Last week, The Economist noted that Iran scholar Shaul Bakhash had come up blank in a search for one of Norman Podhoretz’s favorite Ayatollah Khomenei quotations: We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up […]

[Read more →]

Kriston links to two New York magazine features exemplifying one very sharp and one, shall we say, unhelpful approach to evaluating gender representation in modern art museums. The sharp feature is an immaculately argued article by art critic Jerry Saltz on the scant representation of women in MoMA’s permanent collection. It allows that, history being […]

[Read more →]

From Ann at Feministing comes an exchange on The O’Reilly Factor during which Laura Ingraham says: I talked a lot of families, too. I never hear a mother tell her daughter that her body is dangerous. I do hear mothers tell their daughters, you’ll be better off, less likely to commit suicide, less likely to […]

[Read more →]

I had meant—before being bacterially besieged—to say something about a very strange piece by MIchael Hirschhorn in the latest Atlantic, which argues that newspapers aren’t doing a good job of “giving readers what they want.” The main—actually, pretty much the only—evidence for this being the slim overlap between newspaper front pages and the contents of […]

[Read more →]

My friend Erica notes the Care Bear Stare metaphor popping up in Rod Dreher’s Dallas Morning News column. Maybe this one’s got legs. Adorable, stubby, furry legs!

[Read more →]

Doubtless this clip will be pulled shortly, but even by the standards of The Simpsons, this scene guest-starring comics legends Alan Moore, Dan Clowes, and Art Spiegelman is genius.

[Read more →]

Apologies for light blogging; your humble author is sick with whatever’s going around the DC folk. As a consolation prize, listen to the first track off the forthcoming Magnetic Fields album Distortion: “Three-Way.”

[Read more →]

Dave Weigel notes that John McCain has a rather idiosyncratic conception of “the will of the people,” which may turn out to be precisely the opposite of what a significant majority of the actual people wish to do. That’s not to say this idea is without pedigree. In fact, it mirrors quite closely Rousseau’s distinction […]

[Read more →]

Apparently, you’re all quite sharp: Of course, this is arguably a defect in my writing style. I may aim to ratchet it down to undergrad.

[Read more →]

My old friend Dan Sieradski (how old? he designed the ANSI screen for my dial-up BBS. that old.) has a sympathetic but tough story in Jewcy about Ron Paul’s complicated relationship with some of his less savory supporters: According to the Lone Star Times, White Nationalists have become a noticeable source of financial contributions to […]

[Read more →]