State of the Culture
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A few days ago I followed a link from somewhere or other to this story about the CEO of Caterpillar. Caterpillar is a big company, with approximately 121,000 employees. In 2012 it had about $5.6 billion in profits. A very hasty search informs me the company was doing worse throughout 2013, and profits are significantly…
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Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein stopped by Howard Stern’s radio show this week and revealed plans for his next big movie. Weinstein got into a discussion with Stern about the issue of gun control, telling the controversial radio host, “I don’t think we need guns in this country, and I hate it. I think the NRA…
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This appeared one day last week in Dear Abby: DEAR ABBY: I read the obituaries in our local newspaper every day to see if someone I know has died. But when I don't see any familiar name, I feel let down and disappointed. Is that weird? — STILL ALIVE IN SAN DIEGO Here's the heading…
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Dick Cheney's daughters are feuding because one of them is a lesbian who has a "wife," and the other believes marriage requires two people of opposite sexes. The former says the latter is on the wrong side of history. It's a charge one hears pretty frequently. I can imagine few things less likely to make…
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I mean, really: College football coaches trademarking their names? (Warning: that link goes to one of those annoying pages that starts a video automatically. But there's a print story there.)
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From a theater review by Kevin Williamson in The New Criterion ….the perennial question of why it is that actors are allowed to speak in public when there is nobody around to write lines for them…
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I think I'll let this be my last post on this book for now. It deserves a lengthy and well-considered review, but for various reasons I don't feel up to that. So I'll just point you to a series of essays at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute which comprise a pretty good discussion of the book. …
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Everybody makes fun of the ostentatious tacky tail-finned cars of the 1950s. And with good reason. 1958 Chrysler Imperial But this is just as bad, though in a different way. It’s certainly every bit as ostentatious. 2013 Cadillac Escalade “Truck” The whole “Sport” “Utility” Vehicle thing has been annoying for a long time, though at…
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In spite of her manifest dottiness, including the famous tearing-up-a-picture-of-the-pope incident, I have a soft spot in my heart for Sinead O'Connor. That's based mainly on a few interviews I've read with her, and a few songs; I've never actually heard much of her music. But somehow I have the impression of someone who is…
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In a chapter called "Blind Alleys," Kalb discusses various responses to liberalism. I'll be posting a bit from each of them. Here is what he calls "simple conservatism." Simple procedural conservatism is a view for moderate worldly men attached to what is established but willing to accomodate new developments that seem sensible or inevitable. It…
Light On Dark Water 