Earlier this week, I remarked on the lack of attention being paid to Karen McDougal, 1998 Playmate of the Year, and sometime playmate for Donald Trump, according to the New Yorker, thanks to the now standard avalanche of new scandals and disasters that now fill what we must call “Trump Time”. Why not at least…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Daniel Drezner is shocked, shocked to discover that Paul Ryan is Paul Ryan
More in sorrow than in anger, it would seem, the WashPost’s Dan Drezner struggles with House Speaker Paul Ryan’s puzzling tendency to say, well, to say one thing (usually decent by what one might call “Mainstream Acela” standards) and then do another (almost invariably pusillanimous1). Reviewing Paulie’s record, Dan can wonder why, since “Ryan is…
We now interrupt this regularly scheduled bad news to bring you much much worse bad news
Several weeks ago—about a decade in Trump years, I would estimate1—I planned to write yet another article ridiculing our nation’s massive addiction to wasteful military spending, category “Star Wars”, springing off an article in Bloomsberg, by “the Editors” themselves, no less, “How to Blow North Korean Missiles Out of the Sky”, bemoaning the fact that,…
Post Bop Gypsies—“Four In One”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4hyowISWlw Tomoko Omura, 5-string violin; Alex Goodman, guitar; George DeLancey, bass. Posted by tomokoomuravideos
Alan Vanneman reviews the 2017 Oscar losers
Well, in fact, Dunkirk (above) copped three Oscars, but all in the non-glamorous “technical” categories, while critical fave raves The Disaster Artist (one nomination only!), War for the Planet of the Apes (likewise!), The Post (two), and Baby Driver (three, but only “technicals”) were shut out entirely! Yeah, I guess no one cares about egomaniacs…
You know who I feel sorry for? Karen McDougal, that’s who I feel sorry for.
Remember Karen McDougal? She used to be big. Well, biggish. Well, on the road to biggish, definitely, when it was “revealed” a couple of weeks ago in America’s bible of titillation, the New Yorker, that the 1998 Playmate of the Year had an affair with a married Donald Trump back in the day and had…
Forward!
Okay, it’s National Review week at Literature R Us. I’m bouncing this post off a nice review by NR’s Kyle Sammin of Brit historian David Cannadine’s new book, Victorious Century, The United Kingdom 1809 – 1906. I’ve got Victorious Century already loaded on my ebook, but my backlog is pretty massive, so I won’t be…
The National Review, not always without honor
I read the National Review to find out what the opposition is up to, and it’s usually no good, but once in a while someone comes through with a piece that’s not only “not bad” but actually impressive. Such is the case with David French’s recent article, “The Schiff Memo Undermines Republican Claims of FISA…
Lana Cencic & Flip Philipp—”Four in One”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrdTRP3Q738 Lana Cencic, turning in a very boppy vocal, accompanied by Flip Philipp, vibes, Thomas Stempkowski, bass, and Wolfgang Rainer, drums. Nice! Appearing at Joe Zawinul`s Birdland, Vienna, in July 2006. Posted by mvojin. Need more Monk? Yes, you do. Go to Mostly Monk and continue your education.
The Snake at the Table
A month ago, thoughtful conservative Ross Douthat wrote a column, “The Necessity of Stephen Miller”, in which he argued that if liberals want a deal on immigration, they’re going to have to allow White House dude Stephen Miller a place at the table. Yes, Ross acknowledges, El Stevo has views on immigration that are at…