In today’s editorial, “Reopen Schools, and Reform Them”, the pathetically “correct” New York Times argues that “Scrapping the high-stakes admission tests for New York’s specialized public high schools is long overdue. They severely disadvantage talented Black and Latino students.” A more accurate head would be “Reopen schools, and then destroy middle class support for them,”…
The “Solar Winds” Fraud: Special Hot Air Edition
It’s an ill wind that blows no good, and the latest fake news regarding “Solar Winds”, the Russian super hack that wasn’t, is a good example. It’s just coincidence, I’m sure, that a sudden leak regarding Russian perfidy should emerge just as Joe Biden was taking office. The odds were already roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000 to 1…
It’s My Latest! And It’s My Greatest!
Okay, maybe Alternative Worlds Elvis and Others isn’t my greatest book, but it is my latest, the eleventh, if you’re keeping score, available from Amazon in both ebook and paperback format. Alternative Worlds reaches out to the multiplicity of universes that surround us on all sides, accessible only through the imagination, universes that contain versions…
Monday is Monk’s Day, courtesy of Stéphane Tsapis
And every other day of the week too, thanks to French pianist and composer Stéphane Tsapis, but Mondays are now special because Stéphane is posting videos featuring himself and another performer giving us a new version of some of Monk’s classic tunes. The first installment features violinist Mathias Lévy, performing “Ask Me Now”, “Let’s Cool…
Fake news! Fake news hot off the press from the New York Times! Supplied to you courtesy of Elliot Ackerman
When is a war not a war? In his recent column for the Gray Lady, bearing the highly dubious title “The Afghan War Is Over. Did Anyone Notice?”, Mr. Ackerman, described by the Times as one of the paper’s “contributing opinion writers”, explains it all for you: Afghanistan in 2009 is not Afghanistan in 2020….
The Literary Offenses of William Faulkner
(Author’s note: Easily the greatest piece of literary criticism in American letters is Mark Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”, though I believe Mark might have titled it more euphoniously. My piece takes a much more somber hue than Mark’s, exploring, to be blunt, Faulkner’s frequent failure to free himself emotionally from the limitations of his…
Allstate regrets nothing, not even using Edith Piaf to hustle car insurance to gays
Okay, I’m not saying that all thirty-something dudes with neatly trimmed beards and, you know, fabulous hair, who are good drivers and keep goldfish and live in “charming” houses are gay, but, well, I have my suspicions. But, anyway, what is the deal using “Non, je ne regrette rien”, the theme song of ultimate Greenwich…
Barack Obama, still not getting it after all these years
I confess that I have not read President Obama’s recent memoir, A Promised Land, nor am I likely to, because I have convinced myself that the political pressures on American politicians make it impossible, or at least exceedingly unlikely, for them to ever write anything that resembles an honest book. I would say that this…
Is Donald Trump making some Republicans “smarter”? Well, if by “some” you mean “two or three”, you may be on to something!
Okay, I don’t want to go out on a limb here, but I do detect a few signs of intelligence on the “right”, largely prompted by disgust over Trump’s hysterical reaction to his defeat and, even more, his clear willingness to overturn the results of the election by having state legislatures appoint their own electors…
Donald Trump tries to do something right. DC aghast.
Yes, you read that right: Donald Trump is trying to do something right. Not only is he trying to take a staggering 2,500 troops out of Iraq, he’s trying to take a staggering 2,500 troops out of Afghanistan as well! Effectively ending America’s only official shooting war! Almost as if we weren’t, you know, in…