Paleo Retiree writes:
The main political battle these days isn’t between conservatism and leftism. It’s between the forces of centralization and the forces of decentralization. IMHO, of course.
Donald Livingston is a historian and philosopher of history I’ve learned a lot from. Google his name and you’ll turn up some fascinating and enlightening essays and interviews.
Blowhard, Esq. writes:
This summer I read two wonderful novels, Hombre and Valdez is Coming, early Westerns written by the masterful Elmore Leonard. After finishing those books I decided it was time to tackle one of the Big Kahunas of the last few decades, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. My only previous experience with McCarthy was The Road, which I didn’t care for, and the Coen Brothers adaptation of McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, which I enjoyed. Full disclosure: knowing the book’s reputation as one of the canonical works worshipped by the literary establishment (e.g. MacArthur “genius” Junot Díaz: “so horrifyingly profound and compellingly ingenious it’s almost sorcery”), I was suspicious of it from the beginning. But hey, we’ve all had the pleasant experience of being won over by a work we were initially skeptical of, so maybe that would happen here?
SPOILER ALERT: It didn’t happen here.
The Question Lady writes:
What’s your preferred way to get a project done? In an organized, spread out kind of way — or crashed in a big hurry?
Paleo Retiree writes:
Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:
This 1955 work from director Mario Monicelli unspools with an ease that belies its absurd subject matter. Alberto Sordi plays Menichetti, a man so anxious to maintain his meager social standing that he just about negates himself. He runs away from car accidents lest he be questioned by the police, he assiduously avoids political affiliation, and when his boss (he works for an industrial milliner) asks him to wear an out-of-fashion hat for a few days, he does so without complaint; he even records the reactions he gets from bemused bystanders.
Paleo Retiree writes:
A few weeks ago my wife and I attended a modest outdoor show of classic cars. It was a very happy experience for me. I was a car-crazy kid for a number of years … and here were some of my favorites in the flesh: from sexy Jags and Cobras to adorable Studebakers and woodies. A few California hot rods punctuated the grounds with their fantasy and wit. I explored the show feeling like a boy getting a chance to meet his sports heroes one on one. Continue reading
Blowhard, Esq. writes:
The band I blogged about here was in town last night so I headed off to my first concert in two years.
Paleo Retiree writes:
Softcore French porn from the ‘70s by Jean-Marie Pallardy, in a boisterous and rollicking vein. The plot is based on The Odyssey: a couple of truck drivers lose their way and have episodic adventures, mostly of a sexual kind. Meanwhile, the foxy wife of the more handsome trucker remains true to him even as mucho time passes, while presiding at a bar/cafe where her girls and their patrons play games, drink, fight and fuck.
Pallardy has the modest-to-high rep he has among fans of ’70s erotica for some good reasons, IMHO: the landscapes are well-used; there’s a real pagan sensuality to the sun-struck and rustic settings; there’s a real classicism in the themes; and the actresses in the film are sensationally pretty and elegant. “Truck Stop” is like Blier and Borowczyk crossed with “Hee Haw.”
Sir Barken Hyena writes:
Economists are not humans. Reminders are never far away but this is a good one.
“It’s overwhelmingly likely that we’re going to want the public sector to be a larger share of the economy in 10, 20, 30, 40 years than it is today and we need to find relatively growth-friendly ways to make that happen.”
First of all, who’s this “we”, white woman? What’s overwhelmingly likely is bankruptcy, which just might bother a few people out there, like, you know, voters for example. Is the response to that likely going to be an increase in trust of the government? How far up your own bubble can you go? And what a failure of imagination, poised as we are on the cusp of an age of unknowable change from a 1000 directions.
That’s from Matt Yglesias, not himself an economist. I’m also referring to the comments on the post, which are from economists: you can tell by the whiff of Asperger’s wafting off the page. Note how no one questions this premise! Like docile little sheep they follow him into this non-argument.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
