Happy Birth Day!

His very first birthday post, squeaked in just before midnight!

 Welcome, welcome, James, to the family and the world.

The Noble Savage

All of this would be of academic interest only, were it not the case that the modern environmental movement and many of our public policies are based implicitly on the myth of the Noble Savage. The fountainhead of modern environmentalism is Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. The first sentence in Silent Spring invoked the Noble Savage by claiming "there was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings." But the town Carson described did not exist, and her polemic, Silent Spring, introduced us to environmental alarmism based on junk science. As the years passed, Rachel Carson was elevated to sainthood and the template laid for endless spasms of hysterical fear-mongering, from the population bomb, to nuclear winter, the Alar scare, and global warming.

Human beings have not, can not, and never will live in harmony with nature. Our prosperity and health depend on technology driven by energy. We exercise our intelligence to command nature, and were admonished by Francis Bacon to exercise our dominion with "sound reason and true religion." When we are told that our primary energy source, oil, is "making us sick," or that we are "addicted" to oil, these are only the latest examples of otherwise rational persons descending into gibberish after swooning to the lure of the Noble Savage. This ignorant exultation of the primitive can only lead us back to the Stone Age.

David Deming

Stupid Cat

This cat is wearing a Steamfresh bag. Two weeks ago, it was wearing a bib-shaped piece of white plastic. It hung just like a bib. It got one leg through it and then the other, and then it looked like an apron. The cat wore it for a week. Yes, the bag totally encircles the cat.

How It's Done

Benign Wind Turbines

Welcome!

Here's Alexandra Elyse, born at home -- unintentionally, with Michael as midwife -- last night.  Mom and baby are both doing well, but the lesson to Caleb and Kate is, leave for the hospital early!

Happy birthday, Laura!

As a favor to my mother

I am posting this picture:


Anna left Philly for good yesterday. We will miss her!

Super Bowl Contest II

OK, Luke, here it is. Pick the winner and the score. Deadline is kickoff. Prize is dinner for two at your favorite restaurant, 50$ max. If I win, the other contestants must pick up the tab for me.
1) Winner
2) Winner's points
3) Total points
4) Loser's points

Super bowl contest

Where is it? I want to play.