The other day I met up with an old friend in downtown LA and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). The exhibition was called “Monuments” and featured a dozen or so statues that had […]
Academia / Culture / Literature / Politics / Technology
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Books Will Abide, Though Readers May Not
James Marriott’s essay on the “dawn of the post-literate society” supports what to me has been evident for over a decade: in the wake of the smartphone, book readership has diminished and so has the […]
Culture / Media / Politics
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The Bad News Is the Good News
I grab the remote and go to the PBS Newshour. And yes, I’m a liberal—or some kind of democrat socialist utilitarian crank. Because I think that public money (tax dollars) should be used to improve public […]
Media / Politics
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No TACO on This POTUS
It’s hard to be popular. But I think a good way to do it is to say a lot of things that aren’t true and see if it excites people. You tell them that you’re […]
Class / Culture / Politics
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Are We in Decline Yet? The Wikipedia Page
It’s obvious that the United States is in decline. But what does decline mean? According to Edward Gibbon, it’s a loss of virtue, particularly a decay of public service and civic duty. In the case of the […]
Class / Culture / Literature / Politics
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Reflections on the Narrative of Frederick Douglass
Years ago, I heard a passage from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast. It was in episode 68, “Human Resources.” What impressed me was not only its power […]
Politics
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Who’s the Cooler Dictator?
The other day Trump staged a hang sesh with Salvadorian president Bukele. He got the party rolling by saying that Bukele “is a friend of mine and we went through this together and got along […]
Consumerism / Labor / Politics / Technology
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Burn the Tesla Brand and Ignore the Guilt Trip
It’s all over the news. Musk trying to blame democrats for the attacks on Tesla. And republicans are humpin’ the mic, too, trying to reverse the blame, as former Wisconsin senator David Craig does in […]
Politics
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The Dictator’s Mask of Efficiency
Throughout history, efficiency has been touted as one of the benefits of a dictatorship. The trope “German efficiency” derives from the organized and deliberate manner in which the Nazis came to power. Hitler’s oratorical style […]
Class / Culture / Politics
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Where Are the “Goddamned Liberals” Now?
In 2015, I met a retired lieutenant commander in the United States Navy who had purchased a small townhouse about a block down the road from mine. He was often in the yard doing renovations […]