So What is This?
If only blogs had come along before I had a life, I'm sure I could have been a heck of a blogger. But there's no way I'm doing that now, much as I enjoy reading them. So this site is a more slo-mo affair, in which I try to comment not on current events, but on more persistent interests, amusements, and outrages.
Fun link du jour: Harry The Hipster Gibson - 4-F Ferdinand
Quote du jour:
“Not only have individual financial institutions become less vulnerable to shocks from underlying risk factors, but also the financial system as a whole has become more resilient.” — Alan Greenspan in 2004
From This great New York Times article.
Stuff I Particularly Like
Joe Bageant: Another Educated Redneck
A friend of mine was once accused, by someone meaning to insult him, of being "just an educated redneck." My friend took it as a high compliment.
Joe Bageant is somewhere between a journalist, a popular philosopher, and a political pundit. He lives in Winchester, VA and knows red states and rednecks up close and personal. One of the most interesting thinkers and writers on what passes for American culture at the beginning of the 21st century. Here is a typically wonderful piece. And what the heck here's another one.
James Howard Kunstler: An Extremely Annoying Person
James Howard Kunstler sometimes annoys even those who generally agree with him (about modern architecture, about the fact that we're running out of cheap oil). He's a wise ass, like the kid in 8th grade who would always find a flaw in the teacher's logic and then rub everyone's nose in it. That's one of the things I like about him. I was one of those kids too.
His book "The Long Emergency" is a great and (these days) rare thing — an attempt by a generalist to take on a really big topic. To me, it paints a very convincing picture of what might happen as we pass "Peak Oil" and head down the other side of the slope, and it's not pretty. His website has a lot of fun essays and the ever-amusing "eyesore of the month." When it comes to modern architecture, Kunstler and I see eye to eye: we came, we saw, we did not drink the Kool Aid.
Robert Altemeyer: Read up on Authoritarians
The Authoritarians is a web-only (PDF) book on authoritarian personalities by Robert Altemeyer, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba.
I know. Sounds like one of those worthy but hideously boring things that you "really ought to read someday." But nope! Altemeyer writes in a clear, friendly, humorous manner and the book is intended for a general audience — no charts or statistics, since if you're so inclined, you can read those in his academic work. Truly full of fascinating and thought-provoking stuff, even if you've read and thought quite a bit about the general subject.
Alternet
I really don't know much about these guys, which I guess makes me an objective observer. They pull together stuff from a variety of sources, write some of their own, and always have something interesting up there, every day. The stories focus on issues of substance, not on the strident bullshit of day-to-day partisan infighting. Plus the layout is easy on the eye.