Director Clint Eastwood, quoted by the Hollywood Reporter after a screening of his new film American Sniper, did not sound like a clone of William Kristol: “I was against going into the war in Iraq since I figured we would probably trip over ourselves in some way,” I had a big question when we went into…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Thelonious Punk—“Monk’s Dream”
Live from Kerikeri, New Zealand. Check out the band’s website here. Featuring Bevan O’Brien, drums, Victoria Landgraf, bass, and Reese Helmondollar, sax. Video by Mark Graver
The undeflatable George F. Will
There isn’t much about George F. Will that I find endearing, but the one thing that I find totally endearing is his deep dislike—verging on an irrational loathing, really—of football and, most particularly, the Super Bowl. For some reason, the Super Bowl seems to make George feel like—okay, I’m going to go for it—a Jew…
Mitt Won’t Run
Called it.
Jonathan Chait, not entirely an idiot
That seems to be the rap on Jonathan Chait’s now-notorious neo-Voltairean rap on free speech and the lack thereof in academe and on the web. Seems that Jon is fed up with the cult of victimhood that’s sweeping the nation, while the blogosphere is naturally fed up with the idea of well-paid straight white guys…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “I tell you, Bob, this kid is the greatest stone face since Buster Keaton!” “Your references are Ramesses II and Thutmose III? Quite the little name-dropper, aren’t we?” “‘What walks on four legs, then two, then three?’ I’ve got a better question for you: How the hell did you get in here?”…
A tear for Sarah Palin
The Divine Sarah cannot catch a break, can she? Not with the media around to trash her for every little thing she says. Not the mainstream media, of course. They’ve more or less lost track of her. It’s the conservative media that’s pissing all over her. Listen to what that mean Byron York at the…
Economic recession not a good thing, the New York Times discovers
The New York Times has an elaborate article (by Dionne Searcey and Robert Gebeloff) cum interactive display (by Alicia Parlapiano1, Bob, and Shan Carter), all four of whom, it seems, are stunned to learn that the last six years have been pretty terrible in economic terms. The article is titled “Middle Class Shrinks Further as…
Can Republicans say “abortion”? No.
Not even in Spanish. Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown explains why.
Essentially Ellington – UK—“Hackensack”
Students at the Guildhall School in London, performing at “The Spice of Life,” turn in a 2012 performance of Monk’s salute to a New Jersey suburb, as arranged by Wynton Marsalis. Sam Warner – Trumpet; Ru Pattison – Alto Saxophone; Albert Garza – Tenor Saxophone; Sion Favell Jones – Trombone; Liam Dunachie – Piano; Mark…