It is a travesty that more people know of Al Sharpton than of Thomas Sowell.
Monday, August 31, 2026
Proper Decor
A Large Regular has a picture of Cormac McCarthy's living room, not his library, and it is clear evidence that I need to boost my book purchases.
Although some may disagree.
Strange Divisions
Many years ago, I learned that the worst companies are the least-inclined to seek outside advice whereas the best-run companies seek fresh perspectives on a regular basis.
The same goes for individuals.
But let's broaden that scope.
The older and more experienced people have the resources and habit of getting outside opinions in order to make sound decisions.
But many of the most important decisions occur early in life and are made by the young.
And those innocents have few, if any, sound advisors.
But they have a lifetime to review their performance.
If they are wise, they'll learn the lessons and exile the regrets.
First Paragraph
On Saturday evening, March 23,1996, eighteen-year-old apprentice airman Steven Nary went looking for his regular carousing buddies on the USS Carl Vinson, then berthed at the Alameda Naval Air Station across the bay from San Francisco. Two of his fellow sailors were on vacation, however, and two were on leave, so Nary decided to go in alone, the first time he had done so. Bad move.
- From What's the Matter with California: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking by Jack Cashill
Sunday, August 30, 2026
Saturday, August 29, 2026
First Paragraph
The office of the university president looked like the front parlor of a successful Victorian whorehouse. It was paneled in big squares of dark walnut, with ornately figured maroon drapes at the long windows. There was maroon carpeting and the furniture was black leather with brass studs. The office was much nicer than the classrooms; maybe I should have worn a tie.
- From The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert B. Parker
Buses and Light-Rail Trains Should Not Be Billboards
My Substack column: Get Government Out of the Graffiti Business!
[Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash+]
Friday, August 28, 2026
"Expressive Individualism" and Immigration in England
Dutch conservatives who think that women cannot have penises are not welcome, while men from countries that consider rape something of a gray area are entering in droves.
Read the rest of the essay by Carl R. Trueman in First Things.
To Be Savored
Do it justice. Slow down. This is a thought-provoker.
And it's lurking at Amazon.
I'm re-reading it.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
First Paragraph
"You're probably wondering why I asked you to come here today, Mr. Bottom," said Hiroshi Nakamura.
- From Flashback by Dan Simmons
Keep the Paths Clear
My current distractions are a blend of writing projects, family medical appointments, research, history books, coaching, organizing my office, yard work, correspondence, as well as frequently reviewing projects to see what I am missing.
The jungle is always out there, and the paths must be maintained.
[Photo by Adam Thomas at Unsplash.]
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
"Fascism with a Human Face"
"I would contend that what they illustrate is a truth that we should have understood a very long time ago: that Communism is Fascism - successful Fascism, if you will. What we have called Fascism is, rather, the form of tyranny that can be overthrown - that has, largely, failed.
''I repeat: not only is Fascism (and overt military rule) the probable destiny of all Communist societies - especially when their populations are moved to revolt - but Communism is in itself a variant, the most successful variant, of Fascism. Fascism with a human face.''
- Susan Sontag, in a February 1982 speech
[Photo by Egor Myznik at Unsplash]
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Modern Times
Ordinary authoritarians are content to forbid people to say things they believe to be true. Totalitarians want to force people to say things they believe to be false.
- Robert P. George
First Paragraph
Her name is Ana Alvarado, and she's having a bad day. She spent all week preparing for a job interview, the first one in months to reach the videoconference stage, but the recruiter's face barely appeared on-screen before he told her that the company has decided to hire someone else. So she sits in front of her computer, wearing her good suit for nothing. She makes a half-hearted attempt to send queries to some other companies and immediately receives automated rejections. After an hour of this, Ana decides she needs some diversion: she opens a Next Dimension window to play her current favorite game, Age of Iridium.
- From "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" - a short story in Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Monday, August 24, 2026
Learning How to Learn
My upcoming Substack essay will be on Learning How to Learn.
It will be posted today.
Bear with me.
Sunday, August 23, 2026
Saturday, August 22, 2026
"They are trying to kill us"
Deep thoughts at The New England Journal of Medicine where evidence doesn't matter.
Bakunin Smiles
A story behind a story: Leftists work at an anarchist bookstore?
It's that whole "withering away of the state" thing which has worked out so well over the years.
First Paragraph
It was the custom in the palmy days of Queen Victoria for statesmen to expatiate upon the glories of the British Empire, and to rejoice in that Protecting Providence which had preserved us through so many dangers and brought us at length into a secure and prosperous age. Little did they know that the worst perils had still to be encountered and that the greatest triumphs were yet to be won.
- From The World Crisis 1911 - 1918 by Winston S. Churchill
Friday, August 21, 2026
The "White Guilt" Ruse
Winston Marshall and Lionel Shriver discuss one of the major performances of our time: "White Guilt for thee, but not for me."
Hamas or Israeli Values
Historian Victor Davis Hanson on Hating Israeli Fatigue. An excerpt:
The tunnels’ entries and exits were located, by design, beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. That choice was itself a damning indictment: Hamas expected Israel to be far more careful to avoid collateral damage to Gazan civilians than Hamas itself, which deliberately put them in the line of fire to save its own fighters.
Hamas’s logic was clear: the Israelis may spare us because they value Gazan lives more than we terrorists do, who use them as human shields.
A Key Question
"If there is a violation of policies or regulations or an infraction of simply sound management, is there a mechanism or office in place to catch it?"
You know the usual answer: "No. Nope. Not a chance. People may know something is wrong. They may mutter about it, but unless there is a direct reason for them to correct it, they will look the other way."
That is not a minor problem. It harms productivity and erodes trust and morale.
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Matt Calkins
A sports columnist for the Seattle Times resigns after 11 years on the job.
Unfortunately, it is not difficult to imagine the reason.
The "We are Unworthy" Culture
Spiked: Brendan O'Neill on the Maoist lunacy of the Jason Arday cult.
An excerpt:
He chokes up as he whips himself for the moral error of having very mildly criticised the prof before his death. Reading from a prepared script, like some terrified soul at a 1930s showtrial, he bows and scrapes in performative sorrow for having spoken ‘glibly, frivolously and callously’ of the now beatified professor. That I am a man ‘capable of great callousness’ is now ‘permanently on the page’, he says. I will be tarred for life by my Arday apostasy, he softly sobs – it’s a moral scar ‘I can’t escape’, and that ‘is right, it’s a necessity, to ensure I never make such grave and irresponsible errors of judgement again’.
Judgment
He's sooo correct.
I eagerly await Nicholas Bate's new book on judgment.
And, of course, his next novel.
User Harm: Meta's Internal Research
What The Company Learned About Social Media and Harms to Mental Health from Dozens of Internal Studies
Compiled by Bennett Sippel, Nikolaus Greb, Emma Park, Zach Rausch, and Jonathan Haidt at the Tech and Society Lab at NYU Stern.
This report should get a lot of scrutiny.
And you don't need to be a Luddite to have questions.
[Photo by Rasheed Kemy at Unsplash]
"The Revolution Has a Trust Fund"
How do you know when you've made it in America? When your grown-up kid declares he's a socialist. It means you've given your family a level of material comfort and security so unquestionable that your child has never even thought about how it happened. The very life you've provided him is like a seamless work of art in which all the grueling spadework has been successfully hidden. Good for you. Bad for everyone else.
- Abe Greenwald in the Commentary Newsletter
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
First Paragraph
In November 2004, I took a job with a courier company in Iraq and moved to a patch of gravel next to the airport in Mosul. Two small, temporary buildings served as office and living quarters. I shared them with two homesick Nepalese Gurkhas and a retired British soldier. Our planes flew in from Bahrain, and the four of us worked with a team of five Iraqis to unload and deliver their cargo. U.S. soldiers received care packages from family and equipment from far-off bases. Iraqis came to collect diesel engines, X-ray machines for the local hospital, and crate upon crate of untaxed Jordanian cigarettes for resale. At night, the Gurkhas ran up massive bills calling Nepal on our satellite phone, and the Brit watched movies, drank whiskey, and cleaned his boots and his gun.
- From The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State by Graeme Wood
The University Scam
We now make it relatively easy for students to meet the immediate cash outlay of attending college with readily available loans, but this has the effect of diminishing the consumer's natural tendency to scrutinize the real value of what he is paying for. The result is that students are starting their working lives shouldering large debts that will take them many years to repay, while in many cases what they are getting for it is little more than a piece of paper - a diploma certainly but without the skill and knowledge that such a diploma used to certify.
- John M Ellis, The Breakdown of Higher Education (2021)
[Photo by Ben Iwara for Unsplash+]
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
First Paragraph
The word "revolution" has an interesting etymology. When asked by Soviet sociologists what it meant to them, Russian peasants responded "samovol'shchina," or, roughly, "doing what you want." In modern advertising, "revolutionary" has come to mean "radically new," and hence, by implication, "improved." When used in everyday speech, it is another way of saying "drastically different." From such usage one would hardly suspect that the word had its origins in astronomy and astrology.
- From A Concise History of The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes
Deeply Appreciated
Many thanks to Kurt Harden and all others who've written their very kind reviews of Pilate's Magician.
Those matter more than I can say.
The Tide is Turning
My Substack is up: The Divisiveness of Diversity Mismanagement.
[Photo by Fine Photographics at Unsplash]
Monday, August 17, 2026
The Math Gap
San Francisco Standard: A Berkeley mathematics class has students who are "five to eight years behind in mathematics."
An excerpt: "Office hours that should be spent discussing integrals instead become lessons on fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school."
[Photo by Eric Prouzet at Unsplash]
Kaputt
I recently finished Curzio Malaparte's novel, Kaputt.
It's fascinating, chilling, and beautifully written and yet the problem with Malaparte is you never quite know how much of the story is true.
And your biggest worry is that all of it is true.
Sunday, August 16, 2026
Saturday, August 15, 2026
Saturday Morning
Coffee first, of course.
Errands. Chores. Phone calls. Gas station. Bookstore.
I should run by the post office.
And, of course, there is reading and writing.
My Substack column should be up today.
I also need to crank up the marketing of Pilate's Magician.
[Those of you who have written kind reviews are especially blessed.]
And later, as the evening approaches, I need to mow the backyard and trim some bushes.
Wherever you are, have a marvelous weekend. Take it slowly.
Friday, August 14, 2026
An Acura Boost or Bore?
Instapundit: Will Acura find a new groove?
[An old friend of mine now drives nothing but Acuras. He used to drive Mustangs. Go figure.]
A Rather Fascinating Person
And then, a last snapshot. It's eleven years later - the invasion of Iraq, which I backed, is a disaster; the financial system that my friends helped build has crashed; my wife and I are divorced; the New Republic is sold after I feared going bust - and here I am in my white suit walking across Harvard Yard, surrounded by students: "Harvard, Harvard shame on you, honoring a racist fool." The racist fool is, apparently, me. It's a sodden coda, one I don't quite grasp, or believe.
- Martin Peretz
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Ballad
And this is the ballad of my life: that I mumble strange syllables before the people of silence.
- Avrom Sutzkever
Fascinating
I will also show, with the help of facts and figures that my research team and I have collected, block by block and farm by farm in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, that most of the poor already possess the assets they need to make a success of capitalism. Even in the poorest countries, the poor save. The value of the savings among the poor is, in fact, immense - forty times all the foreign aid received throughout the world since 1945. In Egypt, for instance, the wealth that the poor have accumulated is worth fifty-five times as much as the sum of all direct foreign investment ever recorded there, including the Suez Canal and the Aswan Dam.
- Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital
First Paragraph
My hometown was, in the 1960s, a passable embodiment of the American Dream, a place that offered decent opportunity for all the kids in town, whatever their background. A half century later, however, life in Port Clinton, Ohio, is a split-screen American nightmare, a community in which kids from the wrong side of the tracks that bisect the town can barely imagine the future that awaits the kids from the right side of the tracks. And the story of Port Clinton turns out to be sadly typical of America. How this transformation happened, why it matters, and how we might begin to alter the cursed course of our society is the subject of this book.
- From Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert D. Putnam, published in 2015.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Two Key Questions on Technology
- What will you do with it?
- What will it do with you?
[Photo by Microsoft CoPilot at Unsplash]
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
From "Amusing Ourselves to Death"
In television teaching, perplexity is a superhighway to low ratings. A perplexed learner is a learner who will turn to another station. This means there must be nothing that has to be remembered, studied, applied or, worst of all, endured. It is assumed that any information, story or idea can be made immediately accessible, since the contentment, not the growth, of the learner is paramount.
- Neil Postman
Monday, August 10, 2026
Bring Them Back!
Natalya Murakhver on how the best children's history books were allowed to go out of print.
When I was a child, I read the Random House history series. All of the books were excellent.
Mr. Peretz and His Constellation
From The New Criterion in 2023:
Myron Magnet on The Controversialist: Arguments with Everyone, Left, Right and Center by Martin Peretz.
I can recall when Peretz's editing of The New Republic produced a must-read magazine.
First Paragraph
There was a photograph of Frank in an ad that ran in the Detroit Free Press and showed all the friendly salesmen at Red Bowers Chevrolet. Under his photo it said Frank J. Ryan. He had on a nice smile, a styled moustache, and a summer-weight suit made out of that material that's shiny and looks like it has snags in it.
- From Swag by Elmore Leonard
Sunday, August 09, 2026
Saturday, August 08, 2026
Evergreen
"I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University."
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
Friday, August 07, 2026
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