It's hard to mourn a perfect stranger.
Culture 101
Flummery of a Fine Sort: The Nero Wolfe Tales of Rex Stout
The Nero Wolfe detective story series of Rex Stout (1886-1975) is, deservedly, one of the most famous American contributions to the genre. Wolfe is a classic genius detective, modelled in part, perhaps, upon Mycroft Holmes, the brilliant, corpulent elder brother of Sherlock. He is a man of strong views and has decided ideas of the sort of life he wants to live. While often an insightful observer of human beings and not exactly a misanthrope, he, unlike Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple, for example, has little natural interest in people. But what a character, and what stories! . . .
Hemingway in Perspective
That Hemingway could be a cruel and callous man is well-documented, while several biographical works unconvincingly veer toward hagiographic. Seldom, however, do these works pierce the veil of celebrity and downright iconography of the public persona to reveal the foibles and positive attributes of the man who possessed a plenitude of both.
Escape from Supervillainy
My daughter and I were talking about comics last night, as we tend to do. The particular occasion this time was a nasty, nihilistic bit of business called Wanted, by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, which she and I had read over the break. Yes, we understood that it was supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum version of the "dark/gritty" trend in the last couple of decades in comics -- note that the supervillains wipe out the heroes in 1986, the year of Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. However, this was another case of "What's that stuff above the subtext? Oh yeah... the text." And honestly, I didn't see any pleasure in the book -- it wasn't as vile as the Saw movies, but that's not exactly high praise, and even that's mainly because Wanted was shorter. . . .
Getting ‘Expelled’
All atheists aren’t Darwinists, but nearly all Darwinists are atheists. Why? Ben Stein’s film. With Polish subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes 5 seconds.
Does Government Have the Right to Issue Licenses … for Anything?
The requirement for marriage licenses in the U.S. has been justified on the basis that the state has an overriding right, on behalf of all citizens and in the interests of the larger social welfare, to protect them from disease or improper/illegal marriages; to keep accurate state records; or even to ensure that marriage partners have had adequate time to think carefully before marrying.
Germans Discover Dubious ‘Beauties’ of Going Green—A Glimpse of America’s Future?
In Germany, the Green Party exercises a huge amount of power—and coercion. Their policies sound suspiciously like the energy policy "initiatives" incessantly promoted by the current American political establishment. And their willingness to ignore the scientific, economic, liberty, and aesthetic objections to green mandates are endemic here as well.
Ethos Is a Choice
Reglazing the broken windows of our popular culture — the argument from character. by Warren Moore I was discussing argumentation with my frosh this morning, and while most of the class was devoted to Stephen Toulmin’s elements of argument, we spent a little time talking about the Aristotelian idea that ethos — the appeal based on the character of the speaker — is typically formed during the rhetorical act itself. In simpler terms, this is why one should avoid spelling/grammar errors on one’s resume, for example — it diminishes the applicant’s ethos. Likewise, decisions regarding tone and diction impact a speaker’s ethical standing, and thus his rhetorical effectiveness. (Indeed, even my use of his in the preceding sentence marks me to some audiences as an old frump, and possibly sexist in the bargain, even if it’s happening under the radar.) For an example of this, consider the career of Charles Rocket, or more recently, Michael Richards. But of course, this sort of diminution of ethos can only operate when there are standards or taboos (depending on one’s perspective). This brings us to a recent article by Myron Magnet at City Journal. Magnet reviews the recent kerfuffle between the mayor of
Farewell to ‘All My Children’
The long-running TV soap opera All My Children concludes today. I won’t be watching, having never been an aficionado of soap operas, but I don’t look down on them, and I think that the cultural loss is real. Although the show may return on the Web, which would be a good thing for its followers, of course, odds are that it will be of lower production quality and more difficult for its audience to find. As I say, I think there’s much good in soap operas even though they’re not a preferred form of entertainment for me. Here’s what I wrote a couple of months ago about the subject, for Pajamas Media: In Defense of Soap Operas Even lowbrow drama may have a more human voice than highbrow reality TV. May 7, 2011 – 12:00 am – by S. T. Karnick I’m no devotee of soap operas, and I never have been, but I’m rather saddened to hear that ABC has canceled two of its remaining three daytime dramas, All My Children and One Life to Live. Only General Hospital survived this latest purge, and it seems only a matter of time before it too is jettisoned. The other networks
Parents Make Millions for Not Having an Abortion (But It’s Not What You Might Think)
A jury in Florida didn’t think Bryan Santana was worth $9 million, as his parents figured, but half that much: On September 9, a West Palm Beach jury awarded parents Rodolfo Santana and Ana Mejia $4.5 million because they did not get accurate information from Dr. Marie Morel and OB/GYN Specialists of the Palm Beaches. Their son Bryan Santana, now age 3, was born disabled. He has no arms and only one leg. The argument made by his parents was that if the clinic had told them their son was so disabled, they would have aborted him. And since they didn’t get a chance to terminate Bryan in the womb, and obviously they can’t legally do it now, they wanted millions of dollars. — Paul Cooper Apparently, being imperfect justifies abortion in many people’s eyes: In the UK there are limits on when you can abort a baby unless that baby has severe disabilities. The UK law does not define those disabilities but allows abortion up until the moment of birth if the child is disabled. Why? Obviously the message is that a child with disabilities has less value or reason to live. . . . . In America, 90%
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