A grad student who knows everything? That seems to be the case with Thomas Meaney over at the Nation, who pours both illumination and condescension on mega-thinkers like Francis Fukuyama and Pankaj Mishra. I first caught up with Tom in his four-barreled review of After Empires: European Integration, Decolonization, and the Challenge From the Global South 1957–1986 (Giuliano Garavini), The Poorer Nations:…
Bob Woodward: aging, wrinkled prick
Bob Woodward wants to know what the president knew and when he knew it, or rather, had the president known something, when would he have known it. Big bad Bob, seriously desperate for attention, gets a little from Tal Kopan at Politico, and is happy to use his knowledge of what happened in the Nixon Administration, which was…
Collettivo T. Monk del conservatorio Verdi di Milano—“Let’s Cool One”
https://youtu.be/IJSxVDFEy8M Dario Trapani, Guitar, Arrangements and Conductor; Simone Maggi, Trumpet; Paolo Lo Polito, Alto Sax; Nicolò Ricci, Tenor Sax; Rudi Manzoli, Tenor Sax; Andrea Baronchelli, Trombone; Giovanni Agosti, Piano; Marco Rottoli, Double Bass; Riccardo Chiaberta, Drums. Posted by Dario Trapani.
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Natural selection can kiss my ass. I’ve always been a giraffe man, and I always will be.” “It’s all my fault. The water was rising so damn fast, and the caulking just seemed to take forever. By the time we were shipshape, these babies were the only ones still breathing.” “If God has…
The gang that shoots straight, and often
A week after an FBI agent shot and killed Ibragim Todashev, the story of what happened is coming out, sort of, although what we’ve been “given” consists entirely of anonymous leaks. This follows the shooting by Boston police of alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev—unarmed, like Todashev—and the shooting and killing of his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev,…
Diva down 2; the berating of Bachmann
It’s an axiom in Washington that “they” never kick you until you’re down, which is exactly what is happening tohapless Michele Bachmann. The normally dispassionate Politico has gone seriously ape-shit on the issue, devoting half a dozen stories Bachmann’s various faults, failures, and fatuities. The premier bashing point for Politico’s rants is that Michele was “ineffective,” which is…
Three Bullets
Another post pushing Three Bullets, three FREE Nero Wolfe novellas, written by myself and whipped into shape by the remarkable labors of Alex Avenarius, who not only edited Three Bullets, but put them in coherent electronic form for the web, for downloading for Kindle, and for iPad/iPhone/Android. In addition, another individual, “rogue ronin,” contributed the elegant artwork…
Tesla Good, Tesla Bad, or Tesla Trivial?
Slate magazine offers dueling Tesla takes, with Scott Woolley claiming that the federal government should have hit the electric company up for some stock options back in 2009 when the U.S. Energy Department gifted Tesla with a $465 million low-cost loan. According to Woolley, Uncle Sam is acting Uncle Sucker. If we’re going to handing cash for high-risk…
Diva down—the bailing of Bachmann
Democrats are surely dismayed, though hardly surprised, to see Michele Bachmann dodge a bullet if not a fusillade by deciding not to run for re-election in 2014. That slow-motion train wreck that was the public career of La Belle Michelle has finally ground to a halt, and the Republicans will have the luxury of running…
Solar Panels—the drama continues
Was ever an industry so fraught as the solar panel industry? Spectacular flameouts of Obama-subsidized, Obama-connected, state-of-the-art, industry-of-tomorrow outfits like the renowned though now alas defunct Solyndra, charges and counter-charges of “unlawful” subsidies (i.e., bigger, or at least more effective than ours) made by, among, and between the U.S., Europe, and China, and now perhaps the…