December 16, 2018 – 6:24 am
The lovely Nina and I have just welcomed into the world our second grandchild, Declan Calder Wright, born to our daughter Chloe and her husband Christopher (who is as fine a young man as ever there was) here in Vienna, Austria, at 2:40 p.m. on Saturday, December 15th, 2018. (His middle name, Calder, was my […]
December 10, 2018 – 5:09 pm
The lovely Nina and I are settled in now in Vienna, and our daughter is due to bring forth our second grandson on Wednesday (though he may arrive sooner). We are quartered in a little apartment in the 3rd District, just around the corner from the Hundertwasserhaus, and we are waiting, well, expectantly. Paris may […]
December 6, 2018 – 1:38 pm
Sorry it’s been slow here. We’ve been getting my 97-year-old mother-in-law‘s life in order after her fall last month, and today the lovely Nina and I are off to Vienna, where our daughter is expecting her second child — a baby boy — on the 12th. I’ll be back online once we get settled in […]
November 22, 2018 – 12:35 pm
… to all of you. We have much indeed to be thankful for.
November 19, 2018 – 11:15 pm
I’m very happy to report that John Batchelor, whose three-hour program every weeknight is the best thing on all of radio, is back on the air after a sudden two-week departure. Three days ago he tweeted this, which I’d missed at the time: Hi The good news is that after a 7 hour surgery and […]
November 13, 2018 – 2:43 pm
Not long ago the great physicist Freeman Dyson wrote an introduction to a report on the beneficial aspects of higher carbon dioxide levels. In it he asked: The people who are supposed to be the experts and who claim to understand the science are precisely the people who are blind to the evidence. That to […]
November 10, 2018 – 5:15 pm
My (very) elderly mother-in-law is in an ICU after a fall. I doubt I’ll be writing anything here for at least a few days.
November 2, 2018 – 10:55 pm
In Baltimore for a conference this weekend. Back next week.
October 31, 2018 – 12:46 pm
With the mid-term elections less than a week away, Angelo Codevilla surveys the social and political battlefield that the United States — now more disunited than at any time since our last Civil War — has become. His essay begins: Prior to the 2016 election I explained how America had already “stepped over the threshold […]
October 20, 2018 – 10:42 pm
“No man is always in a disposition to write, nor has any man at all times something to say.” – Dr. Johnson (Also, I have house-guests. Back soon.)
October 14, 2018 – 12:01 am
…around here, anyway. I’ve been offline, mostly, for the past few days, and paying little attention to the news. I did see that there was a brouhaha of some sort between Antifa and Gavin McInness’s “Proud Boys” in New York City today, but I don’t know more than that, and can’t really be bothered to […]
October 2, 2018 – 10:17 pm
Still very busy here, I’m afraid. I’ve also got little to add to the big story of the moment, which is of course the Kavanaugh appointment. There’s nothing subtle or nuanced about any of it; it’s just raw combat, and everyone knows it. So what can I say? (New things do keep popping up, though.) […]
September 29, 2018 – 12:04 am
Now Twitter has suspended my all-time favorite account, the brilliant and eccentric @ThomasWictor. How intensely irritating. Update, 9/29: Now @hbdchick (who is the very soul of reason and moderation) is gone too! (Her blog, which is effectively an online university, is here.)
September 24, 2018 – 10:38 pm
I’m very sorry never to have really got back up to speed after the August break. The blog is still very much alive, but the Muse unusually silent, and it has been a very busy and chaotic time the past few weeks. Currently we are in Chicago for a couple of days, and there will […]
September 20, 2018 – 9:18 pm
At Newcomb Hollow Beach this afternoon: (If you hadn’t heard, Mr. Medici, 26, was fatally attacked a week ago by one of the great white sharks that have recently made our part of Cape Cod their home.)
September 10, 2018 – 4:56 pm
Well, I’m back from our annual musical retreat in the Isles of Shoals, but I’m completely exhausted. (We get up early, spend the days organizing and rehearsing, then play for the rest of the folks on the island from cocktail hour until the “wee small hours of the morning”. Getting more than about four or […]
September 4, 2018 – 1:15 pm
It’s September, and after a restful summer break, it’s time to start getting back to normal operations around here. (There’s been a lot to talk about.) The next few days are busy ones, though: I’ll be working long hours today and tomorrow, and from Friday until Monday I’ll be on remote and rocky Star Island […]
Once again, it’s August, and the weather here in the Outer Cape is warm and sultry. Suddenly, swimming my daily mile in Wellfleet’s clear glacial kettle-ponds, gathering and consuming our renowned oysters, gazing at the blue horizon, and slowly working my way through a swelling backlog of books (including Thomas West’s book about the Founding) […]
August 1, 2018 – 10:47 pm
A reader has sent me this link, to a blog dedicated to what has come to be known as “pizzagate”. I present it without comment, for now at least.
Sorry about the scanty output: it’s summer, and I’m on a reduced schedule. I have begun reading The Political Theory of the American Founding, which you may recall from our link to, and subsequent discussion of, Michael Anton’s review. The book directly addresses several questions I have been stewing over for a long time now, […]
If things are a bit quiet here over the next few weeks, it’s because we have a full house — our daughter Chloe, her husband Chris, and our little grandson Liam are here from Vienna to stay with us in Wellfleet for a few weeks, and later this week they’ll be joined by our son […]
Our friend Bill Vallicella quoted this, from Michael Anton, on Independence Day: For the founders, government has one fundamental purpose: to protect person and property from conquest, violence, theft and other dangers foreign and domestic. The secure enjoyment of life, liberty and property enables the “pursuit of happiness.’ Government cannot make us happy, but it […]
Happy Independence Day, America. And to all of you, dear readers, as well. I hope we can set strife aside for a day to appreciate how lucky we are to live in this extraordinary country.
As I mentioned recently, it’s been a busy spell for me, with little time or “bandwidth” for writing (though by now I’ve built up quite a backlog of things I’d like to comment on). Now I’m off to Kansas City on business for a few days. Will post as time permits.
“We often read nowadays of the valor or audacity with which some rebel attacks a hoary tyranny or an antiquated superstition. There is not really any courage at all in attacking hoary or antiquated things, any more than in offering to fight one’s grandmother. The really courageous man is he who defies tyrannies young as […]
Charles Krauthammer is not long for this earth, it seems. Whether you agree with him or not on the issues — sometimes I have, and sometimes I haven’t — he is an intelligent, civilized, thoughtful and articulate man, who has borne a life-altering disability with strength and dignity.
Houseguests this weekend. Back in a bit.
April 23, 2018 – 10:38 am
Did I miss anything? We had a splendid time overseas, but home is best. I have a busy couple of days ahead, picking up the threads of ordinary life. Things should get back to normal here shortly.
April 12, 2018 – 11:52 am
Things may be a little quiet here for a fortnight or so: the lovely Nina and I are off to Austria to visit our daughter, her husband, and our wee grandson Liam. I’m disinclined to keep too close an eye on the news while we’re traveling; frankly I could use a break. I may post […]
It appears that my blog-posts are now appearing again in Google searches. I don’t know if this was due to a re-indexing after the blog’s title change (perhaps the blog’s title carries more weight in Google’s world than for other search providers), or whether it might even have been thanks to some behind-the-scenes assistance from […]
Well, I’m back up, it seems. The technical problems on the backend appear to have been due to some gummed-up WordPress plugins and an old version of PHP. I’ll confess that I had begun to suspect that something darker was happening. My recent exclusion from Google search results (while Bing and DuckDuckGo results were unaffected) […]
A busy couple of days. Back shortly. I’ve noticed also that there have been a lot of backend errors recently that have been affecting connectivity here. I’m investigating and hope to have a resolution shortly. Thanks for your patience. Update, 3/12: The backend problem persists. (Just posting this update took me half an hour.) Support […]
Big news tonight about a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un. Most commentators, including many I respect, are suggesting that Mr. Trump is being played, just as previous presidents were. I’m not so sure. Here’s why. What’s different this time around is that Trump is using a different lever, and he isn’t using […]
I was back at my old alma mater, Power Station Studios, earlier today. It’s on West 53rd Street in Manhattan. Nearby, some expensive apartment buildings have gone up. If you’re lucky enough to afford one of these tony residences, here’s your front door: Is it me, or did we miss a turn somewhere?
February 21, 2018 – 9:25 pm
As the din of political combat intensifies all round us, and comity and goodwill vanish in the smoke and fires of battle, I thought it might be good to remind ourselves of what real statesmanship and patriotism look like, and to remember that even in the darkest times it is possible to rise, however briefly, […]
February 20, 2018 – 2:08 pm
Here’s a legal article with an “arresting” preamble: I hope to convince you in the next hour, some of you, that the greatest single threat to our freedoms, the freedoms set forth in the Bill of Rights, is not from Iraq or Iran. I don’t think it’s from North Korea. I don’t think it’s from […]
February 18, 2018 – 6:34 pm
I’ve once again raised the comment-form caching issue with my hosting service, Bluehost. I’m hoping that this time they will get it sorted out, once and for all. Thank you for your patience.
February 9, 2018 – 7:53 pm
As someone who is very rarely unwell, it’s always a jolt to be reminded how debilitating a nasty cold can be, especially as I get a bit older. Writing seems to be quite out of the question this evening (indeed I stared at the page for a good two or three minutes just now just […]
February 4, 2018 – 2:57 pm
As I wrote in the previous post, it’s time for this blog to have a new name. I chose the old one, waka waka waka, rather impulsively; its meaning was not obvious, and over the years many people assumed it had something to do with Fozzie Bear. The original title came from a Fela Kuti […]
February 3, 2018 – 3:01 pm
I am going to stop capitalizing every word in my titles. I’m weary of the effort. I might change the name of the blog, too. It’s out of date, and I’m tired of it.
January 31, 2018 – 12:58 pm
Now my email’s broken. If you’ve been trying to email me and I haven’t replied, or you’ve gotten a message-undeliverable notice, that’s why. On the line with support again (my new hobby, it seems). It’s a sign of the times that it’s so disturbing to be disconnected like this. Update, 3 p.m. EST: email’s all […]
January 30, 2018 – 11:12 am
Well! We’re back, it seems, after having been shut down for two days. What happened was this: while looking in to the problem we’ve been having with comment-form caching, the Bluehost admins found that the site had been riddled with viruses and malware. They suspended it until I could get it cleaned up, which I […]
January 9, 2018 – 8:34 pm
For tonight, I have an article by a Chinese national, Puzhong Yao, who emigrated to the West — first to England, then to the United States — to complete his education, and to work in the financial industry. He is obviously highly intelligent, and has done very well. He writes about the difference between Chinese […]
January 6, 2018 – 9:40 pm
Yes, the caption says it all. As much as I enjoy life, I do find it difficult, at times, to be optimistic about the future. (Readers may have noticed this.) Some days it’s harder than others.
January 3, 2018 – 10:48 pm
You won’t often find me linking to the New Yorker these days, but this article by Joan Acocella is so good I’m passing it along.
December 31, 2017 – 2:36 pm
To all of you. Thanks as always for reading and commenting. Buckle up! 2018 looks like it’s going to be an “interesting” year.
December 24, 2017 – 4:24 pm
(Noel!) Merry Christmas, everyone.
December 18, 2017 – 10:49 am
I noticed that comments on old posts had been automatically closed. I’m not sure why; it may have been an anti-spam move on my part a while back, or just something that happened during a site update. Anyway, I’ve got better spam protection now, and they are open again.
December 5, 2017 – 12:16 pm
We’ve been having a server-side problem that caused commenters to see the comment-form populated with the name and email of whoever commented previously. Bluehost tells me the issue is now fixed. Please let me know if you’re still seeing this.