To say that Ta-Nehisi Coates’ most recent book, The Message, has been “controversial” is, well, “banal”, although the uproar has most unfortunately been upstaged by the re-election of Donald Trump. It’s more than a bit silly to be lecturing poor Mr. Coates on his sins—though they are, I’m afraid, substantial in their own right—when the…
Tag: liberalism
Yeah, I flunked Econ 101! What’s your point?
As a matter of fact, I I didn’t flunk Econ 101, because I never took it! So what? To quote Mel Brooks, I’m an old man and I’ve got a right to talk. And, to quote another old man, Richard Nixon, “I am not an intellectual, but I do read books!” Well, I do and…
Peter Watson’s The German Genius: Ist es deutsch? Ja, allzu deutsch.
Peter Watson’s massive (996 pages) study, The German Genius, is one of the most confounding books I’ve ever read, “impressive” for most of its great length, often “brilliant” in its discussion of 20th century Germany, but then lurching downhill drastically in places, descending to the level of Nazi apologetics at its worst—plus one whopping mathematical…
Q: Why did neoliberalism replace social democracy? A. Because social democracy failed. Next question!
“No, I Do Not Think the Microprocessor Doomed Social Democracy”, a substackin’ Brad DeLong exclaims, linking to a “very nice” (Brad says) piece by Arthur Goldhammer in Democracy, Chip Shots, a review of Chris Miller’s Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology and quoting an extensive chunk of it, edited by Brad,…
This is why we can’t have nice public toilets
Well, actually, we can. This is an existing public toilet in San Francisco—note the charming pumpkin tile to match the fall foliage (when it’s, you know, fall). It’s just that we can’t have too many of them, because they cost about $1.7 million apiece and take about three or four years to build. Slate’s Henry…
Barack Obama, wise before the fact, but not, alas, during
Timothy Shenk, a professor of history at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, which is “within” (somehow) George Washington University, has a nice article up at the New York Times, A Lost Manuscript Reveals the Fire Barack Obama Couldn’t Reveal on the Campaign Trail. What the good professor is talking about is a 250-page…
Democrats behaving badly. Again!
Oh yeah, it’s self-flagellation time around the Literature R Us corral, and my comrades in arms have supplied me with an awesome array of whips, knouts, and other assorted scourges, painful even to look upon, much less touch. But, well, duty calls. Yo, Joe Biden! Shut up! “They’re killing people,” bellowed/whined Uncle Joe back in…
CRT v. Anti-CRT: Wait, Wait! You’re BOTH Right! Occasionally.
OCTOBER 6, 2022 UPDATE: In the course of this report—somewhere in the middle—I discuss crime data from the FBI. I should have pointed out that these data are estimates rather than complete tallies. We don’t know, for example, that there were 10,440 homicides in the U.S. in 2020, although the FBI says we do. I…
Will the Dobbs debacle help liberals grow up? Well, yeah! In some universe! Probably!
It stands to reason, doesn’t it? If we live in a “multiverse”, containing an infinite number of universes, then surely there would be one in which liberals would respond “rationally” to Justice Alito’s leaked draft majority opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, right? Well, probably. It might depend on whether our particular multiverse…
Shorter Kevin Drum: The Real Source of America’s Rising Rage? Fox News!
Okay, I just saved you about 4,000 words, the approximate length of El Kevbo’s recent meganalysis of the American mood, appearing in Mother Jones, The Real Source of America’s Rising Rage, which has been getting some semi-approving nods around the internet. “I’ve been spending considerable time digging into the source of our collective rage,” Kevie…