We are beginning to witness the failure of democracy and the rise of plutocratic empire. De Tocqueville and Franklin predicted it; perhaps de Tocqueville was the more prescient when he admitted representative democracy’s keystone fault lay in both voters’ and representatives’ predilection for acting in one’s short-term self-interest. Democracy only succeeds when education allows the [...]
Post-post irony eats itself (April 12, 2003)
Post-post-irony eats itself.
Who are The Polyphonic Spree?
The Beatles of “Sgt. Pepper’s” and The Beatles of “Let it Be.” Journey. Elton John. Your church choir. Your children’s choir. Queen. Sesame Street. Oasis. Supergrass. “Jesus Christ Superstar.” “Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat.” The Who. “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” ABBA. A corporate inspirational-poster slogan. [...]
Oh, Pray do not Handle the Theme! (April 9, 2003)
Re-watched Julie Taymor’s “Titus” last night. I have a great many theories on the play, but a new one came to light last night. Harold Bloom, in Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human is indeed absolutely correct in approaching Shakespeare from a character-based perspective instead of grouping and studying the plays by similar themes [...]
Cosmetic Surgery (April 4, 2003)
Cosmetic Surgery
Until last night I had no idea there was a “news” “magazine” on Fox called “The Pulse,” which somehow is anchored by the same damned Fox “reporter” who’s “reporting” the war, and is supposed to be somewhere out in Qatar or Kuwait. (I know that Fox reporter. He was once an anchor for NBC [...]
Bend it Like Beckham (March 11, 2003)
“Bend It Like Beckham” last night. Simply wonderful. It’s a bloody rockin’ feel-good comedy that doesn’t, as all American movies do, make you feel guilty for being manipulated into feeling good. Over a curry at Standard India afterwards (where, as per my lamentations above, I desperately need to break beyond their sag paneer and imitation [...]
“I have seen the enemy, and he is us.” — Pogo, by Walt Kelly (February 27, 2003)
This is just beautiful. After praising the counter-terrorism budget for several days, the White House finally began to concede that they budgeted far too little — about $2 billion less than the President proposed in his State of the Union address. So the President of course blames Congress. Apparently forgetting for the moment that both [...]
The Endurance Expedition (February 27, 2003)
Last night I bought a book I’ve been after for a year or more: South — The ENDURANCE Expedition by Ernest Shackleton. Granted, it’s not all that hard to find, but I found myself stymied by one of my cardinal book-buying rules — namely, if it’s a well-known work of literature, and I don’t need [...]
What the mower looks like, from the perspective of the grass. (February 25, 2003)
As my first preparation for Holland, watched “A Bridge Too Far” last night. It is a terribly great film, utterly depressing, and rather frighteningly apropos. A warning to anyone who thinks that idealistic visions necessarily equal idealistic outcomes, and that swiftness and audacity can triumph without the reinforcement and follow-up. A brutal, brutal film. A [...]
The green-eyed monster (February 24, 2003)
I have just about had it with armchair psychologico-pundits repeating that arrogant and insipid old saw about European anti-Americanism being nothing more than misdirected envy over the loss of their Continental empires. That’s simply not close to the case.
The only Britons who wail over the loss of Rule Britannia are the most plum-mouthed of Tories. [...]
Even When he Tells the Truth, he Lies (February 18, 2003)
WASHINGTON, February 18 (AP) — President Bush declared on Tuesday that he wouldn’t be deterred by global protests against war with Iraq, saying “I respectfully disagree” with those who doubt that Saddam Hussein is a threat to peace.
You and I both know that his disagreement has not been voiced with an iota of respect for [...]
Duelling Idealisms (February 14, 2003)
Instapundit received an email from an Iraqi reader of The Guardian. It reads:
“I write this to protest against all those people who oppose the war against Saddam Hussein, or as they call it, the “war against Iraq”. I am an Iraqi doctor, I worked in the Iraqi army for six years during Iraq-Iran war and [...]
Take Me to the Redress of the Mis-Stated Dis-Onion (January 28, 2003)
Take me to the Redress of the Mistated Dis-Onion
The Washington Post today has an interview with Norman Schwartzkopf, who considers the entire prospect of war a thoroughly dubious proposal, and, in notsomanywords, considers ol’ Rummy perhaps the worst — and yet most prominent — PR executive this administration possesses. “Scary,” was how he labled Rumsfeld’s [...]
