Category: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
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The Case for Nicotine
Nicotine is the main psychoactive ingredient in tobacco, and a most delightful and useful ingredient it is, especially for us Luftmenschen. I am thinking of the chess players who make Luft, not war, and of the philosophers whose thoughts are characteristically lofty and luftig even if at times nebelig. Nicotine is good for cognitive functioning,…
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Jack London, John Barleycorn, and the Noseless One
Like many American boys, I read plenty of Jack London: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, Martin Eden, not to mention numerous short stories, some of them unforgettable to this day: "Love of Life," "Moonface," and "To Build a Fire." But I never got around to John Barleycorn until years later…
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Two Pipe Quotations
My referrers' list points me to this post whence I snagged these two delightful quotations: The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected. William Makepeace Thackeray A pipe is the fountain of contemplation, the…
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The Teetotaler
The teetotaler is a prude in point of the potable. Related articles Promiscuous Post-Modern PC Prudes
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Guns: Ten Important Observations
Getting through to liberals on a topic like this is well-nigh impossible, so willfully benighted are they. So why do I write on these topics? First to clarify my own ideas for my own enjoyment and edification. Second, to provide argumentative ammo for my conservative and libertarian friends. Third, because I am a happy culture…
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The Problem: Gun Culture or Liberal Culture?
This is a repost, slightly redacted, from 2012 to help stem the tsunami of folderol sure to wash over us from the orifices of the mindless gun-grabbing Left in the wake of the Isla Vista rampage. ……………. Without wanting to deny that there is a 'gun culture' in the USA, especially in the so-called red…
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Why We are ‘Obsessed’ with Guns and Executions
Keith Burgess-Jackson explains in response to a moronic missive he found in the NYT: To the Editor: Dear America: Not that I expect to persuade you, but just so you know, most of the rest of the world regards your obsession with guns and executions as barbaric. Don’t say you weren’t told. VINCE CALDERHEADNairobi, Kenya,…
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Marriage, the State, and Slippery Slope Arguments: An Objection Considered
A Reader Objects "First, if your justification of state involvement in marriage is the production and protection of children, then I think you open yourself to intervention of the state beyond what a limited government conservative should be comfortable with. If protection of marriage by the state for such a goal is the standard, many…
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Tobacco-Wackery in Tempe
Last week I quit my desert outpost and headed West to Tempe in quest of books and conversation. When in town I often stop at Churchill's, off of Mill Avenue, near ASU, for a cigar. But things had changed since my last visit. The outdoor tables in front of the store had been moved to…
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Hoplophobia in New York
Dear Maverick, Greetings from the least free state in the union (so says a George Mason study, anyway). I thought you might appreciate an example of the terrible policy that leftist irrationality leads to. I am a proud owner of a Smith and Wesson .38 revolver. I received this gun as a gift…
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Logic, Hypocrisy, and Tobacco-Wackery
Ruth Marcus begins her piece, The Perils of Legalized Marijuana, as follows: Marijuana legalization may be the same-sex marriage of 2014 — a trend that reveals itself in the course of the year as obvious and inexorable. At the risk of exposing myself as the fuddy-duddy I seem to have become, I hope not. This…
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Starting the New Year Off with a Bang
I began the New Year right at 2 AM, my usual arisal time, with prayer, meditation, journal writing, reflection on resolutions for 2014 numero uno of which is to finish the metaphilosophy book, some philosophical reading, a bit of blogging, and two online chess games, one 5-min the other 3-min. Won 'em both. Then…
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Call for Vapors: Dead Smokers’ Society to Meet in January in Scottsdale
Mike V. writes, I am hosting the first meeting of The Dead Smokers Society on Monday, January 13th, from 10 a.m. to noon at the stoplight at Scottsdale Community College. I have invited all of my friends to smoke and vape with me on the street on the first day of school. This could be…
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Celebrate Diversity
You have heard it said, "Celebrate diversity." But I say unto you: Celebrate unity, or better yet, celebrate the dialectical unity-in-diversity of unity and diversity. In all seriousness: avoid the diversity fetish, or, if you must celebrate diversity, celebrate hoplo-diversity:
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Cigarette, Cigar, Pipe
On his radio show this morning, cigar aficionado Dennis Prager said, and this is very close to a verbatim quotation: The purpose of a cigarette is nicotine. The purpose of a cigar is taste. All they have in common is tobacco and fire. Not quite. Agreed, the main purpose of cigarette smoking is nicotine delivery,…