Spate of Hate
Is it "outrage" that America’s media, both amateur and professional, are addicted to? Or is it self-righteousness? — From The New Criterion of November, 2017
Entry from November 20, 2017
The cynicism is breath-taking — which must mean that it is quite unconscious. That’s what the hyper-partisanship of our government-by-scandal media culture has done to its most enthusiastic participants. Just look at the column in The New York Times by Michelle Goldberg headed: “I Believe Juanita.” In this #MeToo moment, when we’re reassessing decades of male…
The Florida Project
A child’s-eye view, and therefore a rather amusing treatment, of social pathologies that are, in reality, not at all amusing
Entry from November 7, 2017
Here are the first five headlines in this morning’s Washington Post e-mail, itself headed “Tuesday’s Headlines”: “The Air Force says it failed to follow procedures, allowing Texas church shooter to obtain firearms,” by Alex Horton; “Devin Patrick Kelley had a violent past, records indicate,” by Eli Rosenberg and Wesley Lowery (that was the click-through headline;…
Right side vs. white side
History is history no more, unless it is in the service of some ideology — From The New Criterion of October, 2017
Entry from October 25, 2017
Sunday’s New York Times ran a piece by Michael D. Shear headed: "Political Guardrails Gone, a President’s Somber Duty Skids Into Spectacle." It was a typical Times hit piece against President Trump of the kind the paper now runs multiple times every day, but for a brief moment it tried to raise its eyes above…
Entry from October 13, 2017
“For Trump, the Reality Show Has Never Ended.” So The New York Times, forever behind the curve, headlined an article by its reporter Peter Baker the other day. Trust The New York Times to report as “news” what everybody on the planet has known since at least January 20th of this year and most of…
Brad’s Status
Ben Stiller is at his best when playing unlikeable characters. He shouldn’t be trying to soften them and make them more likeable.
Decency for Deplorables
Only the media could fail to see the comedy in their setting themselves up as the arbiters of decency
Entry from September 28, 2017
As is so often the case, Mark Steyn had the best and most trenchant take on the NFL’s collective kneeing of its former patrons and supporters. He cites Lord Moulton’s division of the rhetorical universe into the domain of freedom and the domain of the law with a vast middle ground between them occupied by —…
Entry from September 19, 2017
If, like me, you don’t bother reading New York Times editorials on the grounds that you already know what they are going to say on any given subject, you may have missed one over the weekend that was headed: "Morality Is Negotiable for Mr Trump." Of course this one is no less predictable than the…
Fantasia on a Theme
Ordinary delusions and the madness of crowds in Kurt Andersen's unreal America — From The Weekly Standard of September 18, 2017