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by JL Wall Sharon Astyk lights on something rather interesting in her attack on the near-constant Michael Jackson memorializing: The explanation is this – we love grief itself. It is so much fun to feel bad, to mourn, to grieve. I can still remember the death of a student in my high school, and the [...]
Filed under: media/culture, philosophy
1. The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein conveniently argues that his employer needs government subsidies lest they should continue whoring themselves out to special interests; claims that the news is not a market good and that government-subsidized news in Sweden is adversarial and terrific. 2. Matt Welch pounces; points out that unlike wildlife viewing and snorkeling [...]
Filed under: government/law, media/culture
Is it just me, or does anyone else get the sense that Andrew Sullivan didn’t even bother to read Ross’s latest column before he came out spluttering at it? I mean, how is it possible for someone to write a “rehash of the Nixonian class resentments and Rovian cynicism” when he criticizes the “Mrs. Spiro [...]
Filed under: media/culture, politics
So, I really don’t know how to respond to this sort of thing. It’s true enough that “simply calling questions ‘absolutely freaking ridiculous’ is not an argument”, but of course the problem is that when a position and its advocates just are, well, sufficiently freaking ridiculous, it becomes pretty clear that arguments aren’t going to [...]
Filed under: media/culture
No, really. And here’s that, like, totally suspicious “Sarah Palin pregnant” picture, too, together with a list of character traits that applies to … well, you determine whom it applies to: The narcissism, the pathological and incessant lying, the viciousness, the delusions of grandeur, the vindictiveness, the fathomless and proud ignorance, the opportunism, the vanity [...]
Filed under: media/culture, politics
Conor has a definition: In construction, a prefabricated house is produced in a factory, shipped out to building sites, and assembled by folks unequipped to design anything better. The prefab conservative, or prefab-con, brings the same attitude to political discourse: rather than using reason and critical thinking to craft arguments that fit the real world, [...]
Filed under: conservatism, media/culture, politics
by JL Wall Over at the Spengler blog, David Layman writes (emphasis original): The moral corruption of the Olympian pantheon is the moral corruption of art. (Don’t forget: “Western” art at least, has only two sources, the Bible and myths, mostly Greco-Roman.) According to Hesiod, out of Chaos came Gaia, Tartaros, and Eros-”who/Makes their [the [...]
Filed under: media/culture
And with prefab humor, too. P.S. “Schmuckler”, eh? I actually think that that may be a new one, though my memory of sixth grade is admittedly a bit foggy. UPDATE: More here.
Filed under: conservatism, media/culture, personal
by JL Wall Rod Dreher again sets my mind off in this direction. Today, however, it has me thinking that I should tack a note onto my discussion from the other day: while the artist/craftsman ought to have concerns other than simply the beauty of the piece he is creating (that is, whether it ought [...]
Filed under: media/culture
by JL Wall At first I wasn’t quite sure what Rod Dreher was aiming to do by calling out Eminem because a man thought he was quoting him while committing murder, but after several days, the discussion has led him into a key point about the role of art in modern culture: No serious person [...]
Filed under: media/culture, morality