That’s what I get from the first episode of The Expanse, an elaborate space drama brought to you by the good folks at SYFY, now in its sixth season, which I’m watching on Amazon. Set in the 23rd century, it envisions a solar system dominated by Earth and Mars, with the hapless denizens of “The…
America’s latest “Forever War” not finding too many recruits
I have frequently—frequently—and loudly—loudly—complained about the compulsion of America’s foreign policy “Blob” to find a replacement for everyone’s favorite multi-trillion-dollar arms race, the late great Cold War, centering, of course, on China, but eagerly tossing in Iran, Russia, and even Venezuela, for good measure. The problem is, not everyone seems to be as afraid of…
Is this ad racist, or just incredibly annoying? In either case, why the hell are we seeing it again?
I have not, nor will I ever, own a Discover card. And I thought the Duluth Trading Company underwear ads were bad! Imagine having a porcupine in your underwear! Ha, ha! That’s pretty funny!
Joe Biden gets tough with Iran by murdering innocent Iraqis and Syrians.
He sure did. The bad, and unsurprising news is, the Biden administration launched new attacks on “Iran-backed” militia, maintaining a tradition of the U.S. doing whatever the hell it pleases on the international scene whenever it damn well feels like it, which goes back at least as far as George H. W. Bush. The good,…
They Got Rhythm: How George Gershwin begot Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk
Back in 1930, George Gershwin wrote a tune, “I Got Rhythm”, whose underlying chord structure proved a god-send to jazz musicians for decades to come. “Rhythm Changes” served as the basis for dozens of jazz tunes, which served, in turn, for some of the greatest performances in jazz. We’ll start off with the original, served…
Terrible Dan Drezner. Terrible Dan Drezner!
Hey, I promised, and a blogger always keeps his word—well, within the limits of reason, of course. And, anyway, Dan is at his terrible worst in this one—his terribleist, one might say—in an abysmal missive abysmally titled The progressive case against NATO is weird. When a pundit, particularly a scholarly one such as Dan, uses…
Great Dan Drezner, Terrible Dan Drezner
Why do I wax hot and cold on poor old Dan Drezner? Because Dan does so himself. Sometimes, Dan is so hot he’s boiling, or perhaps I should say “incandescent”! I mean, the light he sheds in his recent column, Is the United States capable of industrial policy in 2021?, is amazing. Because Dan’s answer,…
Good Dan Drezner, Bad Dan Drezner
What would life be without Dan Drezner? Dan is an ever-flowing cornucopia of ideas, most of them irritating, but not a few thoughtful and worthy of consideration. Let’s start with the good, a double surprise, really, because not only is Dan’s column from a few months back, Free Trade With Benefits a good one, for…
Reports of the neocons’ demise have been greatly exaggerated
Weren’t the neocons terrible? Well, they still are, and they’re still running things at both Bloomberg and the New York Times, and they still think it’s “smart” to lie to their readers. Eagle-eyed substacker Daniel Larison brings the sad but unsurprising news on both. First the Bloomberg folks have the “great” idea that President Biden…
Clarence Thomas’ “originalism” too original for Damon Root
It is, I think, “amusing” to expect intellectual consistency from a man who, like four other unscrupulous “conservatives”, found that George Bush had a constitutional right to the presidency, come hell or high water, in the very worst Supreme Court decision ever, Bush v. Gore, whose multiple hypocrisies were ably deconstructed back in the day…