You ever read “The Conversation,” a weekly opinion feature in The New York Times? It’s very good. It just consists of two Times opinion columnists — former NYT Editorial Page Editor Gail Collins and former Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens — kicking around a number of issues of the day, and having fun doing […]
As I went walking today, I checked my phone but didn’t see any really good NYT podcasts — as you know, there are several of those I generally enjoy — and just wasn’t in the mood to catch up on the latest news via NPR One. Then I had an idea. Having not gone physically […]
As you know, I’ve been fascinated by history my whole life (and I still fail to understand why everyone else isn’t). Not as a profession, more of an avocation. I’m into it the way some people are into football. I earned a second major in it at Memphis State, completely by accident — I just […]
I’ve been hearing from a lot of you the last few days that you’re having trouble commenting. Well, that might be because I turned on something in the settings of the blog that said, “Users must be registered and logged in to comment.” I happened to find it while trying to solve a separate problem […]
Or at least, that’s what I hope, being a hopeful kind of guy. Eight days ago, I tweeted this: Just a few more hours, and then it will be over, and no one — no human, no headline, no tweet, no podcast — will ever again mention the accursed Iowa caucuses! Right? I say, RIGHT? […]
This started as a comment, but I decided to make it a separate post, because it kept getting longer and longer… This came from an exchange in which Doug Ross chided Barry for his long comments telling about things that happen on the local or state level hundreds of miles from us, and writing about […]
No, this isn’t about something starring Stormy Daniels. (That would be the grand jury case I haven’t bothered to comment on this far…) No, this fantasy is less lurid, but probably more important in the long run. Basically, this post was originally a comment I wrote in reaction to one of bud and Doug’s usual […]
Ross Douthat made a good point today, although it’s a depressing one. In the column, “I’m What’s Wrong With the Humanities,” he brought up the subject addressed in a sobering recent piece in The New Yorker, “The End of the English Major.” We all have shaken our heads over those stupid kids today who can’t […]
Yeah, I’m on about my Raskolnikov Syndrome theory again. But hey, I haven’t mentioned it since April, so… The theory is that people lose their minds — and often become shockingly violent — when they cut themselves off from other people. Ten years ago, I summarized it in part this way: I’ve long had this […]
Hunter Limbaugh posted a link on Facebook that initially caused me to answer facetiously, as is too often my wont. (Don’t blame me; blame the Rabbit Hole!) The headline was, “What does Earth look like from across the Universe?” Of course, I replied, “I dunno. Like images of broken light, which dance before me like […]
Well, I just used up my last free read on The Atlantic — if I were to take out one more subscription, it might be that one, but I’ve really been overdoing it, so I’m holding myself back — and the piece was worth it. One of y’all — was it Barry? — brought it […]
As you know, people have been bat-poop crazy lately. We’ve discussed this a good bit. It’s complicated by the fact that we’re looking at two separate developments, and sort of running them together. I’ve been searching ever since 2016, trying to understand how this country elected — to the presidency — someone who at any […]
The above is an email I got today. My reaction was, “LinkedIn deserves to be ‘moentized,’ far as I’m concerned. I may moentize it myself, next time I see it…” We’ll talk another day about people who send out such emails, and are so careless with their headlines. Today let’s stick to LinkedIn, shall we? […]
As y’all know, I worry a good bit about what the internet is doing to us. But I don’t worry about “artificial intelligence” taking over the planet in some deliberate, organized way like in “The Matrix.” That’s because I don’t see it as intelligent, either in a bad way or a good way. Oh, it’s […]
Since I’m dictating, not typing, I won’t have too much to say. but I thought I would give y’all a place to comment on the passing parade. Justice for George Floyd – The jury delivered the best verdict it could have done. Of course, they couldn’t REALLY provide justice to George Floyd. But they did […]
I could go on about this all day, for many thousands of words, and it would bore you to death, so I’m going to try and say it as quickly as I can. Back when there was such a thing as newspapers (by which I mean healthy, adequately staffed newspapers in cities across the country), […]
Y’all know how many words I’ve written lately to explain my epiphany that should have occurred to me years ago — how our descent into a post-truth society has been accelerated by technology that we all love, except when it’s making us insane. I’ve written about insights gained from listening to “Rabbit Hole” or this […]
I wish my headline said, “Here’s how to end the uncivil war, Mr. President.” But I can’t say that, because I don’t know how to undo the damage. But finally, after more than four years of bewilderment, I finally feel like I have a grip on what has caused the problem, and I’m not letting […]
Here’s a follow-up to my previous post, “Millions of separate realities, destroying our common world.” I’m reading more and more of this stuff about how the way TOO many people consume the internet, and get consumed by it. Specifically, how they get their minds hopelessly warped by a couple of the standard features of social […]
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for weeks, but haven’t had the time, because it would be so involved. But I think I’ll throw out a few thoughts about it, and see if y’all take it up, and then add to the conversation as we go. I’m prompted to go ahead and […]