Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending examine the interaction between civilization and evolution, and in the process smash to pieces the Blank Slate hypothesis.  150 years ago Charles Darwin published the Origin of Species. Origin was not revolutionary because it proposed that lineages changed over time; the idea was in the air of the age, and evolutionary theories have an ancient pedigree, … [Read More]

As Charles Stuart is reported to have said when he returned to England after decades of exile, to restore the British monarchy and reign as Charles II after the Cromwell interregnum, “Hey, y’all! It’s good to be back.” I just went through the editorial equivalent of purgatory: Thanks to a suddenly shortened publishing schedule, I had to carefully edit a 1,000 … [Read More]

When one reads the new atheists, one gets the impression that the influence of Christianity has been entirely baleful, that Christianity’s contribution to morality has been entirely negative, and that the United States, far from being a Christian country historically, is really the finest flower of the anti-religious Enlightenment, and that we therefore ought to stamp out all public manifestations of … [Read More]

With millions of homeowners now struggling to repay money they clearly never should have borrowed, our leaders have been righteously wagging fingers at predatory lenders who allegedly enticed innocent borrowers, and the country, into a financial snake pit. While the mortgage industry clearly deserves a good share of the blame, unindicted co-conspirators abound. The ringleaders are still at-large and are, in … [Read More]

“The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating,” said President Obama, as he announced deployment of 17,000 more U.S. troops. “I’m absolutely convinced that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region, solely through military means.” ”(T)here is no military solution in Afghanistan,” says Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Said U.S. Commander Gen. David McKiernan … [Read More]

Nicola Anouilh is the only son of the great French playwright Jean Anouilh—more than 70 plays, including Antigone, Becket and La Sauvage—and a close friend since Paris in the Sixties. He was of a generation just below mine, one that managed to get into Jimmy’s only during the events of May 1968, when the French bourgeoisie ran off to the south, … [Read More]

When President Bush sold the Iraq War to the American people, he claimed that refusing to act was unacceptable as the crisis of global terrorism required immediate action. Said Bush in 2002 “Some have argued we should wait - and that is an option. In my view, it is the riskiest of all options - because the longer we wait, the … [Read More]

Meet the Man Who Wants to Rule the World With the ascension of Barack Obama in Washington, the proponents of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are entertaining fresh hopes that the United States will ratify the 1998 Rome Statutes and join 108 countries that have signed up to the Court thus far. Designed as a key instrument of an “evolving” system … [Read More]

It has never ceased to amaze me that, as our stalwart editor commented to me, “it reveals much about our age that the term ‘adult fun’ evokes pornos and strapons and not black-tie outings and champagne.” Indeed it does. As this writer lamented in an earlier piece, there seems to be an absolute hatred on the part of the Boomers, and … [Read More]

“Bush Boom Continues” trilled the headline over the Lawrence Kudlow column, as George W. Bush closed out his seventh year in office. “You can call it Goldilocks 2.0,” purred Kudlow. Yes, you could. But what a difference 12 months can make. Final returns are now in on the eight years of George Bush. Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services has crunched … [Read More]