Category Archives: Commentary

Do We Need Stories, You Ask?

  Tim Parks in the New York Review of Books, asks Do We Need Stories? If one starts with the assumption that we read novels merely to see our lives reflected in them, then the purpose of reading is solipsistic and pointless. But if you wish to enlarge your experience, by way of vicarious adventures, then stories are useful and wonderful tools. To me, it is all about contemplating life and culture from different points of view, enjoying the original use of language, experiencing rare emotions, Read more [...]

De Niro Says Meant No Offense With First Lady Joke – NYTimes.com

De Niro Says Meant No Offense With First Lady Joke - NYTimes.com. Good on De Niro for telling the joke. To me, what it says is that Michelle has been such an admirable first lady that people might find an elitist Republican, like Romney's wife, who doesn't think of herself as rich with 240 million in the bank and four luxurious houses, a little harder to take. I don't know much about Santorum's wife, but she seems a bit of a nullity.  I don't see it as something he should have to apologize for. Read more [...]

Pandering Political Correctness

Great American Losers by Elaine Blair | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books. An excellent article on male novelists and how they write for female readers. As Jacob comments: "With Franzen and Wallace, despite their brilliance there does often seem to be a kind of pandering political correctness, one that perhaps means well but often makes me feel they're too self-consciously trying to differentiate themselves from less enlightened men. I'm glad this essay takes the time to try to tease this Read more [...]

‘Religious Freedom’ Issues and Pederasty in the Catholic Church

'Religious Freedom' Issues, Part 2: Catholics and Contraception - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education. I was having it out with one Mavprof, an apologist for Rush Limbaugh and all things wing-nut on Chronicle.com. I turned Limbaugh's medicine on him over the issue of contraception and the moral authority of the Catholic priesthood by reminding him of the pederasty scandals and the Catholic hierarchy's cover up of them. I got this from the author of the post. ____________________________________________________________ Bonalibro I Read more [...]

Reforms for the New Upper Class – Charles Murray – NYTimes.com

Reforms for the New Upper Class - NYTimes.com. Charles Murray's proposed solutions to the problems of inequality and upper class advantage are woefully short of what is needed. He knows it. Yet, despite the fact that they would have no effect, the NYTimes printed his worthless essay anyway, in contradiction to to its mission statement, All the News that's Fit to Print.  Nowhere does Murray mention such measures as distributing property taxes evenly between school districts, or the real biggie, Read more [...]

Renegade — Henry Miller and the Making of ‘Tropic of Cancer.’ — Why do men revel in the degradation of women?

Renegade — Henry Miller and the Making of ‘Tropic of Cancer.’   Why do men revel in the degradation of women? Jeannette Winterson's review of Frederick Turner's book on Henry Miller ends with a question that is seldom discussed in the bounds of polite society.  Why do men revel in the degradation of women?  I guess you'd have to be a woman to ask it. Comedian Henny Youngman has much to say on this topic.  The blues speaks to it a lot, too; the withering contempt that familiarity brings, Read more [...]

Willard “Mittens” Romney is a Plutomaniac

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/opinion/brooks-the-wealth-issue.html?ref=opinion When I was a scholarship student in prep school I remember seeing a lower form student emerge from his parent's top line Benz wearing a luxurious fur coat that would probably fit him for a season or two. I wasn't jealous or envious of him, but I did despise him because he had such an air of entitlement about him. It was my first exposure to such people and I thought, what had he done to deserve such a coat, and why Read more [...]

Another Comment Censored by the NYTimes – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com

Opportunity Is More Important Than Economic Mobility - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com. As a dogmatist for the Heritage Foundation, your solutions sound like talking points from the G.O.P. that your institution probably wrote. What is this "double taxation of savings" for instance? The only tax on savings is that on dividends and earned interest income. How would ending that improve mobility for those with "a dearth of personal savings?" Poor people don't have savings because wages paid by "job Read more [...]

Charlie Rose – Rep. Barney Frank

Charlie Rose - Rep. Barney Frank. You really tipped your hand, Mr. Rose, in that fight with the Congressman over the private sector doing it better. The private sector is no better at doing things than government is, and this has been proven time after time. Look at the way the private sector wasted billions in Iraq on shoddy and uncompleted construction contracts, look at what the private sector is doing to medical care and medical costs. The rent seeking and profiteering is killing us. The urge Read more [...]

The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value – Forbes

The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value - Forbes. As one who has followed the stock market for nearly twenty years, I've been unimpressed with the dogma of maximizing shareholder value. With returns as poor as they have been in virtually every sector for years, it seems to me that few shareholders have gotten maximum value out of their investments. But the idea has become a religious dogma of totalitarian proportions, especially among establishment conservatives. So it is good Read more [...]