Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran has scored a surprising amount of popular success, currently ranked around #300 at Amazon, and amassing close to 300 comments there as well. For a fairly literary and even somewhat didactic work subtitled “A … Continue reading →
As an inveterate Red Sox fan, last year was really the pinnacle—it just couldn’t get any better than that. So I have to confess that, although the Red Sox are doing fine this year, I haven’t paid all that much … Continue reading →
When I was in grade school, our entire class of thirty-odd marched more or less in lockstep from grades one through six. The community in which I was raised wasn’t very transient; people stayed put, and so we got to … Continue reading →
There are all types of bloggers. I’m a practitioner of the long essay form, for example. And Bill Whittle is a practitioner of the LONG esssay form. When you write LONG, as Bill does, you have to be very very … Continue reading →
It’s no real surprise that therapists tend to be politically liberal in overwhelming numbers (therapist-bloggers notwithstanding). I can’t find a poll to back up my statement, but I don’t think too many people would seriously question it, and my own … Continue reading →
Both Austin Bay and Clive Davis recently cited this famous essay by literary critic Paul Fussell in their posts on the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb. I had read Fussell’s 1988 essay, provocatively titled “God Bless … Continue reading →
[The following is a post I wrote back in April, but it seems appropriate for the Fourth, too, so I’m repeating it.] I’ve been visiting New York City, the place where I grew up. I decide to take a walk … Continue reading →
In the comments section of my Reagan post, an interesting question came up. How responsible are politicians (or, as they used to be called, statesmen–now we’d have to say “statespeople” instead) for the consequences of their actions? Are they responsible … Continue reading →
I wrote the following on Memorial Day, but I thought I’d post it again today, since it seems even more appropriate for Flag Day. Flag Day is one of those lost holidays. It was easy to ignore even when I … Continue reading →
In our continuing dialogue and speculation about attitudes of liberals towards the military, Austin Bay asks me to comment on the following story (scroll down to the bottom of his post to find it): [Neo-neocon’s] comments about courage remind me … Continue reading →
Austin Bay delivered this Memorial Day speech in Texas a few days ago, at the request of a group called “Tejanos in Action.” Reading the speech, and speculating on what many of my liberal or leftist friends would think of … Continue reading →
I was driving down the highway yesterday, and I noticed that the car ahead of me had a small American flag decal on its trunk. It got me to thinking about how I’ve never displayed a flag on my car … Continue reading →