First Paragraph

 William Gladstone was at home in Flintshire, North Wales, when the news came early that morning. Benjamin Disraeli was dead. It was hardly unexpected, but Gladstone immediately recognised the implications for himself and the country. 'It is a telling, touching event,' he confided to his diary. 'There is no more extraordinary man surviving him in England, perhaps none in Europe. I must not say much, in the presence as it were of his Urn.'

- From The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli by Richard Aldous

The Illusion of Thinking

 The Apple paper that is the current buzz.

The critics are assembling.

Find Something Beautiful Today

[Photo by Renan Brun at Unsplash]

In the Background

 

A Writer to Know

 

Ouch

 Carter has never been what one would call svelte. Asked if a jacket could be cut to make him look slimmer, his man at Anderson & Sheppard offered the Jeeves-ian riposte "We're only tailors, sir."

- From the June 2025 Commentary magazine review by Rick Martin of When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter

When Debates Were Civilized and Informative

 

Who Says that Wills and Estates Law Isn't Interesting?

The New York Post on the mysterious will of the Zappos founder showing up five years after his death.

What Happened to the Schools

 

Commentary magazine: "How Wokeness Destroyed an Education Miracle" by Robert Pondiscio.

D Day

 

Take-Off

 

Life of a Techie

 

In the Background

 

Out This Morning

 

But don't miss my Substack essay on "The Possibility of Weasels."

[Photo by Dawid Zawila at Unsplash]

AI and National Defense

 "Artificial intelligence is no longer merely a commercial or academic pursuit. It is now a matter of national survival, and a decisive factor in the geopolitical competition of this century."

- Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska in The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West

Management Consultant Show

 

On My List

 

"In clearing so large a place for himself, he left a vacuum no one since has been able to fill. This is the absence so many feel today - adversaries and apostates as well as advocates and admirers. A founder of our world, he speaks to us from a different one, beyond our reach but hovering near, if only we can discover in ourselves the imagination and generosity, the kindness and warmth, that Bill Buckley demonstrated time and again in his long and singular life."

- Sam Tanenhaus

The Coming European Wars

The Free Press: "How the Muslim Brotherhood Is Capturing Europe" by Simone Rodan-Benzaquen.

A classified report from the French Ministry of Interior reveals the plan.

Speaking of John Adams

 

Let's Have Beautiful and Practical

 From a letter that John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on May 12, 1780:

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.

Ah, if only the world were so nice!

The fact is, as the people of Ukraine and Israel can tell us, the world is not that nice. There are barbarians out there who would like nothing more than to take over a nation of artists.

I have no doubt that John Adams knew that. He was a very intelligent leader of a successful and bloody revolution.

The secret then and now, of course, is not to avoid dreams, but to know when you are dreaming.

Welcome to 1930

 

Remembering The Stacks

 

A library should not lose its magic.

[Photo by Minh at Unsplash]

How's Your Workday?

 

For Clarification

We are at a point where we do not need daily news as much as daily dictionaries.

As noted in "The Great Clarification."

[Photo by Jake Blucker at Unsplash]

A Glass of Wine

"If we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe.... If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts - physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on - remember that nature does not know it!"

- Richard Feynman

Segovia Story

 Michael Chapdelaine's account of the Andres Segovia incident.

Count Me In

 

Find Something Beautiful Today

 

[Photo by Arthur Yeti at Unsplash]

Knives Out: The New One

 

Fighting Censorship

 The Hill: Jonathan Turley on Marco Rubio's war on the global censors.

Our Times

Rod Dreher has a very interesting Substack column on David Brooks, Patrick Deneen, artificial intelligence, and churches.

Uniting Food and Community

Amber Waves Farm.

Great idea!

Becoming Increasingly Relevant

 

Becoming a "Verified Human"

 Time magazine: "The Orb Will See You Now."

First Paragraph

"The central claims of the first edition of this book can be stated simply. Machines are becoming increasingly capable and are taking on more and more of the tasks that once were the exclusive province of human professionals. While new tasks will no doubt arise in years to come, machines are likely in time to take on many of these as well. In the medium term, during the 2020s, this will not mean unemployment for professionals. But there will be widespread redeployment and a need for extensive retraining. In the long run, however, we find it hard to avoid the conclusion that there will be a steady decline in the need for traditional flesh-and-blood professionals working as they do today."

- From The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind

Moral Agnostics

"Too many leaders are reluctant to venture into the discussion, to articulate genuine belief - in an idea, a set of values, or a political project - for fear that they will be punished in the contemporary public sphere. A significant subset of our leaders, elected and otherwise, both teach and are taught that belief itself is the enemy and that a lack of belief in anything, except oneself perhaps, is the most certain path to reward. The result is a culture in which those responsible for making our most consequential decisions - in any number of public domains, including government, industry, and academia - are often unsure of what their own beliefs are, or more fundamentally if they have any firm or authentic beliefs at all."

- From The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West by Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska

When You Meet a Great Listener

 Many of you will understand what it was like to meet "The Man Who Listened."

As the Books Pile Up

Between China, American cultural changes, Artificial Intelligence, and my ongoing fascination with such figures as Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, Tiberius Caesar, Ulysses Grant, and the Duke of Wellington, my reading stack is growing at an unprecedented rate.

It's good that I don't watch television.

And that my clients accept a certain level of eccentricity. [One calls me their "Batman" since they only bring me in when there's a crisis.]

One reading tip: I've noticed that when a particular issue is at the back of my mind, my attention is often drawn to some long-neglected book on one of my shelves.

I've grown to pay attention to such signals because when I open the book, I invariably find an item that applies to the current dilemma.

How to Write a Great Sentence

 

Surprisingly Good

 

The Cover-Up

 The Free Press: Bari Weiss talks to the authors of "Original Sin."

A Sad Truth

 "If you put up a poster for a missing dog in any Western city, that poster stays up. In city after city in America, posters of abducted Jewish children were ripped down by people with hatred for Jews."

- Douglas Murray

Classic Country

 

So True

 Nicholas Bate: Use pen and paper rather than keyboard.

Clarity

 "If you get the objectives right, a lieutenant can write the strategy."

- General George C. Marshall

First Paragraph

 "This is how an AI sees it."

- From The Coming Wave: AI, Power, and Our Future by Mustafa Suleyman

How Many Children in the Future Will Picture Their Mom

[Photo by Laura Chouette at Unsplash]

In The Background

 

Stage Tip

 Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.

- David Mamet

Prediction

 I think Patrick Rhone's bold prediction about schools is correct.

Get ready for a genuineness movement.

Classic Soundtrack

 

Thought Provoking

 

Ahead of His Time

"Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them."

- Mr. Spock, Star Trek

Gone Too Soon

FutureLawyer Rick Georges is missed for many things. I rarely read about Artificial Intelligence without wishing I could get his opinion.

First Paragraph

 On Friday, November 17, 2023, around noon Pacific time, Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, Silicon Valley's golden boy, avatar of the generative AI revolution, logged on to a Google Meet to see four of his five board members staring at him.

- From Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI by Karen Hao

"Heist"

 

Substack: Daniel Moran on David Mamet's Caper.

Snares

 

• Questionable grasp on reality
• Rushed decisions
• Fumbling administration
• Impossible or cloudy mission
• Uncontrollable delays
• Perfectionism
• Unreliable resources
• Unrealistic deadlines
• Unrealistic expectations
• Distractions
• Poor execution
• Devious or weak allies
• Solutions bringing new problems

[Photo by Carter Ledford at Unsplash]

First Paragraph

 The first thought Anderton had when he saw the young man was: I'm getting bald. Bald and fat and old. But he didn't say it aloud. Instead, he pushed back his chair, got to his feet, and came resolutely around the side of his desk, his right hand rigidly extended. Smiling with forced amiability, he shook hands with the young man. 

- From The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick

Zimmer Break

 

Over the Hills and Far Away

 

Normandy

 

Memorial Day

[Photo by Aaron Burden at Unsplash]

Thinking Anew and Acting Anew

 Substack: When Universities Have Recalls.

Find Something Beautiful Today

 

[Photo by Trac Vu at Unsplash]

Classic Soundtracks

 

As To a Lifebelt

 The fact to which we have got to cling, as to a lifebelt, is that it is possible to be a normal decent person and yet to be fully alive.

-          George Orwell

Back By Popular Demand

 

Find the Conservatives

 Click here to play the traditional game of finding the few conservatives among college and university commencement speakers.

Push the Button

 Cultural Offering has the Post of the Day.

I hope that was a hell of a workshop.

In The Zone

The best part of The Zone is the focus. You're not running off here or there. You are not shifting your attention to a multitude of items.

You are in The Zone.

And when you want to get a project completed, that is a very nice place to be.

[Photo by Anastasius at Unsplash]

The Poetic Influences

 There are Wordsworth days.

There are Tennyson days.

There have always been Longfellow days and Wylie days and Sandburg and Frost days.

And Yeats. Can't forget Shelley or Lindsay. Or Sassoon. Or Hughes.

And so many others!

But I have to confess that this is the poem that has influenced me for most of my life.

Somebody Fire That A.I. Intern!

The Chicago Sun-Times explains a big oops: 

How its recommended summer reading list included some books that don't exist.

Boo

 

First Paragraph

They parked the small white van that claimed Reparation de Climitisation en Urgence in red letters and Emergency Air-Conditioning Repair in smaller black ones below. The time was 05:30; the two men watched the property in silence.

- From Pierre Lambert, Detective, a novel by Nicholas Bate 

AI and Unintended Consequences

We need to consider what Artificial Intelligence will to do to people as well as what it will do for people.

I've posted some thoughts on Substack.

A Summer Reading List

 

NPR: An AI-generated summer reading list hits the Chicago Sun-Times.

Speaking of Plays

 

An Elaborate Play Was Staged for the American People

 The Free Press: Oliver Wiseman on "The Joe Biden Cover-Up."

Should Be Fun

 

After the Debate

 Bari Weiss knew in June of 2024.

"Biden and His Palace Court"

 Commentary magazine: John Podhoretz weighs in on the latest cover-up. An excerpt:

Either they knew he was too out of it to serve as president and covered it up, which is criminal and means they should never again be allowed anywhere near a position of authority, or they deluded themselves into thinking otherwise, which means they were fools who should never be allowed anywhere near a position of authority. Anyway you slice it, they should never be anywhere near power ever again. 

Sorely Needed

 

Our Times

"These attacks on Western civilization illustrate a sad truth about all civilizations at all times: their fragility." 

- Allen C. Guelzo and James Hankins in Where Next? Western Civilization at the Crossroads, edited by Roger Kimball

Read the Book. Missed the Movie.

 

Find Something Beautiful Today

[Photo by Michael Richardson at Unsplash]

We're in the Best of Hands

 Cultural Offering points to a review of a serious problem: the closing of schools during Covid.

Sleepygate

 

Love the Title

Nicholas Bate reports that Pierre Lambert, Detective is coming out soon. 

That will be irresistible.

Novels About Dystopia (Minor and Major)

Mitigating Chaos has added another book to my stack.

Aside from Nineteen Eighty-Four, I think the first dystopian novel I read was Lucifer's Hammer.

Brave New World, On the Beach, and Lord of the Flies got my attention later.

At one point it seemed that the market exploded: Atlas Shrugged, The Stand, The Road, and Station Eleven are just a few.

Aside from all of the above, if there are any that I shouldn't miss, please let me know.

Rambling

 Close to completing the novel. That means one week in my mind but two to three weeks in reality. 

Business is picking up. Am reading some books that are so good I expect to be disappointed when they are finished. 

At night, am re-reading The Rector of Justin. Forgot just how good it is.

One big way I save time: By not watching television. Enormously liberating.

Product recommendation: Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Bar Soap. Try the peppermint.

Background music: Handel.

New project: How to provide traditional management training in a format that fits very tight schedules while maintaining high quality.

Hot subjects right now: Discrimination prevention, workplace tact, silos, and, of course, communication.

The More This Gets Zinged, The More I Want to See It

 

The Days of Fascist Italy

 

Modern Societal Alarm Bells

The list is here. 

[Photo by liam ward at Unsplash]

May is a Birthday Month

 As I scan my monthly reminder of birthdays, I am struck by how many people are born in May as opposed to other months.

I also notice how my stash of birthday cards has diminished, mainly due to difficulty in finding tasteful and witty cards nowadays.

One solution: Artistic postcards. Black-and-white photographs on postcards.

There are some great collections out there.

Hmm

 

The AI Threat

A recent meeting I attended covered a lot of subjects but failed to consider the possibility that the team worked in a specialty that will be highly susceptible to replacement by artificial intelligence in two to three years.

If not sooner.

A Reminder of How Very Smart People Can Make Very Dumb Decisions

 

Architecture and Spiritual Collapse

 

National Debt Wars

City Journal's Christopher Rufo on the battle of DOGE versus Washington.

I would add that battle is not over.

First Paragraph

September 10, 1939. I have always wanted to keep a journal, but whenever I am about to start one, I am dissuaded by the idea that it is too late. I lose heart when I think of all the fascinating things I could have described had I only begun earlier. Not that my life has been an exciting one. On the contrary, it has been very dull. But a dull life in itself may be an argument for a journal. The best way for the passive man to overtake his more active brothers is to write them up. Isn't the Sun King himself just another character in Saint-Simon's chronicle?

- From The Rector of Justin by Louis Auchincloss

Crank It Up

 

Just Arrived

 

From the Foreword by Stephen K. Bannon:

Transhumanism - the global scientific and cultural movement to surpass or transcend Homo sapiens - is the central civilizational issue of our time. In its development, processes, and protocols, this radical ideology will sweep all that came before it - our institutions, our values, our society. It will disrupt and destroy, first the fabric of our lives, then our lives themselves. Stanford's Francis Fukuyama called it "the world's most dangerous idea." He was right.

Hmm

 

The Old Friend

 The first time we met, we argued, but shortly afterwards we became solid friends. 

He was an assistant city attorney, and I often met with him regarding various discrimination issues that my office handled.

After I started my consulting practice and after he retired, we kept in touch via phone calls and lunches.

And then, slowly, very slowly and then quickly, he drifted into another land, one that renders him still present but gone.

Too sad for words.

On My List

 

Must Reading

 Commentary magazine: "The Untold Story of How Israel Failed on October 7": by Jonathan Foreman.

47 Ground Rules for Life

All of us have ground rules, often developed from hard experience. 

Early feedback on this Substack column has been very positive.

Many thanks!

[Photo by Kevin Woblick at Unsplash]

An AI Film

 

Happy Mother's Day

 

[Photo by Zoe Richardson at Unsplash]

Prosecuting Shoplifting in Arizona

 

One of the Most Fascinating Places in the World

 

Yes

 

When We Do Not Know Our History

 "When we do not know our history, when we do not care who or what came before us, when we no longer understand the foundation upon which our nation is built, then we do not know why we are Americans. And our differences, which have always existed, tear us apart because we have no national identity that holds us together."

- Carly Fiorina

Great Opening

 

Collect Your Bits and Pieces

 

Consultant and novelist Nicholas Bate provides invaluable advice on writing.

This is one reason why so many of us carry around notecards and journals.

[Photo by Robert Bye at Unsplash]

Private Schools, Social Climbing, and the Elites

 Substack writer Liza Libes provides an insightful review of her high school reunion.

Highly recommended.

10 Favorites

 

Pulitzer's Ignoble Prize

 Commentary magazine on the latest outrage: "May shame torment its judges in perpetuity."

Getting Extraordinary Reviews

 

Customers Can Be Many Things

 Customers can be many things.

They can be:

·         Demanding

·         Helpful

·         Unfair

·         Knowledgeable

·         Fun

·         Time-consuming

·         Creative

·         Hurried

·         Sophisticated

·         Insensitive

·         Dense

·         Courteous

·         Impolite

·         Wise

·         Perceptive

In other words, they can be a lot like us in a variety of ways.

There is, however, one characteristic we should never ascribe to our customers:

A nuisance.

When that happens, it may say much more about us than about them.

Flashback: Mark Steyn on Multiculturalism

 

As The Terror Arrived

 

Leftism as Religion. Journalism as Joke.

As Secretary Buttigieg and I talked in his underfurnished corner office one afternoon in early spring, I slowly became aware that his cabinet job requires only a modest portion of his cognitive powers. Other mental facilities, no kidding, are apportioned to the Iliad, Puritan historiography, and Knausgaard’s Spring—though not in the original Norwegian (slacker). Fortunately, he was willing to devote yet another apse in his cathedral mind to making his ideas about three mighty themes—neoliberalism, masculinity, and Christianity—intelligible to me.

Read the rest of the 2023 Wired magazine article here.

Read "James"

 A Layman's Blog is right: "James" is highly recommended.

And it also has the advantage of defeating gender politics nitwittery at the Pulitzer Committee.

Attention: Job Counselors in Drama Schools

When AI combines Steampunk, Baroque, and Sci-Fi:

The Importance of Saying No

The details to this liberating habit are given in my Substack column.

It can change your life.

"Path of Our Fathers"

Claremont Review of Books: Christopher Flannery reviews Lincoln vs. Davis: War of the Presidents. An excerpt:

Swiftly: on April 12—39 days after Lincoln’s inauguration—Davis’s batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter; on April 15, Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers for three months’ military service; on April 17, Virginia seceded from the Union; on April 20, Robert E. Lee resigned from the U.S. Army. In the following week, tens of thousands fled Washington, D.C. in every direction, emptying hotels. Most of those leaving were secessionists; many were Union officers making their way south to serve the Confederacy. For the moment, Washington had no telegraph or mail service. According to one observer, “[T]here was practically no intercourse in any form between the national capital and any part of the country.” 

On My List

 

Great Escapes

 

• Cypress Inn, Carmel-By-The-Sea, California
• Gastehaus Englischer Garten in Munich, Germany
• The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee
• Hacienda de los Santos Hotel in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

[Photo by Levi Meir Clancy at Unsplash+]

Hmm

 

De-Woking and Rebuilding Latin America

There’s an old joke in Argentina: Argentines are Italians who speak Spanish, think they’re British, and live in Paris. Sixty-two percent of Argentines have some Italian ancestry. Argentina’s 1853 constitution was influenced by Anglophiles who used British self-government as a model and encouraged British immigration, which later brought soccer. Buenos Aires is nicknamed “the Paris of the Southern Hemisphere,” since many buildings there were designed by French and Belgian architects in the Parisian art nouveau style around the turn of the 20th century. At that time, European immigrants were flooding in, and Argentine beef, wool, grain, and tango dancing were popular in Europe and North America. By 1913, Argentina was one of the 10 wealthiest countries per capita in the world.

Read all of Robert C. Thornett's essay in Commentary magazine.

Much is Taken, Much Abides

 Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

AI Video Used in Victim Impact Portion of a Road Rage Case

 I have very mixed feelings about the use of such videos.

Great Film. Great Cast.

 

Create the Setting for Creativity

My mellow Substack column is up.

The little things add up.

Read it. Remember it. Live it.

Can You Handle it?

 

Put Down the Phone

 After Babel: Christine Rosen on "The Death of Day Dreaming."

Looking for Organizational Influences

 

Check out:

• Caliber of leadership and management.
• Values.
• Levels of experience.
• Staffing and turnover.
• Budget.
• NETMA [Nobody ever tells me anything]
• Reorganizations.
• Upward mobility.
• Key definitions.
• Coordination.
• Customers.
• Human resources management, caliber of.
• Customer service, internal and external.
• Equal opportunity/labor relations.
• Organizational history.
• Similarly situated incidents and practices.
• Past, current, and impending crises.
• What is assumed.
• What is left out.
• What is rewarded in fact as well as intentionally rewarded.
• Policies, both written and unwritten.
• Priorities.
• Complaints.
• Litigation.
• Government compliance.
• What is usually ignored.
• What is feared.
• What is on the near horizon.
• Deadlines achieved and yet to be achieved.
• Reputations.
• Anything that is untouchable.
• Silos.
• Allies and outside vendors.
• Competition.

Told in a New Way

 

Find Something Beautiful Today

 

[Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash +]

Business Smarts

Stephen Landry's Blog shows a restaurant mural revealing humor, beauty, and common sense.

Once a Best Picture Nominee

 

The Decline of Movies Harms Our Culture and Our Communities

 

We need to reduce streaming and go back to the movie theaters.

Many thanks to all who subscribe to my Substack account. Although the paid subscriptions are deeply appreciated, I encourage the free subscriptions as well. My goal is to double my total subscribers by June 10.

[Photo by Simon Ray at Unsplash]

Pro-Mass-Migration Movement Lies

This is a version  of an argument I have described elsewhere as being among the defining moves of the pro-mass-migration movement: first, that it isn't happening, that what you are seeing with your eyes you are not seeing; second, that it is happening but it is good for you; third, that it may not be good for you but you deserve it; and finally - it doesn't matter, because it's going to happen anyway.

- Douglas Murray, The real "Great Replacement" - The New Criterion, May 2025

Back By Popular Demand

 

Never Forget

 

A Big Week for Writing

I am working on a novel. Books scattered around. Multiple drafts. Reading and re-reading.

Nothing magical about the process. It's like building a table.

I've narrowed the work down to a key transitional part and am double-checking the chronology and the flow.

Much of it involves considering the perspectives of very different characters who are operating under very different sets of rules. It has been fun to identify possible motives not commonly noted in the non-fiction books.

I hope to have the final draft by next week.

Scribble, scribble.

Victims of Communism Day

 A reminder at Stephen Landry's Blog.

I wonder how much attention is given to this in the high schools.

Bach Bunch

Cultural Offering has an impressive assortment of Bach albums (I still call them that) and I will be ordering at least one today.

Truly a public service. Thanks, Kurt!

Douglas Murray on The Great Noticing

The New Criterion has one of the best articles on what is happening in Europe, and France in particular.

The essay by Douglas Murray about the warnings of Renaud Camus - the French philosopher who coined "The Great Replacement" - notes where the warnings may fail and how they may succeed.

There is a paywall to the article but if it is fairly easy to get over, I'd suggest doing so.

[Photo by Daniel Roe at Unsplash]