If Barack Obama wins a second term in the White House, Frank Rich has suggested, the Right is going to go absolutely nuts. I suspect Rich is correct—we haven’t seen anything like […]
wufnik
Storm Watch: Sandy
Good luck and health to all of you in the storm’s path. This looks terrifying—two large storms coming together, very warm Atlantic temperatures, and a full moon. When these things come along, […]
Yet another "study" telling me organic food isn’t any better for me than the usual crap
Jeez, how many of these are there going to be? Several months ago, recall, we had a large study under the aegis of Stanford University, that told us in no uncertain terms […]
Moby Dick Big Read
Now that the nights are getting longer, darker, and colder, here’s the perfect thing: a reading of Moby Dick, all 136 chapters—Moby Dick Big Read. This is not the 24-hour marathon reading […]
Unsolicited musical review: Exaudi at Wigmore Hall
Exaudi is a choral group founded by James Weeks and Juliet Fraser ten years ago to perform the choral compositions of contemporary composers. It’s been a lively and successful ten years, so […]
Speed of the sound of loneliness
Hey, it’s John Prine’s birthday today. He’s 66, which means he’s older than I am, but not by much. He’s a great songwriter, one of our best, and here’s one of his […]
Unsolicited movie review: "Liberal Arts"
Our oldest daughter went to Kenyon College in Ohio, and we’ve always loved the place. Its campus is one of the most beautiful spots on the face of the earth, especially early […]
Mitt Romney lies like a rug. So what?
I didn’t watch the debate, so all I have is a bunch of second-hand information. Watching it would have required staying up until 3:00 in the morning here in London, and while […]
More on Why Nations Fail: What about the United States?
In our last post we discussed our generally favorable impression of Damon Acemoglu and James Robinson’s Why Nations Fail. As we indicated, we’re not economic historians or political economists, so we’re not […]
Just why do nations fail, anyway?
Way back in 2002, when George W. Bush was trying to muster an international military force to take out the Taliban from Afghanistan—how’d that work out, by the way?—one of the arguments […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 