Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

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About stephenkmacksd

Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer. 'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.' https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary

David Brooks: Bludgeoning the Ghost of the Welfare State, in response to the Failure of The Free Market Delusion by Political Cynic

Posted on June 17, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

"“We have a sense that the economic order we knew in the second half of the 20th century may not be coming back at all — that we have entered a new era for which we have not been well … Continue reading →

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Books of Interest: The Heidegger Controversy, A Critical Reader edited by Richard Wolin

Posted on June 13, 2012 by stephenkmacksd
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Books of Interest: Unauthorized Freud, Doubters Confront a Legend edited by Frederick Crews

Posted on June 13, 2012 by stephenkmacksd
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David Brooks on Memory, Aesthetics and the Politics of Just Authority, or the Decline of Male Heterosexual Power by Queer Atheist

Posted on June 13, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

Mr. Brooks begins his latest essay as a diatribe against contemporary monuments in the nations capitol, the mixture of aesthetics and politics is choice that leaves the regular reader of the platonically inflected political chatter of Mr. Brooks a bit … Continue reading →

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Ross Douthat defends the unborn while making war on living by Political Cynic

Posted on June 12, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

I can't say that the Ross Douthat essay of June 9,2012 titled Eugenics,Past and Present is surprising in any way. Mr. Douthat manufactures some self-serving political hysteria regarding research led by Jay Shendure, a professor at the University of Washington, … Continue reading →

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David Brooks on American Dishonesty, Without Redemption by Political Observer

Posted on June 9, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

If your looking for a diversion from the more troublesome aspects of your own life, and/or the failure of the Republic, the latest David Brooks essay titled The Moral Diet can supply something that almost resembles serious human thought. We … Continue reading →

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David Brooks on Vocations : Finance and Consulting as the choice of the student elite by Political Observer

Posted on May 31, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

David Brooks cannot resist the temptation to present himself as public moralist even when discussing the career choices of the 'student elite' as in this essay of of May 24, 2012 obliquely titled The Service Patch. A side note: Mr. … Continue reading →

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David Brooks on Bain Capital as ‘Creative Destruction’

Posted on May 30, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

Should the attentive reader of Mr. David Brooks essay of May 17, 2012, titled How Change Happens, be surprised that he chooses the Wall Street Journal and the National Review as the sources of evaluations of the business practices of … Continue reading →

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David Brooks on ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Political Observer

Posted on May 29, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

Mr. Brooks in his essay of May 17, 2012 appropriates his title from Edith Wharton's 1920 novel of the same name. Mr. Brook's meditation might better be called The Age of Cynicism: as it takes the careful, and quite precise … Continue reading →

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On The Theopolitics of Reinhold Niebuhr by Political Observer

Posted on May 24, 2012 by stephenkmacksd

  I’ve just finished a Reinhold Niebuhr biography by Richard Fox published in 1985. That I find Mr. Niebuhr repugnant as person and Christian Moralist is a statement of my prejudice, without apology. I felt that I wanted to understand … Continue reading →

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