Author Archives: Fenster

About Fenster

Gainfully employed for thirty years, including as one of those high paid college administrators faculty complain about. Earned Ph.D. late in life and converted to the faculty side. Those damn administrators are ruining everything.

21st Century Films

Posted on September 19, 2016

Fenster writes: The dog ate my homework and I did not post to the recent UR list of the best turd-free films of the 21st Century.  Here’s my list, and it makes no pretense to best though they are pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies | Tagged | 4 Comments

Epistocracy Bah Humbug

Posted on September 13, 2016

Fenster writes: Jason Brennan is the “Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Associate Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.”  Which makes him, I suspect, a smarter man than I. … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , | 3 Comments

A Third Way for Campus Speech?

Posted on September 11, 2016

Fenster writes: Shulamit Reinharz, the director of an academic center at Brandeis, has an op-ed in the Boston Globe calling for a third way on campus speech.  Alluding to the tension currently present between free speech and those who would … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Universal Culture

Posted on August 18, 2016

Fenster writes: Over at Slate Star Codex, Scott Alexander identifies what he refers to as “universal culture” as being a key factor in how the West was won.  His opening point is that there is nothing eternally Western about what … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal reflections, Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Oddness of the Current Press Moment 2

Posted on July 16, 2016

Fenster writes: What the hell, another comment on the oddness of the current press moment. Here are Shields and Brooks, interviewed as they are regularly by Judy Woodruff on PBS. Though staking out left field and right field respectively, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The Oddness of the Current Press Moment 1

Posted on July 16, 2016

Fenster writes: The small dust-up over whether the French government suppressed evidence of torture and mutilation at Bataclan is a good case study of the oddness of the current press moment. Heat Street ran a piece saying yes: Snopes has … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

A Commenter Responds to Obadiah

Posted on June 30, 2016

Fenster writes: Commenter Tom Trueman has responded to Obadiah Plainman’s recent guest appearance here.  While you may view Mr. Trueman’s note in the comments section to Mr. Plainman’s post, it is worth a careful read and is therefore reprinted here … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment