John C. Wright's Blog, page 201

The way you wear your hat

A must-read for those of you interested in the lost art of being a man: 

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mwalsh/2010/01/03/the-way-you-wear-your-hat-listen-up-hollywood-its-important

... no American male under the age of 70 really knows how to wear a hat, not the way the average schnook did in the period between the wars, and up until the Kennedy/Sinatra Administration.  For lots of reasons, almost none of them having to do with the myth that JFK didn’t wear a hat to his inauguration (see...

An Awful Lot of Wasted Space

I wrote: "But someone who takes it as an article of faith that Earth cannot be unique because there is no God, and therefore life must be an accident -- aha! -- he will be shocked if the universe is empty. But his belief is an article of faith, not a conclusion of science, and not a conclusion backed by evidence."

Robert J Wizard writes: "I'm not sure whether your last sentence was directed at me. Here is what I meant: Empirically ruling out other life in the universe is impossible due to dis...

The Truth About Radical Christians

Some of the comments on YouTube concerning this spoof were from people who did not know it was a spoof, or who nodded and agreed that "USA does have a real problem with christian identity groups and superpatriot groups committing terrorism."

The point of the jest here is that the Left cannot tell the difference between Christianity and radical Islam.

Sadly enough, many not on the Left also cannot tell the difference, and proudly and resolutely maintain that we cannot take a...

It Aint Never Going to Happen (Except in SF)

A reader writes: 

"And I think eventually we'll learn to harness gravity, once we understand what the hell it actually is, and then this pesky Einstienein relativistic-light-barrier will fall soon after that."

My comment: 

Ain't going to happen. Apples did not start falling up when Newton refined Aristotle's physics, and time did not start running backward when Einstein refined Newton. No advance refutes the previous evidence--it only reinterprets it. Faster than light drive is as likely as a ri...

The Known Universe by American Museum of Natural History

Here is a video to give you an idea of the expanse in time and space of the known universe. My theist friends will be as awed by this intimation of the size, power, and dignity of the creator of such lovely vastness as my atheists friends will be awed by the magnitude and intricacy of blind nature at work.

Each side will perhaps be astonished that the other does not realize how clearly such magnitude proves either that is must have been made by God or proves that it could ...

Wright Household Christmas Letter for 2009

From the pen of my beautiful and talented wife:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

“God setteth the solitary in families” (Psalm 68: 6)

 

 

This year has been a wonderful year for us, a year of dreams come true. Most of all, it has been a year of patience rewarded, where long periods of waiting have finally borne fruit.

 

But first, the general news:

 

2009 was a wonderful year for the Wright family. Juss played soccer. Orville went to film-directing camp. Ro enjoyed summer school, and all three...

This is Me Jack Vance (Or more properly This is I) - by Jack Vance

To my Christian friends, I hope your celebrations of the Nativity of Our Lord were uplifting, and serve to remind you that a better world awaits us all in glory beyond the reaches of time. To my secular friends, I hope you got a lot of loot for Xmas.

Speaking of loot, Santa brought me a copy of Jack Vance's autobiography, which despite theovercrowded social schedule of the day (stockings upended at 8.00 AM, inlaws over for breakfast at 9.00, Mass at 10.00, friends visiting at 11.00, then drivi...

Its the end of AD 2009 and you ask where is your Flying Car?

Now that the Third Millennium is underway, many of you are suffering from retrofuturian nostalgia, which consists of wondering what ever became of the flying car and the jetpack, foodpills and robot maidservants, not to mention the moonbase, all those Hugo Gernsbeck stories promised you?

Well, I say, to frell with that! You dare to whine about your missing jetpack? Where is my land ironclad? You might have been promised a flying car! I want to know where is my gnormously awesomtastic armored ...

NRO on Avatar

This review may change my mind about going to see the film: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTBmNDU0YWUwZmM2MDNhZWUyNmVlZGZlMzZmYjE3ZmY=

What I didn’t expect was the sheer beauty of the film. It won me over. I think it was the forests of Pandora that first broke through my grumpy attitude — the graceful trees, plants with enormous fan-like leaves, curious twisted ferns that shyly retract when touched. Everything is glowing in lavender, blue, and aqua; it could have been painted by...

Merry Christmas Rant!

ZO !