Monthly Archives: October 2009

To be funny, you can’t simply trade on your unseriousness. That’s not to say that you need to have the weight of the Russian empire on your back to tell a joke. But being glib, which is to be superficial, … Continue reading →

Don was my friend going back to my junior year in college. I often hung out in his dorm room listening to his choice of music and smoking his pot. We drank like fiends together at the Homestead. And several … Continue reading →

I’m not generally a fan of James Poulos and I think that his blog “Postmodern Conservative” has a meaningless title, but this post about the fate of America is thought provoking, with its discussion of Toqueville and Philip Rieff and … Continue reading →

The New Paltz school board gave school superintendant Maria Rice another salary boost. Translating the board’s representative explaining the move: “Like, man, it’s cool. Maria’s an awesome dudette. She’s, like, special, man. She’s a poet, man. You don’t tell Maria … Continue reading →

It’s good, but I loved the tee-shirt best.

Yes, there is. Sally Thomas reflects on the pagan unto Christian meaning of the ghostly night: As a friend of mine observed recently, there is something medieval about Halloween. The masks, the running around in the dark, the flicker of … Continue reading →

Rasimus: I’m disgusted at the picture of this man trying to look military. I’m sorry, that is a biased cheap-shot, but it is what I feel. It’s not a cheap-shot. That man said things during his campaign that could charitably … Continue reading →

Hanson: Upon entering office, Barack Obama knew little about foreign policy. But then neither did Vice President Harry S. Truman when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12, 1945. President Obama often invokes the supposed mess abroad—especially in Iraq … Continue reading →

Henninger on the Democrats’ hopelessly antiquated approach to health care: If you’re an elected Democrat anywhere to the right of Barney Frank, and trying to defend a competitive seat next November, you’ve got to be starting to sweat. You wake … Continue reading →

I don’t get into the individual personalities on the New Paltz school board. I’ve had that policy since starting this blog and have kept to it with some minor exceptions. One of the many reasons for the policy is that … Continue reading →

O.K. He has almost made me forget how much I detest the Clintons.

John Miller celebrates Halloween at the Wall Street Journal with this tribute to the writer Shirley Jackson, author of The Haunting of Hill House: “The concept of certain houses as unclean or forbidden—perhaps sacred—is as old as the mind of … Continue reading →

Hit the Big City today for a couple of hours. Then right back. Aside from the road part, the New York State Thruway between Suffern, where Route 17 runs into it, and New Paltz was just gorgeous on the way … Continue reading →

And “21st Century education” along with them, if that’s any consolation: Households moving out of New York State had average incomes 13 percent higher than those moving into New York during the most recent year for which such data are … Continue reading →

William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal notes that Obama is a whining blame shifter. Hell, if that was the worst of it, I could live with it. Too bad it isn’t even within the penumbra of an emanation of … Continue reading →

Bob Carter, the Australian climate scientist, goes to the heart of the fraud: In the face of such attitudes, which treat the established mores of scientific trust and method with contempt, it is scarcely surprising that it took Canadian statistics … Continue reading →