politics

Are You Missing Out on What I Offer?

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A short post today in which I publicize my other blogs and platforms and encourage you to subscribe. Here goes:

1. Are you subscribed to this blog? You may have stumbled upon it in a Google search. If so, and you’d like to get e-mailed updates, be sure to use the signup form on the sidebar. Whenever I post something new you’ll get a brief e-mail with a link to the actual post. This happens 3-4 times a week at most, and the posts themselves are fairly brief. I try to keep things no longer than about 1,000 words. You’ll get the title and the first line or so. If that doesn’t grab you, just delete that e-mail, and another one will show up in a few days that you may like better.

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Listen to Michelle Obama’s Memoir as You Cook!

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Becoming by Michelle Obama

I’ve always had a soft spot for Michelle Obama. A First Lady with sass and class, I thought. I never voted for her husband, but that’s okay. You don’t have to agree with someone politically to like that person. So when I started hearing about the tremendous buzz that her new memoir, Becoming, was generating, I decided to use my Audible.com credit for the month to get it right away. (As of the very moment I’m writing this post, there are 332 holds on 15 copies of the downloadable audiobook in the Arapahoe Library system.) She reads it herself, so I got an extra layer of exposure to her as I listened.

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How to Listen to the Real Experts

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The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Tom Nichols, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and foreign policy analyst, available in various formats.

I try to keep politics off of this blog (but you can head over to Intentional Conservative or my personal Facebook page to read what I have to say on the current state of affairs). I will just explain here that I got acquainted with Tom Nichols when I first started reading about the upcoming election in the spring/summer of 2016. He showed up in this article on The Federalist Blog (which is not the same as The Federalist Society, btw). Wow, I thought, What clarity, and what courage. I’ve been following him ever since. He suspended his blog about a year ago and he writes very few articles these days, but man! Whenever he does so I am so on it. I also periodically go onto his Twitter account when I feel the need for a blast of fresh air and common sense. He’s one of those people who gets attacked from all sides, so he must be doing something right—right?

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A Blast of Impassioned Pleading for Our Endangered Democracy.

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Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah Goldberg, available in Kindle, hardback, and audiobook formats through Amazon.com and other outlets. (Link is to Amazon.) The audiobook is highly recommended; if you are not currently a member of Audible.com you can get the book for free if you sign up for an Audible.com membership; access that page here. Visit the author’s website at jonahgoldberg.com.

I have a very simple goal in writing this post, linking to it on Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps sending out a separate e-mail blast: I want to do my small part to make Jonah Goldberg’s new book #1 on the NYT best-seller list. Right now he’s #4 on the combined print/e-book list and #5 on the hardcover-only list. (James Comey’s compendium is #1 on both of those lists; I somehow think I won’t bother with that one.) In order for this much-desired result to occur, people have to buy the book. I re-activated my Audible.com account in order to get the audiobook, all 16 hours and 2 minutes of it. It was well worth my time.

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Kennedy’s Character Revealed at Chappaquiddick

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Chappaquiddick Movie PosterI’ve written before about the JFK assassination in reference to an excellent book about the conspiracy theories surrounding it, and I’ve been obsessed with that event for years. (For awhile I even bought into one of the more outrageous CT’s—that JFK’s body was spirited off the plane out the back door, taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital, and then had its head wounds “modified” before the autopsy took place. The shenanigans that would have had to take place in order for this to happen are unlikely, to say the least. But boy, was I riveted! That book is Best Evidence: Disguise and Deception in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy by David Lifton, and no, I don’t recommend it, unless you have a taste for fantasy. You’ll note that I’m not giving my usual Amazon link to it.)

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Yes, You Should Go See “Black Panther”

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Yes, you should go see “Black Panther.” I felt during it the way I’ve felt during the best of the Tolkien films—that I never wanted it to end, that I was completely sucked in. That praise doesn’t mean that wasn’t totally confused a few times, but in the end pretty much everything was explained. Jim and I were on one side of a dispute about a certain plot element, with my brother-in-law and son on the other. You wouldn’t want to agree on everything, would you? It feels as if so much of our society is in flux these days, so the zeitgeist (a word that means pretty much whatever you want it to mean) favors a film such as this which breaks so many cultural barriers, but really—the movie stands on its own.

And so much of it seems eerily prescient about the situation we find ourselves in today: Where is your loyalty? To your country, or to the leader of your country? To the throne, or to the person who sits on the throne? There are so many layers to the story that it would probably merit a second viewing. (I probably won’t end up seeing four times the way I did “Inception,” though.)

I’m keeping this pretty brief, as there are tons of reviews out there if you want to read them. Or you could just head on over to the theater. That’s what I’d do!

Yet Another Great Historically-Based Film You Should See

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Theatrical release poster accessed via Wikipedia.

No book review this week, I’m afraid. I never made it through the Yuvan Levin book, estimable as it is. I just ground to a halt with it, but I’m glad I got as far as I did. You, oh estimable readers, may have more of a mind able to absorb dense political analysis than I do. Levin’s a great guy, and very clear and thoughtful. If you’re like me and don’t want to wade through the thickets, here’s a podcast in which he appears: “Why Can’t We Have Nice Things?” hosted by the estimable (although somewhat giggly) Jonah Goldberg.

But Jim and I did finally make it to The Post, the new movie about the publication of the Pentagon Papers by The Washington Post. What a total treat! Any movie that has Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep is going to be great even if they’re just reading the phone book. I said to Jim as the credits came on, “I’d like to just sit here and watch it all over again.” So I’d urge you to go watch it, or at least make sure to see it when it comes out on Netflix or Amazon. I’ll tell you why I liked it

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Lessons from the Government Shutdown

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As I often say, this isn’t a political blog. If you want to see my opinions in that arena you can visit my personal Facebook page or read articles I’ve written myself over at one of my other websites, Intentional Conservative. I’m not concerned within the context of this article with the winners and losers in this rather farcical non-event endlessly trumpeted about from the Right and the Left. Instead, I’m sort of tickled at the way the RFNE illuminates human nature.

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New Year’s Resolution #3–Be Assertive, Not Bossy or Wimpy

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rose growing up through ticksSo far I’ve mentioned two New Year’s Resolutions: my main one, phrased as the question “Why deny myself the pleasure?” about not letting small annoyances spoil my enjoyment, and my desire to read more books in the place of online articles. In pursuit of that second resolution I’ve gotten s little over a quarter of the way through The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left by Yuval Levin, a serious, serious conservative intellectual who writes for National Review sometimes and who made an appearance on Jonah Goldberg’s podcast “The Remnant” recently. (I think I’ve just broken my own record for the number of links in a paragraph. Feel free to ignore them, but I would, as a sidenote, recommend the podcast. Be aware that Jonah does a fair amount of umming and what I can only describe as giggling, which can get a little annoying. I’ll be sharing more insights and books from his program; once you get past his mannerisms he’s very worthwhile.)

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See This Great Movie about Churchill!

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Hurry up, folks, and see Darkest Hour, the new film about the earliest days of Winston Churchill’s leadership of Britain as Prime Minister, before it leaves the theaters! (It should still be showing through the end of the year at independent theaters; we saw it last night at one such place. If you live in the Denver area you can see it there: the Chez Artiste Theater near Colorado Boulevard and Evans Avenue. After the movie you can just walk over to the India Oven Restaurant for a wonderful meal.)  If you don’t see it in time, buy Darkest Hour.

I wanted to see the film because of Gary Oldman’s performance, and it’s well worth seeing just for that reason and for the rest of the cast. (Downton Abbey fans will recognize the actress who plays Churchill’s secretary: it’s Rose! But with dark hair.)

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