Category Archives: Uncategorized

Hope and Hype

(minor clarification: “the Mortician” is David Axelrod, for his dour visage, not Ms. Obama) Ah, it had nothing to do with Kennedy. Still, all that vigor disappeared once he found out he couldn’t get anything done.–Mad Men Events, dear boy, events.–Harold MacMillan To emerge sane from the recent party conventions and the endurance test ofContinue reading “Hope and Hype”

Palin Comparison

SPIVEYWell, it’s a well-run campaign, midget’n broom’n whatnot.ECKARDDevil his due.SPIVEYHelluva awgazation.JUNIORSay, I gotten idee.ECKARDWhat sat, Junior?JUNIORWe could hire us a little fella even smaller’n Stokes’s.Pappy whips at him with his hat.PAPPYY’ignorant slope-shouldered sack a guts! Why we’d look like a buncha satchel-ass Johnnie Come-Latelies braggin’ on our own midget! Don’t matter how stumpy! And that’sContinue reading “Palin Comparison”

And the Uncle Tim Goes to…

I used to be disgustednow I try to be amused–Elvis Costello, The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes In Slate’s unfortunately named “Big Idea” column, Jacob Weisberg, waving about the latest NY Times/CBS poll (PDF) like Joe McCarthy brandishing his list of names, campaigns for title of this season’s most conspicuously contrite white (aContinue reading “And the Uncle Tim Goes to…”

Fragmentary Grenade

The democratization of society (not to be confused with the democratization of politics or governance) brings about the democratization of culture; the democratization of culture, in stigmatizing the distinction between high and low art, destroys high art. It destroys the very idea of high culture. We don’t merely disdain it; we are no longer capableContinue reading “Fragmentary Grenade”

Modes of Escape

I’m trying to find the way into your psyche. I’m looking for the passage. I’m shifting shapes and forms, trying one on after the other. I shrink myself down to a viral state, hijacking blood cells, remaking them in my own microscopic image, setting them adrift in your bloodstream to reproduce like a cancer. They’reContinue reading “Modes of Escape”

Chickenhawks of the Enlightenment

I’ve just learned (tardily, as usual) from Tom Piatak at Taki’s that University of Minnesota professor and blogger of the unfortunately common uber-glib school (casual conversational tone, replete with gratuitous obscenities), PZ Myers, outraged at the reaction of a Catholic church to a student protester spiriting away (excuse the expression) and defiling the Eucharist, hasContinue reading “Chickenhawks of the Enlightenment”

Truth, No Stranger Than Fiction

Okay, the epic battle of crass New York operators Guiliani and Clinton never materialized, but at least I imagined this much: And yes, Iraq was, finally, united. The always precarious alliance between erstwhile insurgent Sunni groups and US forces had run its course, a casualty of its own success as the foreign element all butContinue reading “Truth, No Stranger Than Fiction”

Art is Propaganda is Art

Correction: Confronted by an alert Disney defender, I have corrections aplenty: Disney did not make Shrek; the musical Wall-E watches in the film is Hello Dolly (not by Disney); I further must concede that there is in fact no evidence of a flatulence mandate–I was rather carelessly extrapolating from one running gag in The LionContinue reading “Art is Propaganda is Art”

Who’s Bailing What?

When the government first proposed its tax rebate scheme last January, many were quick to point out the money was not ultimately, despite the signature on the check, a payment from the US government, but a loan from abroad, largely from Japan and China. Now that we can confidently anticipate the consensus will quickly formContinue reading “Who’s Bailing What?”