There may be statements of this demopathy that will equal it, but no statement will ever be more essential or better and more illustratively timed. It is, of course, a pathology that afflicts many beyond the bad offices of the UNHRC. Hillel Neuer at the UN (H/T CiFWatch): Mr. President, History will record that the […]
Circumcision Cuts Both Ways (Ay, there’s the rub)
Circumcision has been in the news lately. (What makes it “news.”) More precisely, it is anti-circumcision sentiment that has been in the news. The issue is going to be on the ballot in San Francisco in November and was due to be considered in Santa Monica, California until the measure was withdrawn due to controversy. […]
A Lesson in Slanting on Israel & the Palestinians
Matthew Yglesias posted the briefest of responses to the just released Pew poll on various international and Mideast matters, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a pearl of a primer in slanted language and presentation – all in two sentences. I commented on it at Yglesisas’s blog. I told him he packed as much slanting […]
How We Lived on It (37) – “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”
I was explaining to a friend the other day why I think James Agee to be, if not a great writer, a writer of great distinction. While Agee’s life was too short (he died at 45) to provide the scope necessary for considerations of greatness, he certainly possessed the sheer talent – the prose chops. […]
Eating Poetry (XXVI) – “Whole”
Does serendipity tell us anything about the world? I suppose that question matters if one is seeking, like a physicist, to understand the world as something separate and independent of those who live in it. In that case we can make various claims, including that serendipity is only the happier among coincidences. If what concerns […]