Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* Steve Kapsinow attends that rare thing: a public presentation where snapshots triumphed over fancy computer graphics.

* Here's a young man who knows how to savor his food.

* For those who can never get too much sexy album-cover art ...

* Women in Western countries can now pursue whatever career they choose to. Have the consequences of this development been all to the good? Alison Wolf -- a leftist and a progressive -- thinks not. She responds to critics here.

* Also in the Prospect, David Goodhart makes a level-headed argument that the left needs to stop ridiculing those concerned about immigration issues, and to take these issues seriously. He cites factors that visitors to 2Blowhards will be familiar with: declining levels of trust and national cohesion, pressures on the least well-educated sectors of society, and the fact that stances on these issues don't divide up along predictable left/right axes. Nice passage:

In economics and sociology the left embraces the idea of group interests and affinities. But when it comes to culture or national sentiment, the left switches to a rhetoric of individualism, implicitly seeing society -- or at least the dominant culture -- as no more than a collection of individuals with no special ties towards each other. This "blank sheet" individualism often employs the language of internationalism and universalism, increasingly the preferred discourse of elites (of both left and right) in contrast to the economic and cultural communitarianism of most ordinary people.

Critics respond here. Steve Sailer takes some of Goodhart's points and runs with them.

* Let it not be said that Steve Sailer lacks guts: Here's a posting where Steve dares to ask whether Jews are doing themselves a favor by shielding themselves from objective criticism in the media. I think Steve makes a very good point. How could such a strategy result in anything but self-delusion, and lots of backed-up resentment?

* Jay Manifold finally catches up with David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America" and -- as his fellow ChicagoBoyz have done before him -- raves about the book.

* Once again the porn business is out there ahead of the mainstream. Which reminds me of a question I've often wondered about: In America, is the porn business our real avant-garde?

* Mentos plus Diet Coke equals a very good show.

* Fans of tacky and colorful vintage paperback bookjackets ("She was every inch a hellcat!") should enjoy this page.

* Grandma! Grandpa! Say it ain't so! (NSFW)

* Those curious about Heather Mills' softcore past can eyeball examples of her work here. (NSFW)

* Here's a helpful (and brief) discussion of megalomania and narcissism. I'm reminded of more than a few people I've known ...

Best,

Michael

Michael,
The Diet Coke & Mentos video is all well and good (did you, like me, first hear about this on NPR last week?), but....
the video I'm looking for is where some guy (because a woman would not possess enough idiocy genes to do this) drinks a liter of Diet coke and then ingests a roll of Mentos.

Now THAT would be a treat to see!

Hmm, in fact THAT would be a good video to send in as part of one's application to the Allpied Sciences program @ MIT.

Posted by: DarkoV on June 15, 2006 8:53 AM

As to Sailer's comments, I generally agree that the level of outright bias and unmitigated revulsion exhibited against those who deal realistically with racial and cognitive topics is so high that you can't even discuss the matter neutrally without being blacklisted. Of course I disagree with Sailer's curt dismissal of things like the "Rand cult" and the liberation of Iraq, which he assumes shouldn't even be discussed by intelligent people, even though both have been remarkably successful.

Posted by: Robert Speirs on June 15, 2006 9:42 AM

Where's the cover of Roxy Music's Country Life? Go here to see the censored and partially censored versions that were released in some markets.

The funny thing is, as I explained to my mum, the lyrical content was actually quite prim, with barely a double-entendre on the entire album.

Posted by: Intellectual Pariah on June 16, 2006 2:20 PM






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