Life
How I know I'm stressed
Aside from the more obvious indicators, there seem to be two reliable indicators that I'm feeling stressed: 1. I don't blog. 2. I don't read.
Latest
Philosophy
The unavoidable superficial
The following reflection on the unknowable vastness of human knowledge was written 75 years ago: SpenglerEduard Meyer So wrote Will Durant, looking back at the 1920s. When we think of the unknowable—the almost unfathomable—depths of what human individuals in the aggregate know; and then think of what is
History
What matters to the GOP
When was the last time the Republican Party chose a presidential candidate who had neither been a fighter pilot nor been wounded in wartime? Ronald Reagan in 1984.
History
Will the cycle be unbroken?
At The American Scene, Jim Manzi speculates that we are seeing a liberal realignment in the 2008 election. I agree that a realignment is happening, though I have no idea if it will turn out to be liberal or whether it will happen this year or in 2012. However, it
Portland
Seen in Portland
A man in his late 50s or early 60s, sitting with stocking feet on a rocking chair on the porch of a Craftsman house on Southeast Salmon Street on a cool late-summer evening. A traditional American scene, like something out of Norman Rockwell. Except for how intently he was
Texas
Ike's toll
Thomas Gray posts pictures of the storm damage near his house in Houston. I spent a lot of time in that neighborhood when I lived in Houston, and I remember those trees and houses. Staggering. Just staggering.
Music
Norman Whitfield, 1940-2008
Norman Whitfield, the leading songwriter and producer of Motown's psychedelic years, died Tuesday of complications from diabetes. He was the producer for The Temptations from 1966 to 1973. "Ball of Confusion"? That was his. "I Wish It Would Rain"? Him, too. "Ain'
Music
Ain't got the Mojo
I love Mojo magazine, but I do not subscribe to it and I never read it. Why? Because I lack the time to listen to the music I already know to buy. Why pay $150/year to be frustrated?
Life
20 years ago
It was 20 years ago last night that I spent my first night in the dorms at Ohio State. Last night, I dreamed that I was checking in to Morrill Tower all over again, but this time I was 38. (The number of people who know me who would be
Books
A sub-blurb
A cover blurb from the paperback edition of Jonathan I. Israel's Radical Enlightenment: One of the truly great historical works of the decade. The book and the blurb were published in 2001.
History
Tippecanoe and Tyler 2.0
Very old presidential candidate? Check. Campaign presents wealthy presidential candidate as a simple man of the people? Check. Campaign fetishizes presidential candidate's military experience? Check. Campaign focused on insults to the exclusion of issues? Check. Little-known vice-presidential candidate with uncertain party loyalties, chosen purely for balance?
Life
A splash of determination
If there is a better motivator to clean a messy desk than spilling a half a glass of water across it, I do not know what it is.