U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has been forced out in a weird scandal involving “bullying” [Dominic Raab, U.K. Deputy Prime Minister, Resigns Amid Bullying Scandal, by Mark Landler and Stephen Castle, NYT, April 21, 2023]I just gave a bravura performance imitating his alleged behavior on my Jolly Heretic podcast to make a broader point:...
Read MoreWhen wannabe GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley claimed that men older than 75 years should be tested for mental competence when they run for president, CNN’s Don Lemon commented that Haley herself, at 51, is “past her prime.” The Sisterhood was enraged. Polite society was aghast. And of course Lemon grovelled. But the harsh fact...
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Henry Harpending (1944-2016) died this past Sunday. He had a stroke a year ago, and then a second one three weeks ago, but apparently he died of a lung infection. This is one of the risks of getting older: you dodge one bullet only to get hit by another. The cemeteries are full of people...
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Some of the following people are well worth remembering for their great achievements, and the way they did them; others are not. But all were well known in their time and exercised undue influence. I have already described the parallel cases of Ernst Mayr and Huey Newton, while Bill Drury was the most important influence...
Read MoreRon Unz • August 20, 2012 • 800 Words
As people are probably aware, I've recently written a few articles and subsequently participated in various Internet discussions. But for most of the last decade, stretching back well into the 2000s, my time was largely absorbed by a major software project, namely the creation of the UNZ.org content-archiving system. This system, although somewhat crude and...
Read MoreMadame Bovary's Ovaries, by Daniel P. Barash and Nanelle R. Barash
It is 41 years now since zoologist William D. Hamilton worked out the evolutionary mathematics of kin altruism, demonstrating that even behavior that seems to belong to the moral and educational superstructure of human nature can be explained by natural selection. Sociobiology was on the march. That march did not, of course, go unopposed. The...
Read MoreLetter to the Editor
Ron Unz •
The American Spectator (Letters) • February 1, 2001 • 300 Words
I was absolutely appalled by your current cover story attacking the Darwinian theory of evolution. I am a conservative. I support traditional social values and maintaining the crucial role of organized religion in our society. On most issues, I would probably be characterized as a strong social conservative. But I am a scientist first and...
Read MoreRon Unz • January 5, 2001 • 400 Words
In late December, I happened to notice a caricature of a confused looking monkey on the cover of the American Spectator, a prominent conservative magazine recently come under new ownership. To my horror, the lengthy cover story, with associated articles, contained a strong denunciation of Darwinian evolution and advocated support for a version of "scientific"...
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Ron Unz • March 1, 1983 • 2,200 Words
Incest is an emotional and important topic among human beings. To a sociobiologist, this fact is not surprising: incest, being a subcategory of repr