mild-mannered scholar by day, raging anti-socialist by night

 
DEBUNKING 9-11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Classical Values has gathered together a nice collection of material debunking the growing September 11 conspiracy theories, in a post here and in a follow-up. It's the sort of stuff people like my weirdo roommate desperately need to read.

Some months back I had intended to do something like this myself for said roommate's more serious (?) claims, but frankly, I got so sick of his insane theories (after having to hear them nearly every single day) that I simply didn't have the stomach to research them as I would have needed. Thank you, Classical Values, for sparing me from that torture!!

posted by Bernhardt Varenius at 3:57 PM | Link

 
SEASON OF SCATTERED BLOGGING

The research monkey is firmly on my back again, so blogging will continue to be sporadic for the near future. You can catch a glimpse of the hoops I'm jumping through here.

posted by Bernhardt Varenius at 2:33 PM | Link

 
HAVE A DOUGHNUT & TAKE THE STAIRS

The medical pendulum again swings the other way on obesity: Being "overweight" in and of itself has minor implications for overall health. The bottom line is that it is a sedentary lifestyle that is harmful to health, not the excess weight that may or may not result from it. That holds true with my own experience, as I've known several people who were active and healthy and yet would generally be considered overweight.

This otherwise good article is marred, though, by a section near the end where the author veers into absurd anti-American amateur psychoanalysis in an attempt to explain the American preoccupation with weight. ("No, it can't possibly be just fashion and poor science! It's because Americans are racist, repressed Puritans!") But then it was printed in al-Gardhiyan, after all...

posted by Bernhardt Varenius at 2:54 PM | Link

 
REVIVING RUSSELL KIRK

Here's an interesting article regarding a new book on Russell Kirk and how his Burkean conservatism fits within today's conservative landscape.

posted by Bernhardt Varenius at 5:13 PM | Link

 
FINALLY FOUND: MARXIST WHO UNDERSTANDS FASCISM!

...at least compared to the typical specimen, that is. The Marxist under consideration is British literary theorist Terry Eagleton, and his noteworthiness is shown by his review of Robert Paxton's latest book, The Anatomy of Fascism. Now, Eagleton does have serious misconceptions about the nature of fascism, but to his credit (and my surprise) he is refreshingly open to a view that contests the widespread Marxist notion that fascism is simply capital's last, desperate attempt to hold off the imminent workers' revolution. He happily concedes such things as the fact that fascism is radical, is not interchangeable with conservativism, and is not merely military dictatorship. Though he sinks back into ignorance beyond that, the fact that even dyed-in-the-wool Marxists are breaking with the doctrinaire understandings suggests that a more accurate portrayal of fascism is finally coming close to winning the day.

As for Paxton's book itself, based on Eagleton's review and those on the Amazon Books page it seems nowhere even close to being the "groundbreaking" work that its cover summary claims it to be. It appears to suffer from the tired old overemphasis on nationalism and nativism and the assumption that fascists left free-market capitalism untouched. A. James Gregor still has the best analysis out there, hands down. Incidentally, NRO's Jonah Goldberg is working on his own book about fascism, which he informs me owes much to Gregor's research -- I'm eager to see the result.

UPDATE: John Ray weighs in on the review too.

posted by Bernhardt Varenius at 4:11 PM | Link