Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

David Brooks is a pundit that can’t keep from putting his foot in his mouth:“The progressive budget in the House seems to have been written by people hermetically sealed in the house of government. They work in government. They represent … Continue reading →

In another time in America, when there was an actual ‘Left’, that ‘Left’ would have called David Brooks a Capitalist Stooge! But even the staunchest New Dealer would wince at this maladroit attempt to rewrite history:“Today, liberalism seems to have … Continue reading →

The rallying cry of Conservatism whether it be in turn of the century Vienna or America 2013, is the pernicious threat of Decadence. And Moral Decline is it’s most pernicious expression: the decline of ‘hetero marriage’ and the advent of … Continue reading →

I think an observer of the opinionating of Mr. David Brooks just might readily look at his essay How Movements Recover, in which he reaches back to the Donatist movement (Heresy) in early Christianity, he references Peter Brown’s biography of … Continue reading →

You must grant Ross Douthat credit for being a dependable Republican myth-maker, there are other words for his particular endeavors, but let this mildest descriptor stand as adequate. You could call this essay by another title, ‘The Iraq War: A … Continue reading →

Ross Douthat’s essay of March 16, 2013 titled What the Church Needs Now is, of course, rhetorically framed as a defense of Catholic authoritarianism. The primacy of justified male authority is the central concept of the precipitously declining patriarchy, here … Continue reading →

Imagine Professor Muller as the central character in Granville’s Juggler of Universes, but instead of planets he juggles the leaden cliches of Neo-Liberalism, reinforced by the Social Darwinism of the Present, known as Sociology. Now the Sociology of the Present … Continue reading →

Last night, I was reading, just before turning out the light, Cyril Connolly's The Evening Colonnade. He is,now, utterly out of literary  fashion but a pleasure to read, in small doses. In part two titled Divers of Worship, Mr. Connolly … Continue reading →

“The custom among the Pirahã Indians of Brazil is that women give birth alone. The linguist Steve Sheldon once saw a Pirahã woman giving birth on a beach, while members of her tribe waited nearby. It was a breech birth, … Continue reading →

Sir Politic Would-Be has the answer to so many questions, aided by his newest find, The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy edited by Eldar Shafir, of Princeton. Nothing better than a 'Brand Name Thinker' with an impeccable pedigree will do … Continue reading →