notes and views on products and people who make them

Archived punditry

I STARTED BLOGGING IN AUGUST 2002. There might have been as few as 200 thousand blogs back then. Now it’s more like 112 million (and counting).

I could, then, call myself an old-timer – if only the number of years I’ve clocked counted for anything.

Today, I am purging my old blog archives (inaccessible from anywhere but Google for over a year). These 22 posts will remain here for the sake of nostalgy, mostly, since I am no longer interested in political punditry and neither seem to be my current readers.

February 17, 2008

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2002

August 22

My first blog post. It was about nothing. But hey, it was August, 2002!

2003

April 27

“Ministry of Culture has proven its vanity many, many times, and it’s probably the most expendable one. Arts have always been a discipline where talented individuals or groups pursue some particular goal, in other worlds, it’s been business as usual with little need for help.”

September 1

“Immigration is beneficial in this one aspect alone: it raises competitive value of the country and its people. It forces innovation. It creates new opportunities, new beginnings not only for newcomers, but for the rest of us as well.”

September 4

The Case Against Libertarian FAQ – part one targeted limited liability, part two – abortion. Not sure where the Liberatian FAQ is today, or libertarians themselves.

September 12

Why do intellectuals oppose capitalism?

November 21

Intellectuals and the Velvet Revolution

“Intellectuals are a strange breed. Regardless of their actual occupation, which tends to center around academia, media and miscellaneous writing positions, they have one thing in common: an enormous belief in their own superiority, uniqueness and power to shape history.”

2004

January 8

Classical music pays for being too classical.

August 28

“The problem with intellectuals is that they are obsessed with words. They love the process of thinking, and instead of concentrating on the goal, they acknowledge that there is no goal. Howell Raines wasted 2180 words to find out what Bush’s brain is about. In the end, he admitted he doesn’t know. His disdain for simple answers prevented him from knowing. Yes, President Bush is no intellectual, and neither was Reagan. They’re happy being just smart.”

August 29

… where I continue my tirade against intellectuals.

September 28

… and against pop stars opening their mouths.

November 24

Writing against, and then in favor, of Vaclav Havel’s candidacy for UN Secretary General.

December 19

Amadeus

“I first saw the movie when I was about 8 years old. 20 years later, the it still takes my breath away.”

2005

April 9

“[If] it is the libertarian way to avoid participating in the process, it’s no wonder that libertarian thinking hasn’t made it into the mainstream. Quite the contrary: Europe is slipping into a full-blown socialism every day. Even if one man cannot make a contribution big enough to change the course of history, it’s still important not to sit still and watch the activist left to bring the old continent to its knees, so that the islamofascist thug will have an easy job a few years later. As we can see in Iraq, Lebanon, or Kyrgyzstan, “one man, one vote” can still do miracles. Democracy is not dead; it’s that it’s enemies on the left have poisoned it to the point when it looks like a bad parody with a sad ending.”

September 11

“IT’S BECOME customary to say September 11 changed everything. As much as one could hope it did, it now seems that only a minority is still at war; for the majority, business-as-usual replaced the unwelcome reality of a conflict that didn’t end.”

November 16

On how I realized I was a political extremist.

November 18

On the Velvet Revolution.

2006

January 20

Trying to argue with Virginia Postrel: are mainstream churches full of crap, or what?

March 24

Red State Snobbery. Or something.

May 18

Ann Coulter angry with President Bush. Ann who?

June 12

Saying good-bye to political punditry. End of history, at least for a while.