So, we’ve been in a big day-long meeting at the Foundation, and one of the things I learned was about how we helped fund Dr. Paul Zak’s research into the role the brain chemical oxytocin plays in warm, fuzzy emotions. I just googled up a Zak blog post in which he describes how a con…

That’s the question the Templeton Foundation posed to an array of smart people (e.g., Jagdish Bhagwati, Bernard-Henri Levy, John Gray, Michael Walzer, Michael Novak, Kay Hymowitz, and others) a while ago. Their diverse answers, including some videotaped responses, are archived here. It’s well worth spending some time perusing the various arguments. I incline to John…

Now this sounds like a book I want to read. Excerpt from the NYT review: The best book blurb I’m aware of came from Roy Blount Jr., who said about Pete Dexter’s 1988 novel, “Paris Trout”: “I put it down once to wipe off the sweat.” I’m not sure I know what that means. Was…

Writing in The New Criterion, Anthony Daniels reviews a new Ayn Rand biography, concluding that Rand was not without talent, but was a particular kind of Russian-bred monster. Excerpt: In her expository writings, Rand’s style resembles that of Stalin. It is more catechism than argument, and bores into you in the manner of a drill.…

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