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

Books of Interest: A Single Roll of the Dice by Trita Parsi

[[posterous-content:pid___0]] http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300169362

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O tempora o mores! David Brooks on our current deplorable moral/political state

David Brooks cares about the ‘little people’ like Maddie Parlier getting by, but aspiring to better herself. But Mr. Brooks likes his corporate allies and friends just a bit more than he cares for the welfare and aspirations of Ms. … Continue reading →

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Sol Stern on Arendt the Apostate by Political Cynic

Is this essay Sol Stern seeks the root of the current revival of ‘antisemitism’ to it’s origin: the great Jewish thinker and Heidegger apologist Hannah Arendt. Here we have the latest installment of the current war on the policies and … Continue reading →

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David Brooks on the Virtues of Mitt Romney and Family by Political Cynic

“The philosopher Michael Oakeshott once observed that it takes several generations to make a career. Interests, habits and lore accrue in families and shape those born into them.” This defense of the British hereditary aristocracy by Michael Oakshott is not … Continue reading →

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David Brooks in Sumpter,S.C. by American Litterateur, part 2

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/opinion/south-carolina-diarist.html?partner… “The other pleasure of covering campaigns is getting to play American Idol judge, evaluating the political performances. Mitt Romney is never going to be confused for Pericles on the stump. Every sigh and utterance is prescripted, so watching his … Continue reading →

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David Brooks in Sumpter,S.C. by American Litterateur

Before I comment on David Brooks’ latest essay in the New York Times, let me just volunteer this thought on newspapers: there is nothing like holding a newspaper and thumbing through it’s pages, it is tactile, it is visceral, it … Continue reading →

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Leslie Gelb reflects on the Iranian question by Political Cynic

In his latest essay, Leslie Gelb, through rhetorical sleight of hand, makes an attempt to appear as the voice of reason in the ‘debate’ before an actual attack on Iran, that has taken up so much political space and time, … Continue reading →

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What’s Race Got to Do With It? By Lee Siegel: Some thoughts by Political Observer

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/whats-race-got-to-do-with-i…   Lee Siegel proves his fealty to Modern Liberalism’s disdain of the Patriarchal Nostalgia of Mormonism and its addiction to 19th Century norms of free born white males: exercising power over all they control and own, the women and … Continue reading →

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Krugman and Brooks: On the Romney candidacy and the political significance of Bain Capital

If you subscribe to the print edition of the New York Times and you are a regular reader of both David Brooks and Paul Krugman, you will notice that their essays mirror one another,and share contiguous print space, in that … Continue reading →

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Books of Interest: Three Books by Jeff Malpus on Heidegger

[[posterous-content:pid___1]][[posterous-content:pid___2]] http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11052 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10948 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12833 (Cover not available)      

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