This just keeps getting better and better. Alexander Cockburn is right—this is just like Watergate. The steady drip, drip, drip of bad news. The iconic hate figure, a man who pretty much […]
Palin Agonistes
I have this rule–it’s not really mine, it’s from some columnist and I just can’t for the life of me remember who it is, but I owe him or her a huge […]
Olympic update
As the entire universe knows, London will host the Olympics next year. And there have been any number of surprises here, and the biggest surprise that that by and large they have […]
Why Obama went after Osama, really
Like most people, I’m mostly glad that Osama is dead. He directly caused the deaths of thousands of people, and indirectly led to the deaths, displacement and exile of millions more. Would […]
A royal wedding
So, like two billion other people around the world, we’re still watching this on television. Imagine. Two billion people. That’s like, what, nearly one third of the world’s population? We have some […]
Trouble in Murdochland
Rupert Murdoch probably thought that, at 80, he could ride off into the sunset and leave News Corporation in good hands—those of his trusty assistant, Robert Thompson, and his son James, who […]
Welcome to the neighborhood, Saif
Dear Saif— Hey, it turns out that we’re neighbors! Isn’t that great? Not really neighbors, exactly, like living down the street or something, but we do live in the same part of […]
The painted kipper (pt. 5): an end note
Part 5 in a series. In a piece about the American cult writer David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide on September 12, 2008, James Ryerson writes:
Two and a half cheers for World Book Night
So Saturday was World Book Night. It was actually an all day thing for most of us, and really started Friday night at Trafalgar Square. This was a big deal—giving a million […]
The painted kipper (pt. 4): "measuring culture" and the Orwellian trifecta
Part 4 in a series. One way to get the measure of a person – their temper, as in mood, their dispositions, both emotional and intellectual, what they glean from life, how […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 