The death of Sir Roger Scruton has deprived the Anglosphere of one of its most accomplished public intellectuals. Scruton is inevitably described as a “conservative philosopher,” but he was also an accomplished musician, novelist and connoisseur of wine. Theodore Dalrymple, writing in City Journal, provides an overview of an astonishing career and a life well-lived.
At Least He Paid his Losing Bet
Paul Ehrlich, author of the spectacularly incorrect 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, recently died at 93. Despite his longevity, Ronald Bailey points out in Reason, Ehrlich did not live to see even one of his numerous apocalyptic predictions come true. The world’s population certainly grew, but not merely larger, richer and fatter too. Most famously, Ehrlich once bet economist Julian Simon that the world was approaching economic collapse – but in 1990 had to mail Simon a cheque.
