4,826 words
No Regrets: Writings on Scott Walker
Edited by Rob Young
London: Orion, 2012.
“I’ve come far from chains/From metal and stone/From makeshift designs/And seeking a star” — Scott Walker, “Rhymes of Goodbye”
Image courtesy of Harold Arthur McNeill
2,790 words
Every year, near the end of December, I establish plans for the coming year. The centerpiece of these plans is ten resolutions – no more, and no less. I’ve had a lot of practice at this, and I’ve discovered that more than ten major resolutions is usually too ambitious, whereas fewer than ten is not ambitious enough. (more…)
920 words
By a quirk of fate, a Black toddler ended up being raised in an Amish community in Lancaster County. A couple decades later, he’s a fugitive leading the cops on high-speed chases, a thorn of deviance in the side of the Amish community’s pathetic Amish Mafia underbelly. (more…)
3,221 words
Part 3 of 3
Apropos of Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White (New York and London: Routledge, 1995)
US Senator Brian Schatz (D.-Hawaii)
1,165 words
US Senator Brian Schatz (D.-Hawaii)
The latest, and at age 40 youngest, US Senator is Hawaiian Democrat Brian Emanuel Schatz. He obtained his lofty post not by election but by appointment. As an incumbent, he will enjoy a built-in advantage when he campaigns for election in late 2014, which he intends to do.
Thomas Nast cartoon asserting the equal worth of Irish and blacks
3,660 words
Part 2 of 3
Apropos of Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White (New York and London: Routledge, 1995)
What are here called the ‘whiteness historians’ ought not to be confused with ‘Whiteness Studies’ (WS) or ‘critical race studies’ (or certain other new ‘disciplines’ favored by ‘the New Know-Nothings’), (more…)
Paul Jamin, “Brenn and his Share of the Spoils,” 1893
1,864 palabras
English version here
Esta es la pregunta: “¿Estamos viviendo en el año 370 dC, 40 años antes de que Alarico saquease Roma?” O “¿Vivimos en el año 270 dC, poco antes de las drásticas medidas correctivas de los emperadores ilirios, que se apartan de la catástrofe, para prolongar la vida del imperio durante otros dos siglos? ”
3,526 words
The title of this essay is somewhat misleading, since I am going to argue that philosophy is relevant to all human endeavors, not just politics.[1] Philosophy is not just metapolitical, but meta-everything.[2] But I know you are interested in political change, so that was my hook to get you reading. Furthermore, I will argue that philosophy is more than just relevant to life, but of paramount importance.
4,478 words
One of Thomas Nast’s 19th-century anti-Irish cartoons
Part 1 of 3
Apropos of Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White
‘We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English’. — Winston Churchill
2,045 words
The First World has a plan for you.
You’re supposed to go to college. Learn what to do, what to say, what to think, how to feel. Someone gives you a good grade, pats you on the back and tells you that you’re a “critical thinker.” (more…)
Jacques-Louis David, “Napoleon Crossing the Alps,” detail, 1805
1,670 words
Conservatism is Unrealistic
The Republican Party is useless as a political force. The key battle was not the presidential election of 2012 but the passage of Barack Obama’s health care plan. All of the disparate factions of the American Right joined together to oppose “Obamacare,” and they failed, miserably. (more…)
