by Fred Reed
Twaddle to the right, twaddle to the left, and not a drop to drink. In contemplating China’s meteoric rise (though on thought I am not sure that meteors rise) Americans usually attribute it to cheap labor or theft of intellectual property or unfair governmental subsidies. But our religious faith in free enterprise, in which individuals …
Given that Washington is actively looking for a pretext to invade Mexico, where I have lived for twenty-three years, a few observations from this side of the border may be of worth. To begin, let us ponder Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo, Mexico’s recently elected president, who is subject to considerable venom in the American media. For …
‘People of different sorts seldom want to live together. When forced to do so, the results often are suboptimal, such as mass murder. For example Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi, Israelis and Palestinians in Palestine, Chinese and Indonesians in Jakarta, Shias and Sunnis in many places, Moslems and Hindus in …
Much ink has been shed over the blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines with fingers being pointed at Americans, Russians, and Ukrainians as the saboteurs. At this writing, a Ukrainian supposedly involved has been arrested. How the media will spin this I don’t know. There exist many politically motivated who would like to decide who …
The following is a compilation of what over the years I have regarded, perhaps optimistically, as philosophically useful thought on current versions of Darwinism. It is a bit lumpy, consisting in part of articles published elsewhere. It is also criminally long. For this I apologize, and ask the reader’s patience. My childhood made me …
Massive Archive I have been writing this column, off and on, mostly on, for–dear God, can it be nearly thirty years? Yet nothing lasts forever, neither columns nor columnists, and Fred on Everything, for unexpected reasons with which i will not bore the reader, has reached its end. Columnizing is a curious trade. I suppose …
Consider two children, white, boys, growing up in contented middle-class families in the same suburb of Washington, DC, equally bright, popular, successful with girls, and so on. One becomes a growling conservative, the other a chirping liberal. I think of them as woofers and tweeters.) Why the difference in outcome? A likely explanation, or so …
Ages ago, for reasons I no longer remember, I was wandering across Asia and decided to spend some time in Taiwan. The Chinese interested me, and Taiwan was then as close as it was practical to get. Then, as now, the Chinese were thought by many to be exotic, inscrutable, devious and unlike normal people …
Oh help. As I write, the mumbling egg plant in the White House shovels money and arms into two wars, neither necessary, and he and Lockheed Martin prepare for a third, also unnecessary, over Taiwan, which is none of their business. Since in the Federal Bubble on the Potomac there is chatter at the mental …
}these are deranged ramblings, perhaps of psychiatric interest. If pressed, Fred will deny authorship and possibly bring an action for defamation. }beware. These days, not unreasonably I think, people wonder whether artificial intelligence will produce an electronic being superior to, well, us. Others of darker immaaginings ask whether we don’t face the arrival of a …