Posted in Popular culture on February 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The remaining major candidates for the presidency of the United States all have campaigns that borrow from the themes and titles of movies that were nominated in the Best Picture category of the Academy Awards. John McCain’s militaristic persona fairly shouts out that There Will Be Blood (or in his words, “there will be other [...]
Posted in Personalities, tagged Christopher Hitchens, Islam on February 28, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Christopher Hitchens, perhaps cleaning himself for a trip to Mecca. Photo from Vanity Fair.
Despite his long history of unpredictable political and personal turns, Christopher Hitchens has completely shocked me with his recent decision to accept Mohammed as a prophet, a totally unexpected development coming so soon after his anti-theist polemic God Is Not Great.
The swaggering [...]
Posted in Literature, U.S. Politics, tagged William F. Buckley on February 27, 2008 | 13 Comments »
William F. Buckley.
The death of a man at age 82, after a productive, successful, event-filled life enriched by an unusually close-knit family and an enormous circle of friends and admirers, should hardly be the cause of sadness. I do have to say though that the passing of William F. Buckley, whose death has just been [...]
Posted in Popular culture, tagged gay culture, Krazy Kat on February 26, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The Krazy Kat club, 1921.
Via The Comics Reporter, the website Shorpy has a great collection of photos from the 1920s of the Krazy Kat club, a Washington DC hangout/speakeasy that appears to have been quite a hub of bohemian activity. The police busted it more than once. The clientele included college kids, flappers and gays. A diary by [...]
Posted in Arts and Aesthetics, Popular culture on February 25, 2008 | No Comments »
A very funny blog by that name is here.
Posted in U.S. Politics, tagged Israel, James Burnham, National Review, Palestinians on February 25, 2008 | 21 Comments »
Ronald Reagan awarding James Burnham the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1983.
War propaganda often rests on the myth of eternal enmity: the current enemy must be portrayed as perennially and irredeemably vile. George Orwell aptly limned this mindset in his novel 1984: “Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.” During the two world wars, Anglo-American historians wrote [...]
Posted in Popular culture, tagged superheroes on February 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Malaak, Lebanese superheroine.
Superhero comics almost invariably have a political subtext, often involving nationalism and war. In his fledgling incarnation in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Superman stood for America, a nation weakened by the great depression (hence looking like the nebbish Clark Kent) but ready to spring forth and assume its world historical destiny. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on February 20, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Hollywood does the French Foreign Legion, 1939.
Mired in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American military is suffering from recruiting problems as fewer and fewer citizens are willing to put their lives on the line. A host of stopgap measures have been tried, including accepting recruits with lower education standards and giving waivers to convicted felons who sign [...]
Posted in Arts and Aesthetics, Asia, Environment, Philosophy on February 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
We’re not supposed to compare apples and oranges – or so the saying goes. But as H.P. Glenn, erudite author of Legal Traditions of the World points out, we can compare apples and oranges: “[t]here are obvious criteria of roundness, acidity, colour, sweetness, price and so on. “ As Glenn goes on to ask, “Why [...]
Posted in Philosophy on February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Via the wide-ranging curiosity of Scott McLemee, here are some romantic February 14th reflections from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a Maoist group:
Toilers And Oppressed People Of Every Nation:
Let The Dauntless Spirit Of Comrade Valentine Illuminate The Bright Red Path Of Revolutionary Romanticism!
Love And Desire Are The Birthright Of The Working Masses And Must Be Defended Against [...]
