Why Geezers Rule
The Atlantic has an article wondering why old men run America, and why, in particular, a geezer who cannot tell his wife from his sister is the likely Democratic candidate.
Category: Access
Super Tuesday – 2020 US Election, Episode 2
In this brief episode, Dr. Fleming and Stephen discuss the Super Tuesday results.
Wednesday’s Child: Werewolves in Epaulettes
Our irreproachably highbrow editor has confessed in a recent post to “have read thousands of mystery novels without a single blush,” and I’ve taken that as a sign, nay, as a command to confess my own flirtations with the lowbrow. Chief among these, given that age and marital status no longer permit me to wake up in haystacks with strangers and hangovers, is a fascination with a particular kind of Russian television series that may be described as a shoot-‘em-up soap opera. The main purveyor of these, since the end of the 1990’s, is a channel called NTV, founded in...
Bloomberg’s California Utopia
As the “Mike Will Get It Done” campaign smashes on the shoals of Super Tuesday, especially California, it’s worth looking at what blowing $500 million didn’t achieve. First, Bloomberg said, “California can serve as a great example for the rest of this country.” Maybe if you’re a billionaire who can fly above the Pyrite State in helicopters and private jets between exclusive homes, hotels and office buildings. While dining on the world’s finest cuisine – at least in restaurants that haven’t closed from the state’s insanity of adopting just the policies, such as a $15 minimum wage, Bloomie and the...
America, America
I can’t speak for anyone else, of course, but I can barely sleep at night worrying about the Corona virus that has already infected nearly 70 (out of 300+ millions) Americans, and the incredible death rate world wide of somewhere between 1 to 3% of cases. As one of the elderly, I am supposed to be at several times higher the level of risk, if I come down with this flu-like disease. Trump-loving skeptics point to the tens of thousands of annual fatal cases of influenza, but what do they know? They’re not scientists like Nancy Pelosi and Anderson Cooper....
2020 US Election, Episode 1
In this occasional series, Dr. Fleming and Stephen will discuss the state of the 2020 US Election.
Trivializing Literature, Virtualizing Reality, Part Two
Neighbors, even in these postmodern times, have their uses. Who but the nosey neighbors will call the police if they observe strangers trying to enter your home when you are away? Who but a neighbor is at hand to lend you the ax or cup of sugar you need?
Wednesday’s Child: To Lynch a Ghost
“Giorgio Armani: provocative outfits are a kind of rape,” was yesterday the banner headline in a British newspaper. Another newspaper went with current events instead of applied philosophy: “Rapist Harvey Weinstein is rushed to hospital in the ambulance that was transferring him from court to prison after shouting ‘I’m innocent’ as he was convicted.” Armani has never made a piece of women’s clothing that is even remotely feminine, so his ploy to exploit the me-too trend for personal gain is just good business practice. The other headline is more poignant. It has the characteristic breathlessness that accompanies reports of popular...
Trivializing Literature, Virtualizing Reality, Part One
According to librarians, reading is a good thing, and it hardly matters what you read. On that principle, bad books are shoved off on unsuspecting children with goodness knows what deleterious effects. I half expect to see, before I depart, comic versions of Sade’s Justine and Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly. In general most of us read many too many books. I don’t mean simply that we read junk–I have read thousands of mystery novels, without a single blush. I mean we read too many books about books rather than books that are themselves a kind of reality.
Bernie and Dialectical Materialism
Propelled by his victory in Saturday’s Nevada Caucuses and previous combats, Bernie Sanders looks to be the Democrats’ nominee in 2020. He presents himself as a “progressive” bringing us the wave of the future, “democratic socialism.” His slogan: “Not me. Us” (emphasis in original). But when I hear him talk, I hear the Marxists I used to debate in the 1970s at the University of Michigan. Listen for when he screams against “the billionaire class,” as he did in the Eighth Debate from New Hampshire: “The way you bring people together is by presenting an agenda that works for the...
