This boy was born in luxury we can hardly imagine and died covered in lice. He was never crowned king, and ended abused and tortured in prison: Louis XVI, the lost king of France. Oddly, there is much to learn about his story regarding the limits of history, the power and limits of science, and the depravity of humans in the name of liberty. If Venezuela has not proved to you that revolutions are horrible, read about the French one.... Read more
This is a review of a book, not of the President of the United States. The book is The Fire and the Fury by Michael Wolff (electronic copy: Henry Holt and Company, 2018). I have no way of knowing whether all the details in it are true, though when Slate calls it “shoddy journalism” one does not have much hope. Slate is not friendly to this administration and has no reason to dislike a book that attacks Mr. Trump. Whenever one can check the facts, one... Read more
4 A little learning did not help me, but when forced in graduate school to think hard, my life changed. If the result of our education is only to gain power to do bad, then we have failed to be truly educated. Instead, learning should make character better. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. It was all there in the Bible, but it was reading Plato in my mid-twenties that got through to me. I had not... Read more
School is expensive, choose wisely. Read more
Donna Brazile is the kind of person who might like a good word, even from me. Why? If you secure enough in your own competence, as Brazile is, then you do not mind mixing it up with opponents, even brutally, and will take any support you can get. We surely disagree on more than a few important issues, but Brazile has written a must read book: Hacked. My disagreements with her are obvious: she is too libertine on sexuality, has... Read more
Soul work is frightening. It is easier to talk about politics than about our souls. The tyrant “out there” can be demonized, but the tyrant within us makes us uncomfortable. One simple way to avoid change is to focus on politics or some other external problem. Plato understood this truth. I think this is one reason he used political analogies in his book about the soul and its proper education. We are willing to attack “them,” the powerful, and by the... Read more
Can’t we take our entertainment less seriously? Read more
I never thought I would have to say this, but pirates were not good. Getting rid of pirates in the Caribbean was a good thing and the pirates we have now are bad guys (and they are almost all guys). Walt Disney made a ride where pirates engaged in all the vices of the flesh and ended up defeated and dead. Modern folks have subverted the ride by making the pirates the heroes and so have ended up softening some... Read more
I have listened to Al Michaels for a long time, he is very good at his job, and I am thankful. His biography, written with help, but the sort that captures his voice, is fascinating. It comes before the decline of the NFL in the face of concussions and politics. It comes before Trump when tales of the man were still simply funny: Trump cheats at golf, but boldly. Al Michaels is young enough to have a career ahead of... Read more
Beware the soft con, the one that seems a bit like a joke.* Over the Holidays, Barnum was in the air in our house with a fairly excellent movie having little or nothing to do with his life and the gift to me of an autobiography only remotely connected to the facts even if written by the subject. It was all enough to force me to read a more serious PT Barnum biography. It was worth the time: PT Barnum... Read more
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