Culture
May 16, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I already thought National Review‘s Kevin Williamson, author of the fine new book The End Is Near And It’s Going to Be Awesome was a total stud, but after last night’s bravado performance in a New York theater, he’s a total heroic stud. If you haven’t heard the story yet, check out how he dealt with cell phone rudeness during a performance: The lady seated to my immediate right (very
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May 8, 2013 — Steven Hayward
It is not necessary to be a Trekkie (but really, why wouldn’t you be?) to appreciate the intergenerational rivalry of this Audi ad featuring the original Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) versus the “rebooted” younger Spock, Zachary Quinto. And kudos to Nimoy, for being game to spoof the most embarrassing moment of his entire career; and no, I don’t mean that Trek episode where he got the seven-year Vulcan itch. Rather,
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May 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I’ve struggled with my weight ever since I quit smoking thirty years ago, going up and down 30 pounds several times. All I can tell you is that it’s a helluva lot easier going up than it is coming down, though you probably already knew that. Five months ago I took up the cues offered occasionally by Glenn Reynolds to the work of science writer Gary Taubes. Glenn had linked
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April 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Ken Masugi’s long post about “The Big Bang Theory” (the TV show, not the theory) at the LibertyLaw site deserves more notice than just a link in our Picks section. Do read it; it is philosophical-scientific-cultural criticism at its best, with a special bonus of James Schall. I’ve been meaning to comment on BBT myself, but keep putting it off. BBT is clearly the best TV science fiction comedy since
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April 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Glenn Frankel’s new book on The Searchers goes to show the continuing interest in John Ford. My interest in Ford was sparked by Professor John Marini of the University of Nevada-Reno, whom I heard speak about Ford on a Claremont Institute panel at the annual convention of the American Political Science Association a few years ago. On the Claremont panel John gave a version of his paper on the creation
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April 4, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I’m having to pinch myself today to make sure I’m not living in my own special Groundhog Day hell where every day is April 1. How else to take the story that Lego is discontinuing a Jabba the Hutt palace set because the Turkish Cultural Association of Austria (!!) complained that the Lego set is raaaccciist. The Turkish Cultural Association of Austria?? Okay, I know the Turks rolled briefly through
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April 2, 2013 — Scott Johnson
As I note below, the New York Post broke the story today that Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin has landed an adjunct professorship at the Columbia School of Social Work and is also a “scholar in residence” at NYU Law. In his book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and Overlawyered America (Encounter, 2011), Cato Institute Senior Fellow Walter Olson writes about the propensity of sixties extremists (Bernardine Dohrn, Angela Davis,
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April 2, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Over the weekend we condemned Robert Redford for glorifying the lives and works of the Weather Underground terrorists in his new movie, The Company You Keep, opening soon at a theater near you. Among the good works of the Weather Underground was the armored car robbery that resulted in the murders of two police officers and a Brinks guard. Michelle Malkin called Redford out in her syndicated column “The bloody
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March 31, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Last year the New York Times Magazine featured a cover story by Tom Robbins (not that Tom Robbins) on one of the fanatic leftists who participated in the infamous Brink’s robbery in New York. As George Russell recounts in “The other Rosenberg case,” the October 1981 robbery, which ended in a careening series of car chases and a bloody shootout, left two policemen and an unarmed Brink’s employee dead and
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March 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
John Ford is America’s greatest director and “The Searchers” is one of his greatest films. If you’ve ever seen it, you may have asked yourself in wonderment as the credits rolled: “Where did that come from?” Now Glenn Frankel, G.B. Dealey Regents Professor in Journalism and director of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, has answered that question and more in The Searchers: The Making
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March 21, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Recommendation Number 13 on the Republican Party’s recently released list of demographic outreach priorities is to “Expand our presence on more pop culture oriented outlets to ensure our message is reaching all voters.” A few years ago, I might have scoffed at this recommendation. The electorate, I thought, became serious enough during high presidential election season to make sure it reached the message of presidential candidate’s in traditional ways e.g.,
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March 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
“The Feminine Mystique,” Betty Friedan’s highly influential feminist tract, is 50 years old. Julia Shaw, in the Washington Times, finds that women now live in the world Friedan built. But Shaw denies that this is worth celebrating. Friedan did not write a manifesto advocating for women to have the opportunity to get out of the house, get an education and get jobs. No, Friedan’s fundamental premise is that women must
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March 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
On Friday, a friend sent me the video of Jimmy Kimmel’s “confusing question of the day” — “What do you think about Obama’s decision to pardon the sequester and send it to Portugal?” (and a few impromptu variations) — with the comment that it is “laugh out loud funny.” I had forgotten about it until seeing it posted here at NRO’s Corner. It is educational as well as funny, and
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March 10, 2013 — Scott Johnson
With a Democratic governor, a Democratic legislature and the political wind at their back, supporters of gay marriage have high hopes for their prospects in Minnesota. In the Star Tribune, Katherine Kersten casts a gimlet eye on developments: The marriage amendment may have fallen short at the polls in November, but a majority of Minnesotans continue to support marriage as the union of one man and one woman, according to
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March 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
A reader forwards this photo snapped on a cell phone at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the heart of Bloomberg City. The spirit of the place has become that of the Nanny State in the land of the moderately free. Add your own sugar and flavor swirl, while you still can!
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February 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
From William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, we learn about the case of Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their children: The Romeikes are devout Christians from Germany who wanted to homeschool their children because of what they perceived as the secularist agenda in German public schools. In the United States, the right to homeschool ones’ own children is accepted, although frequently mocked by the left. The homeschoool movement is thriving in
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February 26, 2013 — Steven Hayward
I know it’s a little early for a week in pictures feature, but it’s a fast-moving news week, what with Hagel going to the Lew before being sequestered with the rest of the jury in a hotel room while . . . what’s that? Mixed-up metaphors? Okay, but still, there’s this: And now for a few general public service announcements:
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