cheese it, the cops!

undomesticated

henry david thoreau, from "walking" (1862):

I rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made the slaves of men, and that men themselves have some wild oats still left to sow before they become submissive members of society. Undoubtedly, all men are not equally fit subjects for civilization; and because the majority, like dogs and sheep, are tame by inherited disposition, this is no reason why the others should have their natures broken that they may be reduced to the same level. Men are in the main alike, but they were made several in order that they might be various.

 

nathaniel peabody rogers, from "politics" (1843):

Good farmers are learning that there is a better way to treat their cattle than by blows. The hostler of intelligence and kindness, is ceasing to maul his noble horse. They are leaving off the practice of breaking steers and colts, for the reason that it is cruel: undeserved by the horse and unworthy of the employer, and because a whole horse or ox is better than a broken one. Political action is unfit even for brute animals. Is it fitter for man? Is humanity less susceptible of moral influences than what we call brutality? A politician is but a man driver, a human teamster. His business is to control men by the whip and the goad. His occupation would be unlawful and inexpedient toward even the cattle.

thoreau was demonstrably reading rogers in 1843.

 

 

A brief history of me in opinion journalism

I started writing op-ed for the Nashville Banner (the afternoon daily, now defunct) in the early '90s when I was working at Vanderbilt. In the mid-to-late nineties I was more or less weekly for the Philadelphia Inquirer, probably 200 pieces, and had a few dozen in the Los Angeles Times. 2001-2004 or so, I did a weekly column for Creators' Syndicate, and a series of longer pieces in the Baltimore Sun. Success with Creators was limited, but I've probably been in every US daily one way or another. I did some essays for Weekend All Things Considered, and did place a couple back in the day with the Washington Post, though Lord knows I've been pitching them with some futility for many a year.

I left Creators when I fell in love with blogging; no editing can be seductive. But some items/runs from the last few years:

 

The Atlantic online

A Leap of Atheist Faith (but now I'm a Quaker)

The Left-Right Political Spectrum is Bogus

The Credibility Index

 

New York Times

My Walden, My Wal-Mart

The School of Arthur Danto

Poe v Twain: Can We Improve?

Andy Warhol and the Persistence of Modernism

 

Los Angeles Times

How to Have Taste: Jeff Koons's Popeye

Should Miley Cyrus Wear Dreadlocks?

 

Wall Street Journal

This is the Golden Age of the Written Word

Styles of Masculinity in the Trump Admin

Left or Right? Thoreau Wouldn't Have Understood the Question

Fiestas and Apples: Small-Town Life Before Trump

Getting Metaphysical About the Post-Truth Era

The Wax Presidency Wanes

[there's one more? but which?]

 

I've done some book reviews for the Times Literary Supplement. Here one.

Into the Fifth Phase

 

And of course, I've done maybe 70 or 80 pieces in SpliceToday over the last year and a half.

 

 

text me

as classical greece was the golden era of sculpture, the italian renaissance the golden era of painting, and 2016 the golden era of pharmaceutical advertising on television, this is the golden age of the written word. it's like living with horace and virgil, i mean living with them. 

i know people who have spent decades bemoaning whatever the media situation was at the moment, often in apocalyptic terms. really, we've been declining since 1952. y'all need to love the world a little as it stands right now, alright? 

china attacks korea 2

trump's un speech, threatening north korea with total annihilation could possibly be strategic. so say the us was really hinting that china had better remove the nk regime (cf entry a couple down). if china really was contemplating a nuclear or overwhelming sudden conventional destruction by the us right on their border, i think they'd act one way or another. and again, i'm suspecting that they've already infiltrated to some extent, and might be better than the us in imposing sudden cyber-destruction. look no other military procedure is even remotely plausible, including that american attack. 

conscientious objection to pastry

this week's splice:

no reason to force people to bake cakes for gay weddings

i'm spliced today (well, yesterday) arguing against 'generations,'  kabooming boomers, xing out xers, tc. the schtick will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog.

john ashbery is all gone, but he left us an epic pile of suck, or, really, a big bucket of meaninglessly juxtaposed words..

this week for splicetoday: is it okay to watch football?

chinese annexation of north korea

obviously, every 'military' approach to north korea looks impossible or disastrous. this is the only regime-change scenario i can picture: u.s. and south korea, perhaps with a un nod, approve an extremely sudden invasion and annexation of north korea by china. i'm sure that would make south korea nervous, but they can and do deal with china, and actually south korea's security would be extremely enhanced. i'm not endorsing this, i'm just saying that this is the only realistic way that the threat could be eliminated.

i think china has probably already run the scenarios; they just cannot want hydrogen bombs blowing up nearby, etc. then we'd have to work an international aid package, almost compensation. i'm not sure why no one is talking about this when all military action by the us looks impossible or disastrous.