And by “New Wave”, I of course mean music from forty years ago. Of most interest is what he says in response to The Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen” What’s this guy so angry about anyway? Guitar work and progression is like mine. Good backbeat. Can’t understand most of the vocals. If you’re going… Read More Everything Old is Old Again – Chuck Berry Reviews the New Wave
This tweet by Mickey Kaus reminds me of an irritating chesnut that pro-immigration types love to trot out whenever they encounter disagreement. It usually takes the form of “Well, it’s a shame that the Indians didn’t think of border control!” Or something equally smug. It’s stupid for two reasons: The Indians did think of that.… Read More Please Stop Using The Indians in Immigration Arguments
So Sayeth Thomas Williams over at Breitbart. Rather, the Pope is a critic of the spiritual malaise involved of the worship of Mammon. As he should be. But he never has said, or even suggested, that the free market be replaced with another economic system. Francis’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, famously distinguished between capitalism… Read More The Pope is Not a Communist
This is not the primary we thought we would be having. But it’s the kind of primary we should have expected. Every four years, Republican voters hope to get a new candidate vetted by debate and campaign who articulates conservative principles, recommends conservative policies, and demonstrates the qualities of a leader. Instead, we get one of… Read More Scott Walker’s Out, and I May Be, Too.
Megan McArdle: Bubbles are not fundamentally about evil people doing evil things. They are not even about stupid people doing stupid things. No, the problem with bubbles is worse: It’s quite ordinary people, doing stupid things that a trick of the light has made appear very smart. Every time you hear that the markets or… Read More Quote of the Day – Housing Crisis Edition
I really didn’t think the Drama(!) of this year’s Hugos could get any thicker. I thought they’d have their awards, and some Puppies would win, and some Puppies would lose, and everyone would claim victory, and I’d go right back to not caring about the Hugos. Dear Sweet Lord, was I wrong. The Hugos have… Read More Sarah Hoyt Reminds us Why “ChiCom” is a Lovely Slur We Should be Using More Of…
I have had little to say so far about the GOP Primary, because a) it’s too early, and b) the last GOP Primary made me numb. I was so utterly disappointed by the results of the primary, and then the general election, that getting myself all whooped up about this one seems ridiculous to me.… Read More Trump and Caring About Politics
The Stranger is a slim read, but I found it confusing. Supposedly, Sartre thought it a profoundly silly book, the equivalent of reporting on a soccer match with the words “I saw adults in shorts fighting and throwing themselves on the ground in order to send a leather ball between two wooden posts.” I feel similarly,… Read More The Stranger is the Stranger….
I consider myself an author at least 20% of the time (and therein lies the problem, of course). But I can’t find myself giving a moldy dog dropping about the Hugos. I don’t even imagine, in my wildest fantasies, winning one. I think of industry/creative awards in much the same way I think of government: something… Read More Are We Still Screaming About the Hugos?
Last night, instead of going to sleep like a sensible person, I read Bret Easton Ellis’ “Thoughts on David Foster Wallace and ‘The End of the Tour‘”. In it, the American Psycho author holds forth on how the film “The End of the Tour” is a treacly one-note pile of horse flops that, with almost obligatory irony,… Read More When You Just Can’t Get into Authors You Want to Get Into
Content Blues 