The art of age
Leonard Cohen is a songwriter, and a very successful one at that. But he was a poet first. He’s old, too—if 79 can be called “old” these days. Accordingly, the style and content of his songs have changed over the … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Getting philosophical: life, love, the universe
Turley: morality and law
[NOTE: In this post I discuss an article by Jonathan Turley about morality and law. In his piece, he doesn’t really go into the underpinnings of his argument, but what he’s dealing with is a heavy-duty issue that has plagued … Continue reading →
Tokyo Story
It was this comment at my post about outstanding movies that made me decide it was high time I saw “Tokyo Story,” a postwar Japanese film by YasujirÅ Ozu that’s considered one of the greatest cinema masterpieces of the 20th … Continue reading →
Obamacare: imagology meets reality?
It may well be that what’s been going on lately with Obamacare is that imagology has met reality. Before the rollout, everything was theoretical. Even now, almost everything is a prediction and projection about what we think will happen. But … Continue reading →
Different cars, different worlds
I’ve got a new post up at PJ’s Lifestyle section. The topic: driving the Model T versus driving the cars of today. Not about politics at all. Okay, maybe just a little.
Continue reading →Jay Carney: hey, let’s celebrate indecisiveness!
You cannot make this stuff up. But apparently Jay Carney can: …Carney [was asked] to respond to a criticism of the president leveled by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) who said he was “disappointed” with Obama’s seeming indecisiveness on whether or … Continue reading →
Allan Bloom: on learning history and cultural relativism
I’ve just spent a fruitless hour trying to find the source from which I’d copied the following Allan Bloom quote some time ago. Somehow I’d lost the link, and now I can’t find it again. But I thought I’d present … Continue reading →
Introverts of the world…
…just act like an extrovert and you’ll be happier. Well, of course. I’ve been attempting to do that, with a modicum of success, for decades. I call myself an extroverted introvert. And Rogers and Hammerstein were well aware of the … Continue reading →
“I grow old, I grow old…
…I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” The lines are from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a masterpiece he began writing at the ripe old age of twenty-two. It’s not uncommon for youth … Continue reading →
Suffering is suffering
I forget what led me to this video. But I’m impressed by the matter-of-fact way this young woman discusses her situation (she’s a C-5 level quadriplegic as a result of an auto accident), without excessive drama but actually saying some … Continue reading →
More prayers in Oklahoma
[NOTE: This is a sequel to yesterday’s post on prayers during the tornado.] During the Moore tornado, teacher Anna Canady had a prayer [emphasis mine]: She remembered that as the tornado bore down on this school in Moore, Okla., she … Continue reading →
Escaping from the house of horror
[NOTE: I wrote the following post last night. In it, I speculated on some of the conditions under which the three Cleveland captives had been held, and how that might have made it virtually impossible for them to escape. When … Continue reading →