For instance
Read the comments on my “Note to the Blogoshere” and call my attention, please, to any that come close to Mark Steyn level. They’re an embarrassment to the conservative cause. You’ve proven my point about self righteous preaching to the choir lowering the level of discourse in the blogosphere. Thank you.
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Random House, September 2006
Electrifying. A spectacular book.
—Cynthia Ozick
…a thrilling personal confrontation…The Shakespeare Wars comes to us in waves of new revelations
—Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate
Acclaimed journalist Ron Rosenbaum wrestles with the weightiest issues of Shakespeare studies in a down-to-earth manner that readers will applaud.
—Publisher’s Weekly
Cultural journalism of the highest order.
—Kirkus Reviews
Timely not least for the economy and clarity with which he outlines the casus belli…with Rosenbaum’s dispatches we now have a better sense of what the fuss is about.
—John Sutherland, The Financial Times
A remarkable journey by one of the most original journalists and writers of our time.
—David Remnick
A work of importance and fascination.
—George Steiner, the [U.K.] Observer
A provacative work of cultural history that is as compelling as it is thoughtful, as readable as it is smart..Mr. Rosenbaum has made an important contribution to our understanding not just of Hitler, but of the cultural processes by which we try to come to terms with history as well... He has written an exciting, lucid book.
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Intriguing, thought provoking and intelligent.
—Ian Kershaw in The Guardian [U.k.]
Brilliant...restlessly probing and deeply intelligent.
—Lance Morrow, Time
In Explaining Hitler, profound historical questions spring urgently and hauntingly to life.
—Sam Tanenhaus
Cultural criticism served up as riveting narrative history
—Marc Fisher The Washington Post
Ron Rosenbaum is one of the great masters of the metaphysical detective story, a nonfiction writer in the spirit of Borges, Nabokov and Poe.
—Errol Morris (director of The Fog of War)
Few journalists inspire the kind of cult following that Rosenbaum has
—Scott McLemee Newsday
I plan on hanging Ron Rosenbaum’s ‘marriage proposal’ [column] in a prominent place. Should my husband begin to take me for granted, he will be reminded that I am not without options.
—Rosanne Cash
You made me look like a f_____g lunatic.
—Oliver Stone
ALSO AVAILABLE (an anthology of others’ work): Those Who Forget the Past: The Question of Anti-Semitism
Bi-weekly Spectator columnist at Slate
Poor Ron. You must have had a hard morning getting this piece up. Congratulate yourself on your productivity. You have been a paragon of wit and erudition.
Something bracing poured out of a tumbler ought to relive the stress and reward the effort.
Ron, its usually best to just ignore or ridicule (for your own amusement) the trolls on both sides.
Then again not every comment that disagrees and evicts an emotional response is a troll.
Just stay classy and apologize only when you are wrong and you’ll do fine.
On this blog the comments are usually wittier and more intelligent than the posts.
I doubt you could find a liberal commentator, professional or blogger, equal to Steyn’s wit.
I can’t think of one, can you?
You’ve got, what, Maureen Dowd? Golf clap all round.
I agree that idiots are difficult to be around. On the other hand, Mark Steyn is a genius, and by definition, there are few of them anywhere. Have you read his columns on music and Frank Sinatra, etc.?
Anyway, I hope you are feeling better now. And I still think you gave the Poison Kitchen short-shrift in your “Explaining Hitler.” (and now I duck under my desk…)
Oh and change your picture. You look kind of mousy with your head down. Look at the camera or at least on the same horizontal level and either smile or look determined.
the trouble with the ‘net is that it fosters an odd kind of sociability. This can be interesting, fun, or just nasty, as Ron has discovered on this blog. Ron has an ability/talent to ‘connect’ with his readers, though, one which is not that common. Maybe that is the downside of his current anger at the nasty folk who have left nasty remarks.
I would say that I totally disagree with “e”: the photo Ron uses is quite a nice one. He looks thoughtful and even good looking.
Mark Steyn good in small doses. His Broadway book is superb. Rob Long very funny, lighthearted. Florence King, a libertarian lesbian, is dry and old school chuckling. At “The New Criterion”, with the ascension of Kimball and Panero, everything is constipated. Chris Buckley, like Dave Barry and Christopher Guest, is just a mimesis of humor, not the real thing. P.J. O’Rourke, now that he has anal cancer, is bearing up with laughter. Matt Labash of “The Weekly Standard” is ribald and a thigh slapper.Generally, the right is pretty humorless, vis. Monica Crowley on the Media Institute Awards (now in rotation on CSPAN) beating Matthews/Olbermann like a wet blanket. On the left, Gail Collins and Dowd are just puerile, really embarassing. In general, the left has no other humorists, because “offending somebody” is worse than murder. Mort Sahl, Tom Lehrer, Lenny Bruce have no successors.
“Generally, the right is pretty humorless, vis.”
Thank you for the unintentional compliment. The so-called right believes that humor is a secondary value. Style over substance should never be one’s primary goal. The individuals associated with the Left often seem overly concerned with being witty and charming.
You’ve proven my point about self righteous preaching to the choir lowering the level of discourse in the blogosphere. Thank you.
Gosh, isn’t that just the cleverest put-down/comeback imaginable?
Ron, charlie finch — Try defending your candidate, if you can, for a change. With real arguments and specifics, instead of the usual, dreamy “He’s so smart and special. Like George Washington, you know. Oh when will he take on that peculiar exalted mantle?”
I really do think you are picking these fights because you can’t talk about Obama any more.
Read the comments on my “Note to the Blogoshere” and call my attention, please, to any that come close to Mark Steyn level.
I thought I got off a good one earlier, possibly worthy of Mark Steyn, when I responded to charlie’s mind-numbing claim:
Obama must seize this peculiar, exalted mantle, and how he shall do it is beyond my powers of imagination.
With:
For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4M9Tp6c0bs
Well … I liked it, and so did another commenter.
However, read all the topics that Ron Rosenbaum has ever posted at PJM and find any that come close to the Mark Steyn level.
Meanwhile Ron is reduced to complaining about spelling errors in the post of a commenter that he doesn’t like and calls her a Stalinist.
Ron, you’re playing a losing game here. The way you win is by posting smart new stuff and ignoring the commenters you don’t like.
Welcome back.
I like McCain alot, although an Army pal of mine in Baghdad said he was a real prima donna on his visits, but I supported Obama, who was masterful on “60 Minutes” last night. The guy has brains and class and has to hang around with alot of nutjobs like Reid and Pelosi, so let’s give him a chance, OK? He has the makings of one of the alltime greats.
The guy has brains and class and has to hang around with alot of nutjobs like Reid and Pelosi, so let’s give him a chance, OK? He has the makings of one of the alltime greats.
charlie — Ok. Back that up with specifics.
You and Ron make no attempt to do so. You just make flat pronouncements about Obama’s greatness and wonderfulness and smartness and that’s it.
To me Obama is an actor who knows the craft to convey those impressions. It is a kind of brilliance and actors like Martin Sheen and Kevin Costner have that too and it is no small gift.
But it is not to be mistaken for real intelligence, real knowledge, and real accomplishments.
Barack Obama is a fraud on those levels.
I could go on for dozens of posts on how poorly qualified and illiterate Obama is when it comes to the requirements of his job.
Just this past week we find Obama unable to pronounce “Orion” properly and another gem of his inability to function without his teleprompter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5dY3vVoZ0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbeltwayblips.dailyradar.com%2Fvideo%2Fobama_gets_lost_reading_his_teleprompter_teleprompter%2F&feature=player_embedded .
Obama is a fraud. Smart people like you and Ron Rosenbaum were deceived by him. The whole country is going to pay a terrible price for Obama’s ineptitude and grandiosity, and the gullibility of people like you and Ron.
Yet all you can say is that Obama has “brains and class” and declare that he was “masterful” on 60 Minutes.
Here’s a solid deconstruction of Obama’s 60 Minutes performance: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama%E2%80%99s-amateur-hour-on-sixty-minutes/.
Rebut that.