When it comes to preserving the climate we have come to know and love, this blog has documented in exhausting detail over the last five years reasons not to be optimistic. This documentation comes out of a desire to do the right thing for the planet that has given us life, not — of courseContinue reading “Hopeless Optimism (by Billy Collins)”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
Geo-Engineering the Climate: Are We Just Not Cynical Enough?
The Virginia Quarterly Review, arguably the best literary journal in the country, has the nerve this quarter to take on an urgent issue, and dispatches Pat Joseph to look at geo-engineering the climate. He avoids stating his conclusion, but does a masterful job of laying out the facts. See here: The Obama administration will noContinue reading “Geo-Engineering the Climate: Are We Just Not Cynical Enough?”
Climate: What We Need is a Rhetoric of Salvation
Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University who specializes in studying social activism and the environmental movement in particular, wrote a response to a post on Andy Revkin's Dot Earth site this past Sunday that has been widely admired. It's critical of the language climate preservationists use to describe the crisis, and points out aContinue reading “Climate: What We Need is a Rhetoric of Salvation”
What We Pray to Ourselves For Is Always Granted
Today's it's a cliche to say: Be Careful What You Pray For; in fact (in the movies at least) you can see God Himself explaining the concept. But 150 years ago, one of this nation's greatest writers formulated a similar thought with far more care and thoughtfulness. Wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson (in The Conduct ofContinue reading “What We Pray to Ourselves For Is Always Granted”
Limbaugh: The False Prophet
Talked yesterday with an old friend who called, drunk, asking for help. David Yachimowicz once was Rush Limbaugh's biggest fan. Asked him if he still listened to the man. He said no — but that's because he no longer has a radio. He's living on disability, at a Salvation Army. A small detail, but itContinue reading “Limbaugh: The False Prophet”
Rod Dreher: Rush Limbaugh is Crack for Conservatives
Fascinating to see America's biggest blowhard become the spokesman for the Republican Party. After hearing Limbaugh's speech to a national convention of conservatives this weekend, President Obama's right-hand man, Rahm Emmanuel, on Face the Nation, happily declared Limbaugh "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party." (No doubt he knows thatContinue reading “Rod Dreher: Rush Limbaugh is Crack for Conservatives”
Why We’re Expecting Too Much of Obama
The most powerful critique of the American way of life in recent years has come from a conservative professor named Andrew Bacevich, who in his book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism absolutely dismantles both the Bush doctrine and the fatuous belief that Barack Obama will fundamentally change the national security state.Continue reading “Why We’re Expecting Too Much of Obama”
Good News about Stress — Believe It or Don’t
Newsweek may be disappearing from newstands soon, but its medical coverage as of late has been superb. A couple of weeks ago came a story on The Two Sleeps that literally changed my life. (Instead of taking drastic measures to sleep through the night, do what nature suggests — sleep one shift, get up, takeContinue reading “Good News about Stress — Believe It or Don’t”
The Romantic Museum of Great Russian Writers
On this Valentine's Day weekend, it's fitting to link to Geoff Manaugh, who likes to think about landscapes and the future, and comes up with an insanely romantic idea for a new museum. Begin with a relatively simple fact: Russian forensic scientists are testing blood samples found on a certain sofa where the great writerContinue reading “The Romantic Museum of Great Russian Writers”
EXCITING HOUSEKEEPING NOTE! SEARCH FUNCTION NOW WORKS!
Thank you, Google, and thanks esp. to Typepad, for finally figuring out the problem with the search function, which for literally years I've been trying to get to work on this site, but NOW IT DOES! Really. Check it out (and tell me if I'm wrong). But I've tried via two different computers and browsersContinue reading “EXCITING HOUSEKEEPING NOTE! SEARCH FUNCTION NOW WORKS!”
Kit Stolz 