Working on vacation plans and thinking about how an ordinary middle-class family used to be able to afford a first class trip to Paris for 12.
SamuelGoldman
4,582 posts
SamuelGoldman
@SWGoldman
busted chopped unc
- I'm sympathetic to elements of this analysis, but it begs the question: if you don't want ethno-religious or racial national identity and also don't like founderism, constitutional patriotism, civic nationalism of whatever you want to call it, what's left?“The cult of the American founding has no parallels in other English-speaking democracies. A British prime minister who declared that 21st-century Britain must turn for guidance to Horace Walpole or Pitt the Younger would be considered daft…”/1
Who was the last President America had who could articulate, in detail, American political history for 30 minutes starting with the King Alfred and the Battle of Ethandun in 878?- What if he just didn’t pardon the turkeys? Like “in view of their heinous crimes and lack of remorse, I cannot allow these birds to walk free.”
- Although I’m sympathetic to @samuelmoyn’s general point, I beg people to remember that historical averages are misleading because infant mortality was so high. If you survived childhood you had a decent chance of living into your 70s.With Joe Biden clearly doddering, I have a new snippet out on gerontocracy. Note that the US Constitution imposes an age minimum for the presidency but no age maximum - and the age minimum of 35 was only two years shy of the average age of death in 1787. granta.com/the-trouble-wi…
- I’ve observed this many times, and my hypothesis is that people don’t want normal coffee—they want flavored milkshakes that convenience type places don’t offer.People were waiting in a 30 minute line for Starbucks at JFK at 6am, instead of just getting a normal coffee from the store next door. It’s like that (maybe false) Jared Diamond story about the Greenlanders starving to death instead of suffering the indignity of eating fish
- George Washington, Christian Nationalist: "May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."
- Next week Fetterman shows up for work wearing a beautifully tailored three-piece suit.NEW: John Fetterman breaks with the left — fiercely supporting Israel and endorsing talks for tougher immigration laws. “I’m not a progressive,” Fetterman tells @NBCNews, brushing back critics. He’s hitting Dems for a double standard on Santos/Menendez. nbcnews.com/politics/congr…
- Happy St Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate, even the ones who didn’t kill their wives.
- I find it utterly baffling that anyone could look at this guy, look at Fetterman, and choose to dress more like the latter.Can we take a moment to appreciate how damn stylish the King is?
- Blue books are fine for some purposes but not a substitute for extended writing tasks. Maybe the research/drafting/revising process is now obsolete at the undergrad level and we have to live with that. But blue books, oral exams, etc are a workaround rather than a solution.This is another really good article on the problem of AI cheating in schools but... I'm still left with the question of why this isn't solved by switching back to blue book essays written in class.
