OK, I promise to try not to overuse "squitchy." Or at least, not to misuse it. I've coined a new use with my "squitchy good" thing, whereas Melville meant something else by it. (I actually use it correctly, as Melville intended, in a comment on this post). Where was I? Oh, yes… A few days […]
As you probably already know, The New York Times has erected a significant barrier to the free flow of ideas on the Internet. It has some of the best op-ed writers in the country, but it won’t allow anyone to post their stuff or link to it on the Web. On the Times‘ own site, […]
In today’s column, David Brooks gets Joe Biden exactly right. The headline is “Your Average American Joe.” The subhed is, “Biden is not an individualist.” Absolutely. And amen to that. An excerpt from the end: … The character issue will play out in all sorts of subterranean and powerful ways this election. We have lost […]
I’ve mentioned before that I’m cleaning up old emails that backed up way last summer when we were in Europe. Well, I’m still doing it, making my way through a few hundred each day. Which is progress, just not fast progress. Anyway, today I ran across something I had set aside to consider writing about […]
David Brooks almost ruined my day this morning: Don’t SAY that, David Brooks! https://t.co/ih1nvBd9aU — Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) February 21, 2020 But then I read the column, and it was pretty good. That’s because in setting out why he thinks this is so, he makes it clear why we must do all we can to […]
Smart people keep struggling to figure out and explain why other people would do such a dumb thing as make Donald Trump president of the United States of America. Here’s an excerpt from David Brooks’ effort today, headlined, “When Politics Becomes Your Idol:” When politics is used as a cure for spiritual and social loneliness, […]
Ross Douthat has been out there at the edge of my consciousness for a while, but I haven’t actually focused on him. He joined the NYT‘s op-ed page in April 2009, a month after I was laid off from the paper, so he was never in the mix of columnists that I pored through and […]
OK, the quick, overall assessment: However this election turns out, in the short term the Democrats will likely get the bigger convention bounce. They earned it these last two nights. Yes, there was just as much irritating nonsense at this convention as at the one last week — I turned down the sound and picked […]
Let me call your attention to the David Brooks column (what, him again?) that I chose for tomorrow's op-ed page, in which he chronicles the relatively new phenomenon in which honchos in the private sector are held publicly accountable for the kind of wasteful foolishness that they normally get away with completely and utterly: […]
Immigration, individualism and Italian ices By BRAD WARTHENEDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MY ELDEST daughter and her husband returned Sunday from a trip to Italy. Big deal. Her Mom and Dad walked through Little Italy in lower Manhattan over the weekend, which is just as good, and cheaper. No jet lag. All the authentic Italian eateries […]