Newmark's Door

"A Lifetime of Sowell-Full Thought"

I agree with the reviewer: "Buy yourself and everyone you know an early Christmas present."

"Barbarians on the Thames"

Theodore Dalrymple, on the state of the UK, heartbreaking and devastating. As usual.

One rioter told a journalist that his compatriots were fed up with being broke all the time and that he knew people who had absolutely nothing. It is worth pondering what lies behind these words. It is obvious that the rioter considered being broke not merely unpleasant, as we all would, but unjust and anomalous, for it was these qualities that justified the rioting in his mind and led him to suggest that the riots were restitution. Leave aside the Micawberish point that one can be broke on any income whatever if one’s desires fail to align with one’s financial possibilities; it is again obvious that the rioter believed that he had a right not to be broke and that this right was being violated. When he said that he knew people with “nothing,” he did not mean that he knew homeless, starving people left on the street without clothes to wear or shoes on their feet; none of the rioters was like this, and many looked only too fit for law-abiding citizens’ comfort. Nor did he mean people without hot and cold running water, electricity, a television, a cell phone, health care, and access to schooling. People had a right to such things, and yet they could have them all and still have “nothing,” in his meaning of the word. Somehow, people had a right to something beyond this irreducible “nothing” because this “nothing” was a justification for rioting. So people have a right to more than they have a right to; in other words, they have a right to everything.

Tangible benefits, on this view, come not as the result of work, effort, and self-discipline: they come as of right. This inflated doctrine of rights has turned into a cargo cult as primitive as that in New Guinea, where the natives thought, after a laden airplane crashed in the jungle, that consumer goods dropped from the sky. Apparently, all that is necessary for people like the rioters to live at a higher standard of living, equal to that of others, is for the government to decree it as their right—a right already inscribed in their hearts and minds.

"This Is The 'Seinfeld' Approach To Fixing Fatal Flaws"

Executive vice-president of a "leadership development consultancy" argues for George Constanza's "opposite" approach.

Really.

 

"Why does George Clooney never seem to stay with any woman for more than a few months?"

They don't know. I don't know.

But it seems likely that he's had a good time. (With pictures of 14 women GC has dated.)

Bonus for Clooney fans: "The Curse of George Clooney". 

Duke Law to female students: please learn how to dress yourselves

Either hilarious or very sad. You decide. 

Link via Instapundit.

"All the Married Ladies: A Response to Kate Bolick"

A ringing defense of marriage. 

Ms. Bolick writes that her mother steeped her in feminist examples because she envisioned “a future in which I made my own choices.” By way of contrast, my daughter will grow up with the knowledge that traditional values, paired with traditional gender roles, will provide her with more of those choices than feminism’s limited precepts can ever enable. . . .

Society doesn’t need new ideas about romance and family, Ms. Bolick. It just needs to remember where it came from.

Via Linkiest.

"Creating a Reverse Bucket List"

A reverse bucket list is a list of things you don't want to do before you die. Here's Jeffrey Goldberg's. It starts this way:

1.    Climb Mount Everest

2.    See any movie or read any book about self-actualizing rich people who climb Mount Everest

3.    See that movie about the guy who cuts off his arm in a ravine that isn't even on Mount Everest

 

"How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done"

Stanford professor touts "structured procrastination".

"You'll Be Giving Your Baby These Names In 2015 -- You Just Don't Know It Yet"

I hope not. But then, how a lot of parents name their kids is an utter mystery to me.

"What Kind Of People Actually Enjoy Meetings At Work?"

Take a guess.