YALE’S FINEST PUBLICATION has a blog. I live in fear. (Best new YFP slogan: “We put the ‘gin’ in ‘virgins.'” Best old YFP slogan: “Above the Law. Under the Table. Beyond Good and Evil. And somewhere to the Right of Attila the Hun.”) Read more

PRAY FOR THE UNIONS, FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE WORKERS: I live near the headquarters of AFSCME, the government employees’ union. Because so many of the heroes of 9/11 were government employees (firefighters, police officers, even, as Dick Gephardt noted in his State of the Union reply, postal workers), the headquarters’ showcase window displays an enormous American flag and a banner reading, “Mourn the Dead, Fight for the Living.” I could never begrudge them the sentiment, but every time I... Read more

THE DARKER SIDE OF THE BLACKLIST: This OpJo snapshot catches a crowd of tinseled anti-anti-Communists patting themselves on the back. This Reason article, on the other hand, details Communism’s real Hollywood influence during the first half of this century–and asks why we’ve seen so few movies about the great, dramatic horrors of the Communist states. The Reason article is a terrific read in its own right–and could also help right-leaning college students come up with nifty ideas for movie nights.... Read more

“Darlene, what do you do?” “Oh, I’m sort of a part-time model.” –Dick Powell and Jean Porter, “Cry Danger” Read more

S-CHIP IS STILL NOT PRO-LIFE: Yeah, OK, so the Bush administration got slammed for expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Programs to cover “unborn children.” And the usual suspects yelled about how this is an assault on Roe v. Wade (yay!). But so far no one has pointed out that in most states, S-CHIP funds abortions. (The program varies by state, in ways too complex to deal with right now.) This seems like the more fundamental issue–even though I acknowledge... Read more

ADBUSTERS!: Thanks to the Jenislawskis for buying off my banner ad! Read more

SLAVERY AND THE LEFT: Jay Nordlinger appropriately rips into this Michael Ignatieff piece for stating that “a coalition of liberals and black churches” were the main forces behind the American movement “to end slavery [in Sudan] and stop Khartoum’s war against the south.” As Nordlinger points out, “For years, conservatives had been trying to draw attention to Sudan and its slavery, and no one cared.” Mainstream human rights groups certainly noticed the atrocities, and did some good reporting on them,... Read more

AN EFFERVESCENT HOMAGE TO THE SUBJUNCTIVE TENSE: (OK, I am never using a hed like that again. Promise.) This is a great Bleat about Scott Fitzgerald and why his “glimmering ghosts” and champagne prose don’t quite capture the ’20s. Lileks suggests John O’Hara’s Appointment at Samarra instead. I haven’t read that, so I’ll put in a word for the lurid, corroded allegory of Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts, one of the best American novels I’ve read. Read more

“If I’d been a ranch, they would have named me the Bar Nothing.” –Rita Hayworth to Glenn Ford, “Gilda” Read more

GET UNHAPPY!: Insightful, challenging article from the New York Times Magazine (which I found on Arts & Letters Daily) suggests that our problem is too much self-esteem, not too little. The author offers blend of psychoanalytic research, quick-and-dirty philosophy, and common sense. (Although she traces the history of the self-esteem movement to Ralph “Transparent Eyeball” Emerson, she doesn’t mention the Ayn Rand–> Nathaniel Branden–> self-esteem movement daisy chain.) My elementary school ran a self-esteem program called “I am soMEbody!”, promoted... Read more