Contra my man Rob, I think ol’ Andy Jackson should stay put on the Twenty. I make my case in Taki’s Mag today. An excerpt: The anti-Jackson bromides are not only wrongheaded but ignorant of the president’s impact on American democracy. Jackson was a man of ferocious ambition, of unworldly perseverance, and of seemingly unbreakable grit. He went […]
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Future Things
Daniel Clowes did it first, but I have future predictions of my own: We will be ashamed for ever believing the things we currently think are cool were ever, in fact, cool. Many computers will choose to convert to Catholicism. Furries will routinely use gene therapy to become more like their animal-esque personas Desire modification will become […]
The Bernie Congress
There is group of progressives inspired by Bernie Sanders that had decided to run for Congress – that’s the topic of my CounterPunch piece today. An excerpt: For readers of CounterPunch the candidature of Bernie Sanders has generated mixed feelings. On the one hand he has pushed for progressive policies in economic issues, on the other hand he hasn’t […]
Trump And Divine Retribution
Is God lending a hand to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign? I know that’s a borderline blasphemous question to ask. Presumably, our Creator has better things to do than monitor America’s electoral politics. But I can’t come up with any other reason to explain Trumpmania. First things first: There is no doubt the Republican electorate loves the Manhattan […]
No Women Shouldnt Have To Sign Up For Selective Service Or Fight In War
Feminists, rejoice! Horace’s dictum, “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” will soon no longer be exclusive to American males. Sometime in the near-future, women will have the honor of being forced to leave their families, enter bullet-ridden battlefields, and risk having their limbs blown apart. Surely, Virginia Woolf is cheering in her grave. Last […]
Left Wing Dissent Thats A Category Error
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LEFT-WING DISSENT If we grant that the definition of dissent is the holding of a belief that is contrary to the prevailing ideology, then it’s not particularly difficult to categorize instances of such dissent. A good metric to measure it by is the magnitude of social penalties paid for by […]
Auto Splc
About a year ago, I was having coffee with a friend, discussing the ever-expanding definition of “harassment” on social media. I raised a question that I still think is pretty interesting: what if someone created a program to track how many “harassing” or “hateful” accounts someone was following on Twitter? If an account follows too […]
Why Not A Vox For The Grey Tribe
Scott Alexander, in one of the best essays I have ever read, differentiates the red and blue tribes, before acknowledging the rise of a Grey tribe. There is a partly-formed attempt to spin off a Grey Tribe typified by libertarian political beliefs, Dawkins-style atheism, vague annoyance that the question of gay rights even comes up, eating paleo, […]
Trump And National Review
Culled from a private conversation last week Hate-reading National Review’s attempt to keep the conservative movement flying from resounding success to resounding success by thwarting Trump. Has anyone else noticed the house style of larding editorials with hammy archaisms that stick out like sore thumbs — “show and strut,” “is not deserving of” (should be […]
Conservative Against The Conservative Movement
Less than one week to go before the Iowa caucus, and the battle lines are drawn. On one side is brash businessman Donald Trump. On the other side is the near-entirety of the professional conservative movement – the thinkers, marketers, editors, donor-schmoozers, lawyers, consultants, money-bundlers, tax cheats, business shills, and communication hacks who profess allegiance […]