A World of Speculation

French history lesson

A moving account of genocide during the Reign of Terror appears at Godspy: Once, there was a rich and beautiful and remote land, a land of secrets and songs and story; a land of ocean and forest and river; of quiet marsh and deep paths. Its people lived as they had...

This is just plain weird

Journalist and professor Terry Mattingly attended the North American Christian Convention in Phoenix. He writes: Here is what I saw. On one of the quieter halls of the convention center was a small room set aside for private prayer. Since this was a Protestant...

Revenge of the scambaiters

We get more than we can count of them every week, in the stilted English of someone who learned the language well, but not quite well enough: Esteemed Sir: I am the last of a wealthy family in [African country of your choice] and have $[???] billion dollars in [a...

Of blogs, bridges and mystery

In a comment, Douglas says I should explain the significance of the bridge in the upper left corner of this blog. To begin with the basics, it’s the Hwy. 101 bridge over Yaquina Bay at Newport, Oregon. It’s a beautiful bridge, built in 1936 when Oregon was...

Stories of conspiracy and paranoia

Foucault’s Pendulum, The DaVinci Code, Jonathan Rabb’s execrable novel titled The Book of Q, Three Days of the Condor, Conspiracy Theory, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Fahrenheit 911, Late Great Planet Earth, and its descendant Left Behind, Pinky and...