Tuesday, August 30, 2011

David Brooks's Struggle With Political Ambiguity

Don't Let the Door Knock Your Ass on the Way Out

From Dave's Aug. 30, 2011, column: "Recently I did a little reporting from Kenya and Tanzania before taking a safari with my family. We stayed in--"

Thank you. Next!

You gotta be kidding with this one.

Not So Communal After All

Dave reminisces about the easy "warmth, domesticity and unpretentious conviviality" of orthodox Lubavitchers. The irony here is delish: He finds conviviality among a weird, narrow religious sect that segregates itself from the rest of the community, and that even segregates itself from itself by gender.

Is Brooks a Closeted Liberal?

That's been obvious for years. He's always pulling his punches on Republican intransigence, but he never really extols the hard conservative line. And he sure ain't no Tea Bagger.

You get the sense from his columns that he's your basic vanilla moderate. That's why NPR loves him for the house Conservative. He's harmless. Not like those wild-eyed wingnuts Bachmann, Limbaugh, Beck and the Pauls.

Today's column, on the family's African safari, is a good example of DB's struggle with his political ambiguity. He's promoting communitarianism and the mixing of the classes, two very unconservative notions. "Often, as we spend more on something, what we gain in privacy and elegance we lose in spontaneous sociability." Better, he says, to stay at Comfort Inn than at the Four Seasons.

Leaving aside the ferchachta notion that anyone with more than $50 in his wallet would stay at a Comfort Inn, the point here is that he's a nice, harmless mensch. Can't he come out and tell his family about it? If they love him, they'll accept him the way he is. If they don't, fuck 'em.

Obscure References

"[T]he prominent scholars Elizabeth W. Dunn, Daniel T. Gilbert and Timothy D. Wilson."

Right. We've all read their landmark research on happiness.

Oy vey.
 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Who Is Ross Douthat?

That'll take some time to figure out. But I tell you what, he's getting dangerously close to getting a blog with assertions like this one from today's column:

"Which bring us back to that 10-election winning streak. Maybe God really is on Rick Perry’s side."



Friday, August 19, 2011

And?

I don't get it. Why highlight the Leakeys, whom Brooks acknowledges have been exhaustively profiled, as templates for the examining, questioning life?

It's cool that they can fix their car engine with cow parts. But most of us would go to Pep Boys or Meinecke.

Learning Is Dangerous

Why not focus on more ordinary people who manage to read, debate, question, teach and learn while doing all those mundane, quotidian things like go to a job every day and raise kids? Maybe juxtapose the Leakey way of living against Brooks's Republican compatriots, who view learning and knowledge as threats and questioning as irreligious.

Now that would be relevant.

Name-Drop Quotient

High. Might as well call it "Hey, Everybody! I'm chums with Philip Leakey!


Thursday, August 18, 2011

High Chutzpah, Texas Style

Given what his stand-ins have been producing, we're about ready to beg forgiveness and for DB's return. In the meantime, some thoughts about Rick Perry.

The Mystery of the Trinity

Three of the many mysteries that is (are?) Rick Perry:


  • Why would a secessionist want to be president of the United States?
  • Speaking of pissing on the Constitution, it takes high chutzpah for a secessionist to accuse anyone of treason. Is Ben Bernanke really a traitor? He's a banker, for chrissake. Although that beard does look curiously muttonchoppy. Hmm. ...
  • Why does someone so proud of his job-creating record think that government has no role in the economy?
Bottom Line

Guy's a freak. Next!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

We're Ready to Apologize

We notice that Dave is still "on vacation." Sounds to us like he's still stung at having been called out over his paean to Congress.

However, in light of his guest columnist's trenchant piece on the turtles at JFK, we're almost ready to apologize and plead for DB's return.

Almost.

But not quite. He's still a fool. Besides, we love animals. Those turtles are CUTE!

Postscript

We're still wondering who Ross Douthat is. Please post your guesses here.