The American Mind

HUMOR: Saddam is a cruel, cruel man.
“Iraq Unleashes Weapons of Mass Media“

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Michael Kinsley takes us behind the scenes of the National Book Awards. Note: He didn’t read all 402 books nominated.
“Curse You, Robert Caro!” [via A&LD]

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Salon has something on TIA. And it’s actually funny.

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Garrett Soden will be coming out with a book, Falling: How Our Greatest Fear Became Our Greatest Thrill – A History, next year. Howard Owens interviewed him.

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Yesterday, I inadvertantly did not buy anything. I toiled through a day of crowds and questions. After my shift was over, I went home. Bummer, I wanted to stick it to these guys.
Buy Nothing Day

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Howard Owens on poetry:

To me, a plain style is perfectly suited to prose, but not to poetry. The point of poetry is to escape the drabness of our plain and ponderous lives; poetry should compact our experiences and excite our senses, not numb us with a sense of sameness and predictability. From poetry, we should [...]

Have a good Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the company of friends and family and savor the delicious food people have spent hours preparing. Give thanks for all the blessings we’ve been given. God bless.

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My TiVo doesn’t think I’m gay, but I don’t know why it insists on recording The Cosby Show and Suddenly Susan.
“If TiVo Thinks You Are Gay, Here’s How to Set It Straight” [via blogdex]

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Tom Nugent covers tax cut ideas. No mention of my suggestion to eliminate taxes on dividends.
Since I’m on taxes, here’s The Jane Galt Tax Plan.
“Stimulus Strategies”

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In the same year, two giants of 20th Century political philosophy died. Robert Nozick passed away in January, and now John Rawls died this past Sunday. About Rawls’ work, Jacob Levy writes,

Within Anglo-American philosophy it renewed the sense that it was possible to engage in rigorous, serious, meaningful debate about moral and political [...]

Next week, the U.S. will call for eliminating tariffs on all industrial goods by 2015. After a year of going backward on the free trade front, this is a good sign. One thing I noticed is the plan will be announced by Robert Zoellick, the US Trade Representative, and Donald Evans, the commerce [...]

New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer’s investigations on corporate scandal have been more effective than anything done by Washington Democrats. He has no intention of brutally punishing Wall Street firms. He told Noam Scheiber, “This is not a Robin Hood effort.” He’s taken an intellectually honest fraud angle and reaped a big [...]

Glenn points out how much of the blogosphere is having a hissy-fit over TIA. “Stay the FUCK out of my shopping cart!” is what shellshocking had to say. Note: when writing a letter to your Congressman or Senator, don’t use the word “fuck.”
Here are a couple of points that won’t soothe passions but [...]

I’ve done lots of posting tonight. It wouldn’t have been so much if I had read the time right for a late-afternoon showing of Die Another Day. Rod Dreher didn’t like, but one’s critical opinion never stopped me.

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Should we knock Jacques Chirac for reading a magazine during a NATO session? No. Not standing behind the U.S. on Iraq is a much better reason to blast Chirac. After watching C-SPAN for 10 minutes, you’ll find that most government types are boring. I feel for Chirac. Sitting for hours while [...]