January 16, 2012 – 11:20 pm
Still under the weather here, and in my depleted state I seem to be losing the battle with the blank page. If brain not in better shape soon I may have to turn things over to my Super PAC for a few days. Update: OK, here’s something, in case you missed it over at Kevin’s […]
January 15, 2012 – 11:49 pm
I’m not at all well tonight — I seem to have caught a nasty sinus cold, a rarity for me — and it’s all I can manage to keep the conversation going in our “What Is A Nation Anyway?” thread. Back to normal soon, I hope.
January 11, 2012 – 7:04 pm
Meet Mercedes-Benz’s new spokesman.
January 11, 2012 – 6:35 pm
BE IT KNOWN BY ALL that Hizzonner Michael Bloomberg, Lord Mayor of Manhattan, Imperator of The Five Boroughs, Slayer of Term Limits, and Guardian In Loco Parentis of the Well-Being and Moral Probity of the Gothamite Flock, has of Late turned His Attention to the licentious Consumption of Alcoholic Liquors, and other stimulating Potations, by […]
January 6, 2012 – 2:44 pm
So I’ve decided to follow @kanyewest on Twitter. Should be great, I think.
January 1, 2012 – 4:30 pm
Last January we noted in these pages a mysterious event at Beebe, Arkansas: thousands of red-winged blackbirds had fallen out of the sky on New Year’s Eve. An excerpt: It seems that thousands of red-winged blackbirds (and as far as I can tell, only red-winged blackbirds) fell dead from the sky on New Year’s Eve […]
December 31, 2011 – 2:26 pm
With grim 2011 winding down, I thought about making a New Year’s resolution to take a more positive outlook toward the future, to express more optimism in these pages, and generally to stop being so pessimistic about everything. I figured it probably wouldn’t work out, though, so I gave up on the idea. But just […]
December 30, 2011 – 2:42 pm
There’s something for everyone here at waka waka waka, and we’ve made it a late-December tradition to take a look back at some of the thousands of keyphrases that brought visitors our way from Google and other search engines over the past year. Here’s our 2011 selection; it’s a curious crop as always.
December 27, 2011 – 8:20 pm
We’re on something of a holiday schedule this week — so for tonight, just a grab-bag of little diversions: — An item that, if it were a post of its own, would surely have been titled “Bird Brains”, or perhaps “Counting Crows”. — A little hibernal music from the late Jackie Gleason. — For you […]
December 25, 2011 – 1:26 pm
Whatever Christmas means to you — be it everything or nothing — I hope you all have a warm and happy one, in the company of people you love.
December 24, 2011 – 4:23 pm
Here’s a time capsule from December 24th, 1941, seventy years ago today: Christmas Eve remarks from the White House lawn by Franklin D. Roosevelt and the visiting Winston Churchill. The US had just entered the war; Britain had until a fortnight earlier stood alone against the Nazis, and since September had endured the horrors of […]
December 17, 2011 – 10:31 pm
You know who I feel sorry for? Flightless birds. Jesus, what a crappy deal.
December 17, 2011 – 8:16 pm
There’s been a huge outpouring of opinion about Christopher Hitchens from both Right and Left, most of it encomiastic, but mixed in with some harsh reviews as well. That isn’t surprising; obviously a polemicist like Hitchens — especially one who crossed the aisle as publicly as he — is going to have his fair share […]
December 17, 2011 – 12:25 am
The death of Christopher Hitchens has hit me hard today; he was something of a hero of mine. Mr. Hitchens was everything I admire in a writer: a master of language, with incomparable style and wit, and a restless and erudite scholar — but unlike so many in possession of similar (but almost invariably lesser) […]
December 16, 2011 – 1:14 am
Christopher Hitchens has died. Read this remembrance, by Christopher Buckley.
December 8, 2011 – 11:40 pm
Let’s be careful out there, folks.
December 7, 2011 – 11:05 am
Christopher Hitchens has suffered the torments of the damned in the past eighteen months, and in this harrowing essay at Vanity Fair, he reflects skeptically on Nietzsche’s oft-repeated claim that “Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stÁ¤rker“. What has not yet killed him, as he makes very clear indeed, has made him no stronger at […]
December 3, 2011 – 2:30 pm
The merry Christmas season is upon us once again, so in a joyous Yuletide spirit, let’s put aside all this partisan bickering and enjoy a little light-hearted holiday cheer. Why, I’ve got just the thing.
November 26, 2011 – 5:06 pm
Tom Wicker, one of the leading journalists of his era, has died at 85. His New York Times obituary is here. Wicker was with JFK in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963, and filed his report from a pay phone on the evening of that awful day. You can read it here.
November 25, 2011 – 10:54 pm
We’ve been on the road all day, so nothing substantial here tonight — just a few brief items. First: yesterday’s Thanksgiving prep presented a good example of why punctuation matters, with particular regard to the hyphenation of compound adjectives. When you string together a pair of adjectives so that the first modifies the second, as […]
November 24, 2011 – 2:20 pm
To each and every one of you. Among the many blessings I am grateful for today is having you all as readers and correspondents. I’m too busy cooking to write an extended meditation, but for a perfect Thanksgiving homily it would be hard to do better than the one Dr. William Vallicella posts every year. […]
November 23, 2011 – 7:20 pm
For centuries, Sikhs have been the warriors of choice for elite fighting units throughout South Asia. And here’s why.
November 21, 2011 – 10:35 pm
Here’s an unusual image, courtesy of Wish I Didn’t Know:
November 21, 2011 – 7:46 pm
Here’s an almost unbearably poignant tale of the Japanese tsunami.
November 11, 2011 – 9:18 pm
Longtime readers will know that I am something of a chauvinist as regards Western civilization, ever-ready to mount the ramparts for the sake of its defense and preservation. Every now and then, though, I think it’s important to remind ourselves just why this incomparable edifice is so worthy of our devotion and sacrifice — and […]
November 8, 2011 – 10:16 pm
What’s at the root of the deepening crisis in the European Union? George Friedman of STRATFOR attributes it to persistent nationalism, and in recent weeks has written a pair of substantial posts articulating this view. The first, The Crisis of Europe and European Nationalism, was published on September 13th. We read (boldface emphasis added by […]
November 6, 2011 – 10:30 pm
Here’s a splendid remembrance of William F. Buckley, by one who had the privilege of editing his copy.
November 5, 2011 – 12:53 pm
We note with sadness the death, at 92, of Andy Rooney. People tended to poke fun at him a bit in his later years, but I always liked him for his gentle humor and his plain-spokenness.
October 31, 2011 – 11:29 am
Here’s a eulogy to Steve Jobs, written by the sister he met for the first time as an adult. It was published in our “newspaper of record”, but for those of you who might not have access to their little walled garden, I’ve reproduced it in full below the fold.
October 29, 2011 – 12:03 pm
In Genesis 1:26, God promised Man “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Here’s how it’s done.
October 26, 2011 – 10:26 am
A great wave of tsunami debris is heading east from Japan, it seems. Here.
October 25, 2011 – 8:19 pm
Researchers at UC Berkeley have persuaded the Universe to disclose another of its secrets: the origin of Jewish humor. Story here. What’s that you say, boychik? You lack familiarity with the subject matter? Well relax, you’re mishpocheh, so for you, no charge. Look below the fold for a few free samples.
October 10, 2011 – 4:04 pm
It seems unthinkable, but a familiar species that once could be found almost everywhere in the U.S. now stands on the verge of extinction. Story here.
October 5, 2011 – 10:58 pm
Richard Feynman on beauty, and doubt. Here.
October 5, 2011 – 6:54 pm
I’ve just heard sad news: Steve Jobs has died at 56. How brilliant he was.
September 26, 2011 – 8:04 pm
I have to admit: this looks like fun. Thanks JK for the link.
September 24, 2011 – 12:44 pm
That last item introduced me to the Prelinger Archives, which I’d never heard of. It looks like a fantastic resource, especially for geriatrics like me who actually remember this stuff when it was new. Here’s a good place to start. Also, there are list of most-downloaded items here and here.
September 24, 2011 – 12:13 pm
Do you have asthma? Do you depend on an over-the-counter inhaler to cope with it? Well, you may want to stock up. (You can keep them in the basement, next to your hoard of incandescent bulbs.) Megan McArdle comments here.
September 19, 2011 – 8:46 pm
Here’s a good piece by Sam Harris — who is becoming, these days, something of what the marketing folks call a “brand” — on overcoming one’s fear of public speaking.
September 17, 2011 – 10:05 pm
A story that attracted some attention a while back, but which seems to have gone quiet, is the curious death of one John P. Wheeler, which we mentioned in this January post. I wonder how that investigation is going. I have a feeling it’s going to be rather like O.J.’s search for the real killers.
September 17, 2011 – 9:57 pm
Another nugget from Eric Hoffer: A discrepancy between trivial motives and weighty consequences is an essential trait of human uniqueness and is particularly pronounced in the creative individual. Not only in the marketplace but also in the world of thought and imagination, men who set their hearts on toys often accomplish great things. — Before […]
September 14, 2011 – 10:22 am
Well, it appears Anthony Weiner’s vacated House seat has gone to Republican Bob Turner, in what various media outlets are calling an “upset” (despite polls consistently having shown Turner as the front-runner). The race was widely seen as a referendum on the Obama presidency, and is sure to foment further dissent within the already restive […]
September 12, 2011 – 9:55 pm
This could be trouble, guys.
September 9, 2011 – 7:42 pm
With a hat tip to our friend David Duff, here’s a pungent English-history lesson from a Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Member of the Sovereign’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard Extraordinary.
September 7, 2011 – 10:09 pm
Well, here we are in Gotham again (my, what a teeming, busy place this is!). Time to start catching up and getting things back to normal around here. Anything happen while we were gone?