We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Can Capitalism Save Hollywood? The gulf between elites and audiences is eroding profits throughout entertainment and news media—but signs of correction are emerging.
Photo: I hate NY Eve parties, (but I understand that it can be a reasonable excuse to throw a party); Champagne gives me a headache; I hate excess booze (for myself anyway); and there is no way I will willingly stay up until midnight. Call me grumpy.
All the same, I wish all a healthy, loving, prosperous and contented 2023.
For many Trump supporters, it was his policies that mattered. We suffered and endured his behavior, just as much as anyone else. Indeed, the headline in one Wall Street Journal oped read “The Only Good Thing About Donald Trump is All His Policies.
Now, we can have his policies without his boorishness, and without the unfair vitriolic anti-Trump diatribes from the left, most of the media and from Republican Never-Trumpers. Trump inspired a whole cadre of impressive Republican presidential prospects, someone of whom is likely to carry the day in 2024 and carry his policies into the future, albeit with different possible successors having different notions of “all policies.”
It is almost as though the purpose of the stories we are told is to obscure reality, not to reveal it. Because to observe reality is to trust your own perceptions. You might even start to notice that most stories are not tidy parables with morals. “The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright,” Dillard writes. A satisfying true story tends to be complicated and irreducible. Reality is messy. People have obscure and contradictory motives; we misbehave, screw up, and rarely do what we should.
Stuck in the Middle (of Academia) -
Photo: I hate NY Eve parties, (but I understand that it can be a reasonable excuse to throw a party); Champagne gives me a headache; I hate excess booze (for myself anyway); and there is no way I will willingly stay up until midnight. Call me grumpy.
New York Times
The Covid hysterics’ bleak midwinter.
Most medical professionals