THE ASTONISHING EYE OF ALEXANDER PETROSYAN
Alexander Petrosyan, A Russian photographer with ArmeniaN roots, captures the raw street life in Russia.
OUR MAN IN AMERICA II: ‘BABIES, INNOCENT BABIES”
“`Written in late April, published in The Jackal this week. Many years ago, in diffident preparation for an unenvisioned future, I drifted through graduate school. I took a course in Middle Eastern Politics with an accomplished professor who had recently helped President Carter pull off the Camp David accords. One day he gave us an …
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AS I WAS SAYING. . .
Last year, fans of House of Cards were agog when Francis Underwood arranged for his wife Claire Underwood to become his running mate. This year–spoiler alert–not only did they manage to steal the election, but in a particularly malodorous bit of shark-jumping, Francis resigned and Claire replaced him. Well, whatever. It should be noted, however, …
FATHER’S DAY THOUGHT
Here is an article I published on time.com (time.com/4821335/fathers-day-children-father-essay): My sister is nine years older than me, and during most of our father’s life, she enjoyed a closer relationship with Dad than I did. She would refer to things they had done together when she was little, fun things like playing make believe games on …
JUNE 2017: “LORDY, I HOPE THERE’S TAPES”
6.30 David Frum in The Atlantic: “The ACA needs a replacement funding stream that yields more revenue and that taxes more broadly. This was the deal that Republicans should have demanded in 2009-2010. It will be harder to achieve today (because with ACA an accomplished fact Republicans now have less to trade), but it still …
MAY 2017: “A TRAGIC DUMBASS COMEDY”
5.31 Kevin Williamson at National Review: Time was when “the American shopping mall was the reincarnation of the downtown business district, moved indoors where it could be air-conditioned” and “efficiently policed.” Yet now this “new downtown is dying” — we’re down to 1,100 malls (400 of which are soon set to close) from the high-water …
MIDNIGHT RAMBLE, MAY 26
Greg Schmidt and I went to the Ramble in Woodstock on Friday night, on what would have been Levon Helm‘s 77th birthday. Another fabulous show: Larry Campbell, Teresa Williams, Bryan Mitchell, Amy Helm, Jim Weider, Jay Collins, Steve Bernstein, Eric Lawrence, Shawn Pelton and Jacob Silver were joined by many special guests, including Billy Payne, …
MAY 2017: “I HOPE YOU CAN LET THIS GO”
5.25 The spring finalists have been decided: Penguins-Predators, and for a third consecutive year, Cavs-Warriros 5.25 The day after bodyslamming and punching a reporter, Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte won a special election for Congress in Montana. 5.25 Trump to NATO leaders: “Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should …
THE REICHSTAG WARNING
In The New York Review of Books, historian Timothy Snyder warns that Trump just might try to commit a Reichstag Fire-like event to declare martial law and arrogate greater power to himself: “If we know the history of terror manipulation, we can recognize the danger signs, and be prepared to react. It is already worrying …