Stephen Pinker revisits the Lawrence Summers controversy, and I’m reminded of a good point a friend made recently: There’s apparently ample literature that whatever intrinsic differences in math (or whetever else) ability exist between men and women, they’re dwarfed by the differences that appear when people believe there’s some kind of biological disparity. In other […]

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Speaking of changes in language, a comment thread at Hit and Run provoked a neologism I kind of like: fleischer : (n) a lie told for the sake of courtesy or protocol with no expectation that the intended audience will believe it. Of course, one does normally expect the intended audience not to burst out […]

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I make a point of rereading Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” once or twice a year, and this time through paused at this line: Adjectives like epoch-making, epic, historic, unforgettable, triumphant, age-old, inevitable, inexorable, veritable, are used to dignify the sordid process of international politics… What occured to me was the related but distinct […]

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