Well, the lovely Nina and I are on our way back. We’re traveling a day later than we meant to: we’d flown from Boston to Vienna (and had left our car at Logan Airport), but while we were overseas the carrier, Air Berlin, having declared bankruptcy, canceled all flights to Boston forever. So now we are in Dusseldorf waiting five hours for a connecting flight to JFK, where we’ll spend the night in an airport hotel and get a shuttle to Boston tomorrow — after which it’s a mere two hours’ drive to get home to Wellfleet.
We had a fine time — Vienna was as gracious as ever, and Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen (and, as predicted, still thoroughly and happily European) — but I’ll be glad to get home. Long, cramped flights are no fun for a beefy six-foot-tall hombre of my advancing years — and given my conservative disposition (Michael Oakeshott explains, here) I’m rather a homebody anyway.
It may be a while before I’m fit for purpose again, so here are three things to read.
First: you may have heard of a new book called Testosterone Rex, by Cordelia Fine, that argues that there are no innate differences between males and females. (This is of course obvious nonsense, but it is getting raves in all the right circles, of course, because it says all the right things.) Here’s a review by Greg Cochrane.
Second: An item by Patrick Buchanan that looks at the Trump presidency as a rebirth of Gaullism.
Third: former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy on the Mueller investigation.
Back soon.
6 Comments
The curious reception of Testosterone Rex may be rooted in the general fatigue that has set in to pop science given ever diminishing returns in scientific enquiry. The minutiae at the margins of scientific advancement make for thin gruel in the pop science market. Proffering conspicuously weak arguments in the service of topical themes with happy endings will be a welcome respite to life in the margins, and all the better when it is life affirming for the young ladies on the morning commute. At a time when our most desired truths are visibly crumbling, who amongst our erstwhile goodthinkers would not find solace in such transparent escapism?
I’m sure its well-worn pages will share a prominent space on the bookshelf between Pride and Prejudice and the Fifty Shades trilogy.
When you’re properly back in the saddle again Malcolm …
Your last link on this post? Recall something I stated back in March?
http://malcolmpollack.com/2017/03/07/spooks-rebukes-and-kooks/#comment-776185
(Yeah I realize linking to that ol’ comment might end up luring the wrong species of fish than I’m really intending…)
But there’s more!
https://audioboom.com/posts/6313506-did-the-obama-administration-wiretap-trump-tower-before-and-after-the-election-davidmdrucker-johnfund-thadmccotter
Aaaand, from back in May,
https://audioboom.com/posts/5915310-searching-for-a-crime-in-the-russia-counter-intelligence-investigation-andrewcmccarthy-nro-thadmccotter
This may finally be getting shuffled off the backburner
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/lawmakers-sights-obama-unmasking-scandal/
Men and women could not be more different. Idiots who want to think otherwise can’t handle the truth. It’s good to reconnect with your thought, Malcolm!
SW,
Thanks. Nice to see you here!