Over at the National Review, the sometimes sensible Jonah Goldberg (but only sometimes) has a cri de cœur so poignant that I feel I have to give poor Jonah a helping hand. In a bitterly worded piece, Jonah explains the suffering he endures watching President Trump’s daily briefings on the coronavirus: “I hate them with…
Soo June Kim—“Let’s Cool One”
Young Woo Lee, piano; Jae Shin Park, bass; Jun Ho Song, guitar; Soo June Kim, drums. Posted by Soo June Kim
Well, this is depressing. Hilaire Belloc’s 1922 anti-Semitic screed “The Jews” is available from Amazon in 59 different formats and editions.
I don’t know how Amazon decided I might be interested in Hilaire Belloc’s pretentious anti-Semitic tome, unless they are counting all my keystrokes (they aren’t, are they?) and found out I looked him up on Wikipedia recently—because I was quoting him, favorably, for his critique of the ultimate justification for western imperialism—“For we have got/The…
Shorter National Review: Daddy only hits us when we make him mad
Yes, that’s the way both Dan McLaughlin and Kylie Smith are spinning it over at the National Review. Listen up, Media! We all know that the president is “unusually thin-skinned and capricious, that he is keenly and perhaps unhealthily focused on what the media are saying about him at any given nanosecond, that he has…
Shorter Trump Administration: “F*ck yeah we’re getting the f*ck out of Afghanistan! Pronto! We’re raring to go!
What if we gave a retreat and nobody noticed? That seems to be the situation in Afghanistan, where Secretary of State Michael Pompeo recently made a flying visit to tell the locals to shape the fuck up before Uncle Sam got pissed, or as the Washington Post put it: “U.S. vows to cut $1 billion…
26 Ways of Listening to Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight”
At least 26, starting off with Miles Davis, back in 1967, with earlier dates as far back as 1948, and as recently as last year, including several with Monk himself, along with vocals by Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn, and, well, a host of others, pulled together rather randomly by me over the past six…
Shorter NYT: Bernie sucks!
With the world more or less crashing down around our ears, it’s more than nice of the New York Times to crank out one of those quasi-pissy, sometimes bitchy, behind the scenes political insider reports, “How It All Came Apart for Bernie Sanders”. As I’ve said, well, many times, I really don’t like Bernie Sanders,…
When William Gladstone died, did something else die too?
Somewhere or other I remarked that my “hobbies” include reading books about dinosaurs and British prime ministers. Well, I do, and recently I read my third biography of one of the greatest, William Gladstone, a Victorian figure second only to Victoria herself, born in 1809 and entering Parliament at age 22, where he would serve…
Bernie Sanders is going to be a very sore loser
A lot of “concerned” people, like New York’s Jonathan Chait and the Bulwark’s Jonathan Last—Jonathan V. Last, as he likes to call himself1—are telling Bernie Sanders to get the hell out of the Democratic presidential race—Johnnie V, who once studied molecular biology, making the impeccable point that Bernie’s continued campaign is a danger to public…
Taylor Donaldson Big Band—“Let’s Cool One”
Saxes: Michael Johancsik, Jason Stillman, Annie Dominique, Ted Crosby, Philippe Côté Trumpets: Alexis French, Nic Boulay, Art Kovalchuk, Scott Bevins Trombones: Nico Therrien, Taylor Donaldson, Alex Desjardins, Jean-Sebastien Vachon Piano: Andrew Boudreau Bass: Sebastien Pellerin Drums: Guillaume Pilote Arranged by Michael Johancsik. Recorded live at Café Résonance on July 14, 2015. Audio recorded by Padraig…