Articles of Lasting Interest:
Jazz: I post a jazz video every week, usually but not necessarily featuring a performance of a composition of Thelonious Monk. These videos can be accessed as a group here.
“Harvard douchebaggery not exclusively a left-wing phenomenon, study reveals” is an unfriendly take on Harvard Professor Robert Barro’s disingenuous claim that President Obama’s excellent economic recovery, easily his greatest accomplishment, was not excellent.
“Woody Allen, last seen in search of lost innocence, and rich wood paneling!” is a take on Woody’s Café Society, which I enjoyed this side of idolatry.
“Good American Generals: Were there any?” is very largely devoted to kicking Doug MacArthur’s sorry butt around, but Pershing, Marshall, and the little-known Major General Lloyd Ralston Fredendall get a few boots as well.
“Globalism lays an egg. Why?” is surely the 10,000th chin-stroker on the possible causes for the rise of Bernie Trump.
“Bojack Horseman—It’s like an “Archer” for horses!” is a mostly thumbs-up appreciation of Netflix’s animated take on equine ennui, LA style.
“The Conservative Mind turns sixty! (Sound of one hand clapping)” is my massively unenthusiastic take on Russell Kirk’s legendary tome.
“Alfred Hitchcock—A coupla white guys sittin’ around talkin’, Part I” and “Alfred Hitchcock—A coupla white guys sittin’ around talkin’, Part II” are a pair of photo essays I cobbled together examining a few aspects of three of Hitchcock’s films, Vertigo, Dial M for Murder, and Psycho.
“Justice Scalia, very big, very fat liar REVISITED” is perhaps the most extended of my many rants directed at the late Antonin Scalia.
“What could be done, and why liberals won’t let it happen” is me at my most neoliberal, arguing for economic reforms that, sadly, are unlikely to occur.
“The Foreign Policy Debate: Wouldn’t it be nice if we had one?” is one of my longer rants bemoaning the current interventionist Beltway consensus, which has survived almost endless disasters and expenditures.
“Jurassic Parks: Stevie and the Dinosaurs” is my take on Steven Spielberg’s four (four and counting) dino films, nicely presented at the Bright Lights Film Journal.
“EDITOR’S NOTE: Alan Vanneman regrets to admit that he has nothing intelligent or informed to say about the ISIS crisis. Instead, he will write about nail salons” is a bizarrely protracted discussion regarding a New York Times mini-series on nail salons.
“Freeman Dyson and the continuing myth of the international freemasonry of science” reflects my scorn for the attempts of left-leaning scientists like Dyson to conceal the significance of the crimes of Soviet spies like Klaus Fuchs and the Rosenbergs.
“A tear, and a poem, for Marion Barry”
“The Judith Miller Show: Weaving new false narratives to replace the old” is one of my most protracted rants on our continuing Middle East follies.
“WMD: The Right Lies Well” is an extensive take, ten years after, on the shameful, and disastrous, War in Iraq.
A World Without Thelonious is a review of more than a dozen “Salute to Thelonious” albums by a string of fine musicians highlighting Monk’s work.
“Knocking Flannery Around” is a review of Brad Gooch’s Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, bouncing off of two online reviews, one by Christopher Benfey and the other by Joseph O’Neill. As the title implies, I’m not all that fond of Flannery.
“Thoughts on the current discontents,” written in 2011, is still pretty current, at least in my frustrated intellect.
“James Q. Wilson good, James Q. Wilson not so good” and “James Q. Wilson good, James Q. Wilson not so good, Part II” riff on the late sociologist and ruminate about “the Sixties” and the New Deal.
“For Günter Grass, who, while attempting to shoulder the burden of history, falls frequently though not continuously on his broad German arsch.” Well, the title says it, for this one.
All other Topics I’ve Written On:
2012 Election
2012 Presidential Campaign
47 Percent Solution
Administration Lies
Adrienne Pine
Affordable Care Act
Aimless Thoughts
AIPAC Idiocy
Alan’s Angst
Alex Massie
All the Sad Young Liberals
Allan Bloom
Andrew Breitbart
Andrew Ferguson
Andrew Sullivan
Ann Coulter
Ann Romney
AOL
Arianna Huffington
Asians
Atlantic
Bad State Department Decisions
Barack Obama
Barbara Boxer
Beirut Bombing
Beltway Corruption
Benedict XVI
Benghazi
Benjamin Netanyahu
Bibi Netanyahu
Bicycles
Billie Holiday
Black Studies
Bloomberg Follies
Bob Woodward
Boring Stuff at the Weekly Standard
Brad DeLong
Breaking Bad
Brent Scowcroft
Brian Palmer
Brightlights Film Journal
Bruce Bartlett
Bush Justice
Buzz Bissinger
Capitalist Oppression
Car 54
Cartoon
Catholic Church
Cato
Cato Institute
Cfaille
Charles Krauthammer
Charles Murray
Charles Murray Ineffably Silly
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Webster
Cheap Humor
Chicago Teachers Strike
Chief Justice Roberts
China
Chris Christie
Chris Christie’s Mother
Christianity
Christopher Benfry
Chrystia Freeland
CIA Follies
CIA Idiots
Citing Ed Meese as Precedent
Colin Powell
Condoleezza Rice
Conor Friedersdorf
Contrived Republican Hysteria
Cord Jefferson
Crap from Politico
Crass Sexual Stereotyping
Cunt Punt (what else?)
Damn Hippies
Daniel Drezner
Daniel Larison
David Aaron Miller
David Bernstein
David Brooks
David Denby
David Frum
David Koch
David Rieff
David Wiegel
Dead Nuns
Death
Deborah Needleman
Deficit Cliff
Democratic Cowards
Democratic Pusillanimity
Deservedly Slain Jackdaws
Despicable French Boors
Dexter
Dianne Feinstein
Diarmaid MacCullough
Dick the Dick Cheney
Doc Martens
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Downton Abbey
Drug War Follies
Dubious Murmurs
Dubious Outrage Expressed in the New York Times
Dubya’s Disasters
Due Process Denial of by Obama Administration Citing Ed Meese as Precedent
Dumb David E. Sanger
Dylan Byers
Economic Agony
Economy
Editing
Egypt
Elite Colleges
Elvis Presley
Emily Bazelon
Emily Nussbaum
Emily Yoffe
Environmental Stupidity
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric Posner
Etaoin Shrdlu
Ezekiel Emanuel
Falklands
Fast and Furious
Fat People
FDR
Felix Salmon
Film
Flying Dutch Dudes
Food
Football
Foreign Policy Follies
Formula Freedom
Francis Fukuyama
Fred Astaire
Fred Kaplan
Fuck
Gay Republican Sheriffs in Arizona
General Petraeus
General Petraeus and a Cast of Thousands
General Petraeus’ Follies
George Akerlof
George McGovern
George Patton
George Seldes
George Will
Gil Troy
Girls
Glenn Greenwald
Gore Vidal
Great Divergence
Greg Smith
Grey Goose
Gun Control
Gun Follies
Guns
Gunter Grass
Hagel Nomination
Haredim
Harvard Hustles
Henry Kissinger
High Noon
High-End Incompetence
Hillary Clinton
Holy Joes
Honest Oil Prices
Horse Semen
Human Folly
Humor
Hunger Games
Hyperventilating Neo-Con Shitheads
Hypocritical Right Wing Idiots From AE
Idiot Bob Woodward
Idiot Liberals
Idiot Paul Ryan
Idiot Republicans
Idiot SEALS
Immanuel Kant
Immigration
Income Inequality
Ineffable Balderdash
Iran
Israeli Jive
Italian Comic Books
J. Edgar Hoover
Jack Welch
James Asher
James Bond
James Q. Wilson
Jamie Dimon
Jazz
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Jeff Sachs
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jennifer Rubin
Jerusalem
Jessica Pare
Jesus Christ
Jews
Jill Abramson
Joan Acocella
Joe Biden
Joe Klein
Joe Paterno
John Boehner
John Brennan
John Jenkins
John Maynard Keynes
John Turley
John Von Neumann
Jon Hamm’s Penis
Jon Schwarz
Jon Stewart
Jonah Goldberg
Jonathan Chait
Jonathan Cohn
Jose Rodriguez
Joseph Massad
Josh Barro
Journalism
Journalism of Total Incompetency
Joyce Maynard
Judicial Watch
Karl Marx
Katherine Fenton
Katy Weymouth
Kevin Gutzman
Kids
Krazy Kochs
LA Times
Larry Lindsey
Las Malvinas
Lawrence Mishal
Lazy Felix Salmon
Leon Cooperman
Leon Douchebag Panetta
Leon Wieseltier
Liberace
Liberal Complaints
Libertarians Gone Wild
Libor
Lies of Dave Weigel
Lifestyles of the Rich and Obnoxious
Likudist Jive
Lindsay Lohan
Liz Cheney
Low-Carbon Eggs
Lyin’ James Stewart
Lyin’ Paulie Ryan
Lyin’ Paulie Wolfowitz
Mad Men
Manic Megan McCardle
Marc Ambinder
Marc Hauser
Marc Tracy
Marcy Wheeler
Margaret Thatcher
Margot Asquith
Mario Rizzo
Mark Lynch
Martha Nussbaum
Marxism
Matt Drudge
Matt Levine
Matt Yglesia
Max Hastings
Max Weber
Media
MEK
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg (idiot)
Michael Lewis
Michael Novak
Michael Steele
Middle East Follies
Military Nonsense
Mitch Daniels
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney So Not a Stallion
Mitt the Shit Romney
Moral Monsters of Wall Street
More Scientists and Engineers Not Really Needed All That Much
Morgan Meis
Mozart
Murder of the Innocents
Myron Scholes
Mythical Umbrellas
Naomi Riley
Neo-Darwinist Moralizing Limitations
Nero Wolfe
New Deal
New Republic
New York Police Department
New York Times
New York Times Follies
New Yorker
Newt ‘Newt the Stoop’ Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newtown
Niall Ferguson
Noam Chomsky
Non-Extreme Porn
Norman Mailer
Norman Ornstein
North Korea
NRA
Nuance
Obama
Obama Follies
Obama War Crimes
ObamaCare
Online Universities
Oppressive and Unreasonable Drug Laws and Law Enforcement
Overwrought Catholic Angst
Pathetic Old Drunks
Patrick Deneen
Paul Krugman
Paul Pilar
Paul Starobin
Paula Broadwell
PC Madness
Peggy Noonan
Peter Beinart
Peter King
Peter Orszag
Phony CIA Plots
Political Correctness
Political Hypocrisy
Politico Suck-Ups
Politics
President Obama
Pretentious Right-Wing Idiots
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ramesh Ponnuru’s Jive
Rand Paul
Ray Kelley Police Crimes
Realists
Religion
Republican Angst
Republican Follies
Republican Idiots
Republican Iniquity
Republican Lies
Republican Nausea
Republican Racism
Responsible Republican Liars
Richard Posner
Rick Santorum
Ridiculous Stories in the New York Times
Right-Wing Asian-Americans
Right-Wing Idiots
Robert and Edward Skidelsky
Robert Kagan
Robert Samuelson
Robert Shiller
Robert Trivers
Rod Blagojevich
Rod Dreher
Roger Ailes
Rolling Stones
Ron Paul
Ronald Reagan
Rosa Brooks
Ross Douthat
Rupert Murdoch
Rush Limbaugh
Ryan Avent
Ryan Crocker
Sam Tannenhaus
Samoa
Sandra Fluke
Savonarola
Sebastian Thrun
Semi-Entitled Serial Killers
Sergey Aleynikov
Shabbat Goy
Simon Johnson
Sixties Radicals
Slate’s Idiot Boxes
Smart Greg Sargent
Social Security
South Korean Pop
Spencer Ackerman
St. John Klimakos
Stanislaw Ulam
Steve Jobs
Steven Greenhouse
Strippers
Stupid Bill Keller
Stupid Thom Shanker
Subsidized Solar Panels
Supreme Court
Susan Rice
Suze Orman
T Magazine is Burning
T.S. Eliot
Talking Points Memo
Tallulah Bankhead
Tammy Duckworth
Tampa
Tea Party Idiots
Tedious Catholic Thinkers
Terrible BBC Series
Terrible Tim Geithner
Tex
That Damnably Boring NFL Trade Deadline
The Agony of Gary Busey
The Banalities and Venalities of Nino Scalia
The CIA Not That Innocent
The Ignorance of Alan Vanneman
The Metro
The Obscenely Expensive Shoes of Katie Rolphe
Thelonious Monk
Thomas Mann
Three Bullets
Tim Geithner
Tim Noah
Tim Noah’s Grandmother
Tim Pawlenty
Todd Akin
Tom Edsall
Tom Friedman
Tommy Dorsey
Trio Restaurant
Turkey Buzzards
TV
UBS AG
Unjustified Aggression (U.S./Israeli)
US Department of Agriculture
Victor Davis Hanson
Viridiana Rios
Wal-Mart
Wall Street Assholes
Wall Street Follies
Wall Street Idiots
Wall Street Journal Crimes of
War Crimes
War in Afghanistan
War on Terror
Washington Post
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Weekly Standard
William Faulkner
William Rehnquist
William Saletan
William Shatner
Wine
World’s End
Yuval Levin
Zeppo Marx
Zero Dark Thirty