nasal passages, Dr. Phil asks the eighth grader about controlling his own actions. Phil: “What if you get back to school and your buddies are saying, ‘Hey, we got some alcohol over here at my friend’s house. Let’s spend […]
Financial Villains, Regulation, and St. Paul’s Understanding of the Law
In thereviewof the book “The Match King,” WSJ journalist, Chancellor, discusses how Bernie Madoff was not the first to commit fraud on Wall St (and will certainly not be the last!). The conclusion of his review echoes St. Paul’s view of the law and its inability to engender what it commands. “Regulation can do little […]
