Opening Lines

 Pete Kitchen was the connecting link between savagery and civilization in Arizona. He was a rough charcoal sketch of a civilized man. He came to Arizona in 1854, and farmed rich, broad acres on Potrero Creek near its junction with the Santa Cruz. During the bloodiest days of Indian warfare his name was a household word among the white settlers, and to the wild Apache he was "more terrible than an army with banners." His hacienda, situated on the summit of a rocky hillock overlooking the valley in every direction, was as much a fort as a ranch-house.

- From "Pete Kitchen" - a chapter in Pioneer Portraits by Frank Lockwood

Classic

 

California, Land of Opportunity

 City Journal on the Nigerian chief who made millions in Medicaid.

Looks Orwellian

 

The Second Worst Chancellor in History

 From First Things in February 2025: Christopher Caldwell reviews the memoirs of Angela Merkel.

We Have Real Enemies

 City Journal: Tal Fortgang on what we have forgotten about 9/11.

Why Churchill Still Matters

 

Walk Around the Lift

There comes a point when you have to step back and get a larger gestalt. Have a cigarette and walk around the lift. Any mechanic will tell you that it is invaluable to have other mechanics around to test your reasoning against, especially if they have a different intellectual disposition.

~

Even on the relatively primitive vintage bikes that were our specialty, some diagnostic situations contain so many variables, and symptoms can be so under-determining of causes, that explicit analytical reasoning comes up short. What is required then is the kind of judgment that arises only from experience; hunches rather than rules. I quickly realized that there was more thinking going on in the bike shop than in my previous job at the think tank.

- Matthew B. Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

Why the AfDs Wins in Germany

 Christopher Caldwell explains in First Things.

You may have seen his book on the problems in Europe.

On My List