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The Long View

The Long View: Up in the Air

Up in the Air, Walter Kirn’s 2001 satirical novel on frequent flyer culture, later made into a movie starring George Clooney and written by Jason Reitman, has always been of topical interest to me. My father-in-law has lived that life for almost all of the time I have known

The Long View 2006-11-06: Wretched Excess

Twelve years ago, dissatisfaction with W brought both houses of Congress to the Democrats. This time, it looks like the House may swing, but the Senate may not. We shall see. Wretched Excess So how many stunning rebukes to the Bush Administration have we seen in the past few days?

The Long View 2006-11-03: Justice Done; Holy Political Ads; The Irony of History

When I first re-read this post, I wondered how John Reilly, an attorney, made it through voir dire. He was obviously surprised too, because he explained how it all went down. Also, apparently he got the “enhanced screening” at the courthouse. Justice Done; Holy Political Ads; The Irony of History

The Long View 2006-10-30: Premonitions and Dark Arts

There is an interesting premonition of the Eurozone financial crisis here. Monetary union between Germany and Italy and Germany and Greece devastated the economies of the smaller, less productive countries. Some people saw this coming a long time ago. There is a kind of analogy to be made to the

The Long View 2006-10-26 Pointed Humor

This post written in 2006 illustrates nicely the difference between antifa on the Left and Frog Twitter and 4chan on the Right. Unlike Weimar Germany, America is full of Righty humorists and Black Bloc marchers with bats and bike locks. Pointed Humor The propaganda element of the Terror War has

The Long View 2006-10-23: American Nadir; Empire; Art; Indult; Thanatophobia

I would concur with John Reilly here that a sung Mass, whether High or Low, is a remarkable experience. There are a variety of sung settings for the Mass, in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms, by well-known composers. It is unfortunately difficult to find one in practice. I had

The Long View: World War Z

World War Z remains one of my favorite books. I liked Brooks’ device of an oral history, and I enjoyed the wide variety of characters we meet through the “interviews”. As with so much of my favorite fiction, the characters seem like real people you could meet somewhere, or maybe