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.
December 2, 2017 – 10:28 pm
Ugh. Food poisoning. There were things I’d have liked to comment on today, but it will have to wait.
November 30, 2017 – 8:20 pm
It’s been quite a while since I’ve put up one of these omnibus posts. Let’s see what I have lying around here: ‣ Jonathan Bowden on the Soviet gulag. ‣ WWII waist-gunner training cartoon, featuring none other than the great Mel Blanc. ‣ Twelve ways artificial wombs will change the world. ‣ […]
November 23, 2017 – 1:15 pm
… to all of you, as always. Thank you for reading and commenting. As we noted recently, gratitude is perhaps the most important requirement for a happy life. We have much to be thankful for today in America; as a nation we can be thankful, especially, for the mortal calamity we avoided a year ago […]
November 21, 2017 – 7:31 pm
Is it me, or does the Las Vegas shooting seem to have dropped right down the memory hole? We still don’t have a clear motive; there’s the laptop with the missing hard-drive; the time-line has gone through several revisions, and there was the very curious story of the actions of the hotel security guard — […]
November 13, 2017 – 11:39 pm
Yesterday a the New York Times published an opinion piece by a black academic, one Ekow Yankah. The essay is called Can My Children Be Friends with White People? Professor Yankah’s answer is no, for the reason that black people must assume that every white person is, unless proven otherwise, such a virulent racist as […]
November 11, 2017 – 3:05 pm
The view out my front window just now (click for larger version): These guys should really pay more attention to the calendar.
November 8, 2017 – 2:56 pm
Back in May we had a problem with server-side caching at Bluehost. The symptom was that commenters would see the comment-box pre-populated with the name and email of whoever had commented last. Please let me know if you see this happening again now. (I will be sorely vexed with Bluehost if so.) To clear the […]
October 10, 2017 – 4:02 pm
The volcanic island of La Palma (one of the Canary Islands) is in the news after an earthquake swarm. Why “yikes”? See here.
October 2, 2017 – 4:20 pm
Sorrow is everywhere today: following on the sickening atrocity in Las Vegas is the news that Tom Petty — one of the greatest rockers and songwriters of my generation — has died.
September 26, 2017 – 10:51 am
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 […]
September 12, 2017 – 10:15 pm
Well, I’m back home in Wellfleet after a splendid three-day weekend on Star Island. (The high point of the weekend was a tribute performance we gave on Saturday night in honor of the late Walter Becker, consisting of a baker’s dozen of Steely Dan’s greatest hits. (It would have been impossible to get that together […]
September 7, 2017 – 9:24 pm
I’ll be away this weekend (as I was last year at this time) for our annual musical retreat on Star Island. Back early next week. The comment-box is open, if anyone would like to broach any topics for consideration.
August 29, 2017 – 11:01 pm
Sorry it’s been so slow around here. It’s August, when I always take it easy a bit — but I’ll confess that I’m also getting a little spooked by the extent to which we are all (and I’m no exception) living more and more of our lives online. Our attention, which is more precious than […]
August 22, 2017 – 12:09 pm
For nearly all of us, a gravestone or other physical memorial is in any real sense as temporal, as evanescent, a thing as we ourselves are. For when such memorials no longer serve as a token, reminder, or feeble proxy for the deceased in the minds of those who knew them, they simply display a […]