6 Ways to Change the World Glenn Reynolds-Style

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This is Week 6 of Season 3 in my new 13 Weeks of Wild Man Writing and Radical Reading Series. Every week day I try to blog about compelling writers, their ideas, and the news cycle’s most interesting headlines.

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From the primordial, pajamahadeen era of the blogosphere, Glenn Reynolds has been a tremendous influence on untold numbers of writers, bloggers, and New Media troublemakers. While others’ influence has waned and once-dominant voices have now lost their relevance, Glenn has grown brighter as a beacon of hopeful, future-minded light. Here are six ways to draw from his knowledge and experiences to make your own changes in yourself and your world:

1. Read Instapundit, the best news aggregation blog.

Everyone who uses Twitter or Facebook is Instapundit today. Glenn was just ahead of the curve. The format, style, and vocabulary that he developd with Instapundit is what just about every political tweeter does today whether they realize it or not. Glenn rose up through pioneering the New Media genre known as micro-blogging — the practice of doing frequent, quick updates of what’s new and consequential in the world.

The lesson of Instapundit, its rise and continued success is a recognition of the nature of today’s media and technological environment. If you want to grow the number of people who are listening to you then you have to start talking and you have to keep them engaged. Obviously everybody can’t go at the rate of posts that Glenn somehow manages. But the general principle applies for everyone interested in using New Media to do something. One should cast their line into the big black void of the web as frequently as possible. A blogger with a dozen great posts a week on a number of subjects is likely to grow a bigger following than the specialist who does a handful of excellent posts on the same subject each week. Flexibility and adaptability are vital to success in today’s New Media world.

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2. Implement an Army of Davids-style strategy in your life

This 2006 manifesto by Glenn should be regarded as a founding document of Conservatism 3.0. New Media activists should start here, and Megan Fox did at PJ Lifestyle in her ongoing series about her push to stop the Orland Park Library’s tolerance of public pornography and sexual predators. In this part here she started by quoting from Army of Davids:

Power once concentrated in the hands of a professional few has been redistributed into the hands of the amateur many… Millions of Americans who were once in awe of the punditocracy now realize that anyone can do this stuff — and that many unknowns can do it better than the lords of the profession.

Megan is up against a library bureacracy that rather than dialogue with her would demonize her and defend the rights of men to watch hardcore pornographic films in the computer labs of public libraries. She did Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to discover that library staff had systematically been neglecting reporting crimes. Further FOIA requests revealed how library staff responded to her complaints.

3. Learn to master the op/ed column, and start by reading Glenn’s USA Today columns each week

Whatever field you’re engaged in in life, at one time or another you are going to need to fight for something you believe in. You’ll need to figure out how to persuade someone to come around to your position. In winning over your new ally you will have finite time — a limited word count. You will be in competition with distraction and perhaps even others with competing ideas.

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Glenn’s weekly columns are models of how to argue effectively and persuade. Glenn is among the best models here of how to present freedom-based ideas to broader, general audiences beyond the conservative blog world. That is something I don’t hear discussed enough. I’m so sick of the standard right-wing, conservative boilerplate. With Glenn he’s always framing concepts in fresh ways that can’t be easily dismissed.

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4. Prepare for the Pop of the Higher Education Bubble

For years Glenn has been blogging and writing on the decline of higher education, in particular the effect of federally subsidized student loans for increasing the cost and lowering the value of an undergraduate degree.

See Glenn’s Encounter broadsides The Higher Education Bubble and The K-12 Implosion; they are the prelude to his new book The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself, out in January, diagnosing the problem and offering his Army of Davis solutions.

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5. Seek Deep Discussion on Instavision

On Glenn’s PJTV show he interviews fascinating authors and thinkers. He continues on the William F. Buckley Jr. Firing Line tradition of intellectually rich but still entertaining and hopeful dialogues.

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6. Optimistic Futurism!

Glenn is both a source of practical knowledge and an emotional inspiration. Infused throughout Glenn’s media output is an upbeat picture of the future. Perhaps a part of this is just how much he’s imagined the future and seen much of it come to pass over the last decades. The Army of Davids is growing and Moore’s Law applies to our weapons too. As technology continues to grow twice as powerful and half as expensive, human beings will have more and more power to free themselves and defend their families and communities from all manner of Goliaths.

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And now here is a collection of the previous week’s PJM stories with excerpts and some comments from me…

PJ Media Story Round Up

Lead PJM Stories

Tuesday

David Steinberg: MEDICAID FOR AL-QAEDA? Obamacare Flaw Allows Anyone on Earth To Fraudulently Enroll Through Healthcare.gov

So: how simple is it to fraudulently enroll for Medicaid under the rules governing Obamacare?

Submit electronic copies of a false affidavit and a false work document while claiming to be a member of the “presumed eligible” populations, and you are required to get at least 90 days.

Most troubling, the establishment of Healthcare.gov and the other state-run exchanges allows this fraud to be perpetrated from anywhere on the planet. I asked Edwards:

PJM: “Based on the HHS/CMMS rules, couldn’t, say, al-Zawahiri get himself auto-enrolled with a “reasonable opportunity period” from a laptop in Pakistan?”

Edwards: “I hadn’t thought of that. Yes.”

Bravo, David. An extraordinary piece of reporting.

Michael Ledeen: Killers on the Loose in Iran

Reuters is trying to educate us, to their credit, publishing an investigation of the wealth of the supreme leader.  So far, only the first of three articles has appeared, but it’s pretty eye-opening.  Reuters credits Khamenei for a personal — not institutional, but personal — fortune of about $95 billion.  A lot of that came from taking away the property of his fellow Iranians.  Indeed, the article begins with just such a case, an 82-year-old woman who lost her home, and those of her kids, because the leader wanted them.

In addition to underestimating Iranian corruption, we also underestimate the extent of internal conflict.  There’s a lot of fighting among several factions, ranging from the Khamenei family to two or three elements of the Revolutionary Guards, the high clergy in Qom, the bazaaris, the Ahmadinejad loyalists, and the Larijani mafia.  The regime is riven by a war of all against all, especially as Khamenei’s health periodically worsens, and his foreign doctors perform their miracles to enable him to function.

The factions are fighting for power and wealth, and I would not be surprised to see other top officials killed or wounded in the weeks and months to come.

Yet another reason for the West to maintain or increase pressure on the Iranian tyrants, and support the oppressed people of that most unhappy land.

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Claudia Rosett: The Modesty of Our Veterans

Rick Richman: Syria and the Sucker’s Deal: John Kerry Pushes Another Transparent Lie

Bridget Johnson: Texas Lawmakers Ready for Fight to Overturn Fort Hood ‘Workplace Violence’ Label

Victor Davis Hanson: America’s Wilderness Years

Bryan Preston: Even the Pitiful Obamacare Enrollment Number the White House Will Report Will Be a Lie

News broke on Monday that maybe 50,000, tops, have enrolled in Obamacare. News broke later that that number may not be the number that the White House releases at the end of this week. The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff quotes an administration official who says that “enroll” will get a broad definition in the official numbers.

Monday

Michael Walsh: The Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party, Gangland, the Chief Justice and the Patient Deflection and Unaffordable Care Act

Bryan Preston: Early Numbers Suggest Tiny Enrollment for Obamacare

Ed Driscoll: Ponzi-palooza: Obama Versus Bernie Madoff

Andrew Klavan: Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Stephen Green: 2014: The Collapsing Obamaconomy

Michael Ledeen: What Happened in Geneva? What Does It Mean?

David P. Goldman: A Thought for Veterans Day: Praise for Preemptive War

Andrew Klavan: Why Leftists Are Taught that Conservatives Are Evil


Weekend

Ed Driscoll: Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

J. Christian Adams: Will Gov. Bob McDonnell Cost Mark Obenshain the Virginia AG Seat?

Kim Zigfeld: Putin Deserves a Dunce Cap for Russia’s Annual Report Card

Roger Kimball: Obama’s Republic of Lies

Frank J. Fleming: Why Republicans Are Absolutely, Completely, 100% at Fault for the Botched Obamacare Rollout

Frank’s comedic gifts are numerous. I always enjoy reading his satirical pieces — a very talented writer.

Rick Moran: White Guy Wins Election After Making Voters Think He’s Black

David Solway: Islamic Thugismo at Work

Jonathan Spyer: After the Pax Americana

Ion Mihai Pacepa: Decades Later, Still a Death Sentence for Dissidents

In the past five years, 6,284 people sentenced by the communists for, in one way or another, helping the United States and NATO to demolish the Soviet empire have asked to have their sentences canceled, but only three have succeeded—because of media pressure. More than 500,000 patriots killed or terrorized by the communists have yet to be rehabilitated.

Friday

Roger L. Simon: How Can We Possibly Trust Obama on Iran?

The good news is that the Iranians may be too fractious a society themselves to make a real deal (and then quietly go about building what weapons of mass destruction they desire the way the North Koreans have been able to do.) But I wouldn’t count on it. Remember Rouhani was one of Ayatollah Khamenei’s few approved candidates. In fact, the Iranians seem to rotate “moderates” (Khatami) and “hardliners” (Ahmadinejad) in order to manipulate outside pressures. I’m not sure which I prefer. The “hardliners” are more publicly noxious, but the “moderates” are probably more dangerous.

As important as Obamacare and other economics issues are, let’s hope Congress is paying very close attention to these Iran negotiations. A president who is becoming increasingly defensive with each passing day is likely to do something erratic and dangerous. We cannot let him. Otherwise it will certainly be “Israel alone.” Maybe it already is.

Stephen Kruisher: The Lightbringer Confirms What We’ve Known All Along: He’s Sorry

David P. Goldman: New York Is Just Fine — De Blasio Is Broken

Tom Blumer: ‘Zeke the Bleak’ at His Putrid Peak

Thursday and Wednesday

Andrew C. McCarthy: Amir Taheri Still Flush with Spring Fever

Bridget Johnson: Obama Tells Texas Donors He’s Fixin’ to Get GOP ‘Back in Functioning State’

John Rosenberg: Obama’s Second, and Continuing, Big Lie

David P. Goldman: Why Fiddler on the Roof Disgusts Me

I always learn so much from David’s pieces. Fascinating — I never knew about the changes made between Fiddler on the Roof and its source material.

Ron Radosh: The Triumph of the Left in New York City: How and Why De Blasio Won

Bill Straub: The Obamacare Fix-It Frenzy: Congress Seizes on Rollout Flop

Roger L. Simon: Liberalism, the Decline of an Illusion

Bryan Preston: CNN: As Bad As You May Think Obamacare’s Rollout Was, It Was Far Worse

Bridget Johnson: VIDEO: Sebelius Admits Felons Could Be Obamacare Navigators

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PJ Lifestyle Stories on the Home Page

Tuesday

Robert Spencer: Conan O’Brien Discovers: Muslim Polygamy Is No Joke

Monday

Paula Bolyard: 4 CNN Liberals Walk into a Bar… and Defend Gun Rights?

Me: So What’s Your Problem? Why Aren’t You a Republican Yet?

Walter Hudson: This Veterans Day, Don’t Call It Sacrifice

P. David Hornik: The Ten Worst Purveyors of Antisemitism Worldwide, #4: the BBC

Weekend

Kathy Shaidle: Dean Martin Roasts: Remembrance of Zings Past

Walter Hudson: To Know God, We Must First Confess Not Knowing Much

Theodore Dalrymple: Can Money Become Medicine?

Paula Bolyard: Compare and Contrast: Leno Interviewing Obama and Cruz

A very effective media dissection from Paula.

John Boot: 5 Reasons Why Thor Is a Second-Rate Superhero Franchise

Unfortunately the Boot is right. Sigh.

Walter Hudson: Tearing Down the Joneses: Fostering Envy Over Wealth Distribution

Walter does such a forthright job of explaining economic concepts in an accessible way.

Friday

P. David Hornik: The Ten Worst Purveyors of Antisemitism Worldwide, # 5: the Guardian

Becky Graebner: Richest Americans Are Going ‘Conservative’ with Car Purchases

Thursday and Wednesday

Stephen Green: Blockbuster’s a Dud

Kathy Shaidle: An Unlikely Canadian Hero’s Tale of Non-Violent Defiance

Rhonda Robinson: VIDEO: The Country Music Awards Parody ‘Obamacare by Morning’

Bonnie Ramthun: Battered Voter Syndrome

Chris Queen: The Miami Dolphins: A Soap Opera for Football Fans

pjlifestyle

New at PJ Lifestyle

Tuesday

Megan Fox: Public Library Director Emails Police to Have Me Investigated for Writing a Song about the 2nd Amendment

Megan’s reporting on the saga with the public library is incredible. We knew that they would try to demonize her, but this is just absurd. And don’t think this library director is an aberration — people with her ideology routinely get to the top of today’s library bureaucracies. The library field has been just as infiltrated and subverted by cultural Marxists as academia and elementary education.

Becky Graebner: Washington, D.C.’s ‘Super Zip Codes’

Kathy Shaidle: So I Guess I Have To Talk About Rob Ford, Huh?

The only story you need to read about the story of Toronto’s wildly popular mayor.

Monday

Stephen Kruiser: Common Core Slips Creepy Politics Into An English Lesson

Megan Fox: Orland Park Public Library Board Member Admits to Porn Problem in Internal Email…

Megan actually did FOIA requests of the library emails that mentioned her. The results are amazing.

Ron Radosh: Divided and United, Songs of the Civil War that Demand to be Heard Again and Again

Charlie Martin: A Veterans Day Bleg

Andrew Klavan: This Veterans Day, Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Weekend

Chris Queen: Judeo-Christian Themes in the Smashing Pumpkins’ Oceania,Part 7: Repentance

P. David Hornik: The Ten Worst Purveyors of Antisemitism Worldwide, #4: the BBC

Michael Lumish: Why I am Disgusted and Horrified

Susan L.M. Goldberg: White Chicks be Pimpin’ their Black Hos

Paula Bolyard: Right This Very Minute Someone Is Being Tortured

Charlie Martin: 13 Weeks: trans-gressions

Rhonda Robinson: Get Ready To Decorate With the ‘Spirit’ of Christmas Instead of Its Theme

Sarah Hoyt: How to Make Sure your Story Is Publishable

Megan Fox: Orland Park Public Library’s Spokesperson Admits to Report of Child Porn

Friday

Susan L.M. Goldberg: A Job Many Women Would Kill For

Megan Fox: Orland Park Public Library’s ‘Freedom Plaza’ Is Not So Free

Chris Queen: Rehabbing Karl Marx Yet Again

Sarah Hoyt and Charlie Martin’s Book Plug Friday: A Dual Publishing Strategy for Crazy People

Susan L.M. Goldberg: 75 Years Later, You Can’t Forget What You Don’t Know

Ed Driscoll: Who’s Afraid of Ender’s Game?

Thursday and Wednesday

Stephen Green: Drug War Depravity: From Traffic Stop to 8 Cavity Searches

Kathy Shaidle: Dean Martin Roasts: Remembrance of Zings Past

Bridget Johnson: Britney Spears Used as Somali Pirate Repellent

Walter Hudson: Does Graduate School Make People Statist?

Chris Queen: Dolphins’ Coaches Reportedly Told Richie Incongito To Toughen Up Jonathan Martin

Susan L.M. Goldberg: Useful Intellectuals: Framing Marx for the Next Generation

Becky Graebner: Debunking the Sorority and Fraternity Myth—It’s All ‘Greek’ to You

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New at PJ Tatler

Monday and Tuesday

Raymond Ibrahim Discusses ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ Charge Against Obama

Howard Nemerov: Gonzaga University Punishes Students for Defensive Gun Use

Myra Adams: Caption Contest Winner: Is George Washington Crying While Obama Apologizes About Obamacare?

Weekend and Friday

Rick Moran: Deadbeats to Prosper Under Obamacare

Rick: The One Sector of the Economy Where Job Creation is Booming

Rick: A Final Toast to Doolittle’s Raiders

Rick: Will the GOP’s ‘Keep Your Plan Act’ Save Obamacare?

Stephen Kruisher: Ombudsman Tells NPR Listeners to Stop Whining About Mara Liasson Being On FNC

Thursday and Wednesday

Howard Nemerov: Lessons from the Krick’s Korner Robbery

Matt Vespa: 10 Reasons the Better Man Lost in Virginia

Myra Adams: McAuliffe Topped Obama’s 2012 Share of Virginia’s Hispanic Vote — 66 to 64 Percent

From the PJ Tatler’s Editor Bryan Preston

Tuesday

HHS Now Begging People to Use Terribly Unsecure Healthcare.gov

Reporter Asks Carney: Won’t Keeping Obama’s Healthcare Promise Destroy Obamacare?

From the Minds Behind ‘Brosurance,’ Comes Ho-surance

Senate: Democrat Incumbent’s Lead Vanishes After Obamacare’s Rollout

Memo Warned of ‘Limitless’ Obamacare Security Problems, but CMS Security Chief Claims Ignorance

Tatling at CNN: ‘Voter ID Critics Proved Wrong’

Bill Clinton: Obama Should Honor His ‘Keep Your Plan’ Promise

Poll: Majority of Likely Voters Favor Repealing Obamacare

Obamacare Bureaucracy’s Definition of ‘Enroll’ Not the Same as the White House’s Definition of ‘Enroll’

Monday

Hateful, White Southern Partisan Wants Full Investigation into Obamacare’s Failures

Democrats Disapprove People’s Choice for Annapolis Mayor

John McCain: You Know, A Lot of People Want Me to Run for President Again

Dem. Rep. Grijalva: Republicans ‘Chip Away’ at Obamacare With Bills Forcing Obama to Keep His Promise

Atheists Now Setting up Their Own ‘Mega-Churches’

Politico Unashamed to be In Bed with Deep-Pocketed Leftwing Smear Artist

Antarctic Sea Ice Growing, Unexpectedly!

In Obama’s America, We’re all Pregnant, Have Stage Four Cancer, and Want a Sex Change

Friday

Howard Dean Says There’s Another Obamacare Crisis Coming. It’s Not the One You Think It Is.

Obama Says Obamacare is ‘Like having a really good product and the cash registers don’t work’

Did the Obamacare IT Chief ‘Retire’ for Doing the Right Thing?

Thursday and Wednesday

BREAKING: Democrat PAC Attempted to Breach Security, Trespass on a GOP Event at a Public School

Snarky TIME Cover Calls Chris Christie the ‘Elephant In The Room’

CBS: Yesterday’s ‘Spicy’ White House Meeting Was Just to Make Vulnerable Democrats Look Good

CNN’s Crossfire is a Ratings Misfire

Wendy Davis Tells Court: That Mean Newspaper Hurt My Brain!

Vulnerable Dems Rip Obamacare in Secret ‘Spicy’ White House Meeting

PolitiFact Rates Obama’s Newest Lie

Healthcare.gov’s Tech Chief Leaves

Video Flashback: HHS Secretary Sebelius Touts the Wonders of Healthcare.gov

Democrats’ Voter ID Theater Culminates with Act of Brave Defiance and Silly Self-Disenfranchisement, but Mostly Silly Self-Disenfranchisement

Pro-Abortion Filibusterer Wendy Davis: ‘I am pro-life’

Putin Regime Exiles Pussy Riot Rocker to Siberia

VIDEO — Sebelius Says Up is Down

VIDEO — Jon Stewart Rips Obama for Lying About Lying About Obamacare

Obama to Waste Time in Texas Urging Gov. Perry to do Something that He Cannot and Will Not Do

So, How Many Votes Did the Texas Voter ID Law ‘Suppress’?

From PJM’s Washington D.C. Editor Bridget Johnson

Monday and Tuesday

Kerry: U.S. Was ‘Very, Very Close, Extremely Close’ to Inking Deal with Iran

Former Lt. Governor Declares the GOP Dead in Montana

Chairman: Homeland Security Vacancies Show Obama ‘Not Taking National Security Seriously’

McDermott: Obamacare Outrage Part of Plot ‘All Fabricated to Destroy the Safety Net’

Patriot Act Author Tells EU Parliament That U.S. Needs to Reform Surveillance

Sanders: U.S. Needs to Declare ‘Planetary Crisis’ on Climate Change

Graham: 60 Minutes Retraction Won’t Affect Benghazi Holds

U.S. Sends Typhoon Aid, Kerry Injects His Own Drama Into Condolences

Veterans Day Marked with Legislative Pushes from Lawmakers, Administration

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Friday

OMB Issues 27-Page Report Assessing Shutdown Woe

Libertarian Party Leader Calls Allegation That Va. Candidate Was a Dem Plant an ‘Outright Lie’

Thursday and Wednesday

VIDEO: The Obama Truth-O-Meter

Conservative Rep. King Says Tea Party ‘Stronger in Some States and Weaker in Others’

Libertarian Party Lauds Sarvis Toll as Their Third-Best Gubernatorial Showing

Abortion Battle Unfolding in Senate Today Over Graham Bill

VIDEO: Pelosi Delivers Top 10 List on David Letterman

VIDEO: Sebelius Admits Felons Could Be Obamacare Navigators

Al Jazeera ‘Stone Cold Certain’ Arafat Poisoned with Polonium

Netanyahu Reminds Kerry That Iran Hasn’t Given Up the ‘Death to America’ Chants

Conn. Dem: ‘You’re Not Gonna Re-Order One-Sixth of the Economy Without Winners and Losers’

Harkin Declares America Liberated from ‘Crappy, Junk Policies’

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From PJM’s Breaking News Columnists

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From PJM’s Colordado Editor, Vodkapundit Stephen Green,

Tuesday

Read It and Weep

Your ObamaCare Fail of the Day

What Is Your Incarceration Status, Comrade?

Required Viewing

Google’s Big Oops

Fill it to the RIM — With $85 Million Dollars?

YouTube + Netflix = Half the Net

D’oh!

Monday

Guaranteed Charged

Your Second ObamaCare Fail of the Day

Posted Without Comment

Your ObamaCare Fail of the Day

News You Can Use

Tapped.

We’re from the Government and We’re Here to Help with ObamaCare

Required Reading

A Gentle Reminder

Get Off the Stump

Your Monday Morning Dose of Doom & Gloom

Friday

Friday Night Videos

But for the Grace of Zuckerberg Go I

Required Reading

Quote of the Day

There’s Very Little Time to Move to Yesses

The Incredible Shrinking Opportunities for Young People

Posted Without Comment

Partially Defatted Cooked Beef Fatty Tissue

These Aren’t the Policies You’re Looking For

Your ObamaCare WIN of the Day!

Thursday and Wednesday

And Guest Starring Tammy Bruce

Now That’s Chutzpah

All Aboard the Middle East Nuclear Arms Race

Another Fine Roost for Another Fine Chicken

Chickens, Home, Roost

Your Social Media Fail of the Day

News You Can Use

Blockbuster’s a Dud

Down the Hatch

Cops Gone Wild

Horrific. A stomach-churning story.

Today’s Pravda: It Is Only a Website

Ricepocalypse Now

Another iPad Victim

“It’s worse than you think.”

The Doctor Is Out

Where’s the Other People’s Money At?

The amazing thing about capitalism is that it can work on any scale. A continent-wide, resource rich country such as this one can grow from a few million farmers and merchants into an industrial superpower of a hundred million over the span of a century or so. Or a port and fishing village like Hong Kong can become a financial superpower.

Collectivism on the other hand requires a constantly-increasing pool of victims just to tread water, a problem admitted here by Mikulski even if her language is (ahem) a bit more generous.

Name! That! Pundit!

GOP Circular Firing Squad Fires

You Can’t Touch This

Your Best Idea for Bringing Integrity Back to Our Elections?

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From PJM’s San Jose Ed Driscoll

Tuesday

‘Hope is All Obamacare Has Left’

The Lost Decade

Monday

What Difference, At This Point, Does It Make?

Cracked.com Versus Cracked Actor

Present-Tense Barry

What a Difference a Decade Makes at the WaPo

All Midterms Are Now Nationalized

The More You Know

Ponzi-palooza: Obama Versus Bernie Madoff

Weekend and Friday

Trapped in TV Land

Always the Last to Know

The Revolution will not be Televised

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

UC Berkeley Bans Term ‘Illegal Immigrant’

Terra Incognito

Trailers from Hell

The Hole Truth

21st Pivoting Schizoid ‘Bam

Watching the Wheels Fall off the Axelrod

In Soviet America, Contract Walks Away From You!

Political Purveyors of Effectual Truthiness, Then and Now

Nobody Expects the Unexpectedly!

Thursday and Wednesday

The Silence of the Mad Men

Shot, Chaser, Hangover

Won’t Get Myzled Again

Barack to the Future: Mark Steyn on America Alone in 2006

Administration ‘Trains’ Journalists on How to Cover Obamacare

VCR Alert

Question Asked and Answered

Who’s Afraid of Ender’s Game?

Now is the time when we juxtapose, Small Dead Animals-style:

Upon learning in 1928 of T. S. Eliot’s conversion to Christianity, Virginia Woolf wrote to her sister:

I have had a most shameful and distressing interview with poor dear Tom Eliot, who may be called dead to us all from this day forward. He has become an Anglo-Catholic, believes in God and immortality, and goes to church. I was really shocked. A corpse would seem to me more credible than he is. I mean, there’s something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God.

Flash-forward to the present day…

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This post is a textbook example of Ed’s master juxtaposition abilities.

The Stench of Hell

The 1970s throughout America were a decade of hideous fashions, bloated underperforming automobiles, soaring crime, and rampant graffiti. But I think you could make a case that unless you lived in the American Northeast in the 1970s, you couldn’t appreciate just how ugly the decade truly was. In South Jersey, where I grew up, even the trains that went through your town had a newfound putrescent decay and squalor.

Pardon the Sheldon Cooper-esque railroad-themed flashback to follow, but honest, I do have a point with this. In 1968, transportation behemoths the New York Central System and the Pennsylvania Railroad merged, forming the Penn Central. The paint scheme the newly formed railroad chose for its locomotives was a basic black, with a huge misshapen modernist-inspired “Mating Worms” PC logo and block sans-serif typeface underneath. The real problems began in 1970, when the railroad declared bankruptcy, and the expense of cleaning and maintaining the equipment was reduced to a low priority indeed.

Now Playing on Home Barack Office

Barack Wilson Obama

It’s Deja Malaise All Over Again

 

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Get to Know Everyone on the #ReadEverythingTheyWrite List!

19 of My Favorite Writers And Most Important Intellectual Influences:

6 On Foreign Policy:

  1. Monday, August 5: ‘War, and Preparation for War, Are the Normal Conditions of Mankind, While Peace Is Extremely Rare.’ – Michael Ledeen
  2. Tuesday, August 6 on Andrew C. McCarthyMuslim Brotherhood Operatives Have Infiltrated America’s Political and Cultural Institutions to Conquer Us from Within
  3. Wednesday, August 7 on Barry RubinFirst We Define Anti-Americanism, Then We Crush It Again Even Harder
  4. Thursday, August 8 on Claudia RosettThe United Nations is a Corrupt Failure That Does Not Unite Nations
  5. Friday, August 9 on David P. GoldmanNo to Corporate Neoconservatism, No to Paleo-Libertarian Anarchism, Yes to Augustinian Realism
  6. Tuesday, August 13 on Victor Davis HansonThe Price We Pay for Our Ignorance of Military History Is Dead Americans

4 On Culture:

  1. Wednesday, August 14: 3 Weapons to Win the Culture War Courtesy of Roger Kimball
  2. Monday, August 19: How to End the Fake Fight Between Social Conservatives and Libertarians With Andrew Klavan’s Wonderful Writing
  3. Wednesday, August 21: Michael Walsh Names the Founder of the Criminal Organization Destroying America for Two Centuries…
  4. Sunday, August 24: The Most Valuable Writing Advice Roger L. Simon Gave Me…

5 On History:

  1. Tuesday, August 27: Ron Radosh: The Most Valuable Historian Exposing Marxism’s Long War Against America
  2. Thursday, September 5 on Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai PacepaHow the Soviets Seeded Antisemitism Around the World and the Price We Pay with Syria Today
  3. Wednesday, September 11 on James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus and their essential book America 3.0On 9/11 and Benghazi’s Anniversary, We End Conservative Pessimism and Right-Wing Apocalypticism
  4. Tuesday, October 9 on Robert Spencer’s Vital Role in Creating Conservatism 3.0

3 On New Media:

  1. Wednesday, October 16 on Prager University‘There’s Nothing Just About Nature. Nature Is Only About Survival.’
  2. Tuesday, October 22: Ed Driscoll: New Media Master and Cultural Conquistador
  3. Tuesday, November 5: 4 Blogging Weapons I Stole from Vodkapundit Stephen Green

1 On Talk Radio (beginning a ranking of the best hosts working today):

  1. Wednesday, October 30 on Dennis PragerThe 21 Most Evil News Stories from October

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