If you read Reason magazine as often as I do—and I read it a lot, because it has lots of excellent articles—you’ve probably noticed a distinct fly in the ointment—the compulsive need of Reason folk to “explain” to you that everything “bad” that Trump does, well, the Democrats did it too—though I don’t remember Barack…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Is Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University Eswar Prasad, you know, stoopid? No, he’s just lazy.
I’m currently reading Doom Loop, a book by Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, explaining why “globalism”, which only a short 25 years ago promised a world of unprecedented global progress and prosperity, has created its opposite, “anti-globalism”, a world of suspicion, oppression, and fear. So…
“Einstein”: Writing about AI with AI!
ChatGPT says it loves my new novel, Einstein. But is it telling, you know, “the truth”? As a seriously obscure novelist, I have always believed that the best advice you can give an incipient author of fiction is “write about what you know.” In my new novel, Einstein (available, naturally, from Amazon), I wrote about…
Bret Stephens, starting to suspect that Donald Trump is not a very nice man
Considering the ungodly plethora of seriously bad people in the world these days—Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping, just to mention a few—why do I find it so necessary—or at least so convenient—to pick on New York Times columnist and Israel sycophant Bret Stephens? In the past, I think it was because his hypocrisies—his…
Joe Biden, a bitter old man booted from history, makes us all pay for his son’s sins
Thanks, Joe, for saving the worst for last. Uncle Joe’s utter failure to deal with his pathetic son’s abysmal self-promotion and exploitation of his family name was always “unattractive”, but this miserable pardon is infinitely worse, giving anti-anti-Trumpers and pro-Trumpers alike an infinite amount of wind both beneath their wings and in their mouths to…
C. Stewart Verdery, Jr. Is TERMINALLY Naïve!
Yeah, C. Stewart, Jr. is quite a dude. He served as assistant secretary for Homeland Security back in the George, Jr. years and before that general counsel to the Senate Republican Whip. He is the CEO of “Monument Advocacy”, a “cutting edge” (I guess) DC shop handling “government relations, public affairs, strategic and crisis communications,…
Donald Trump is probably not as utterly bad as you probably think he is, a fatuous Andrew Sullivan says, fatuously.
Notice that I said “a fatuous Andrew Sullivan” rather than “the fatuous Andrew Sullivan”, because I think that, at times, Andy can be pretty gosh darn cogent—when, it seems, the stars are properly aligned—but only then, I would say, for it appears that when the heavens are seriously out of whack, as they must have…
Shorter Jamie Dimon: You’re calling me a “whore”? I prefer the term “businessman”.
Sorry, Jamie, but even by “businessman” standards—if they still exist—you’re a whore, and a pretty goddamn big one too. Here’s Jamie talking to CNBC about the state of the world, after meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Ukrainian spelling as per Wikipedia): But, you know, my heart goes out to the guy. I mean, people…
Art Themen Quartet—“Played Twice”
Yeah, the camera work is a little shaky, but the music ain’t bad. Live at The Verdict Jazz Club, Brighton, UK, 7 July 2023. Art Themen, sax; John Horler, piano; Spike Wells, drums; Tim Wells, bass. Posted by Pete Billing
Poor Megan McArdle! She can’t tell the truth even when she WANTS to!
It’s true! In a recent post, Having lost their flexibility, pro-lifers are losing their cause, poor Megan can’t help lying her ass off even when (apparently) she doesn’t want to! Let’s start with her headline: “Having lost their flexibility, pro-lifers are losing their cause”. What was the great rallying cry of the pro-life folks prior…