There are entire genres of art that have self-destructed in the last hundred years — become drained of vitality, driven their audiences away to the point where they become nothing more than museum exhibits or hobby-horses for snobs and antiquarians. The three most obvious examples are painting, the literary novel and classical music. After about… Continue reading Deadly Genius and the Back-To-Zero Problem
Month: September 2004
The Art of Science
One of my earliest blog essays (Terror Becomes Bad Art) was about Luke Helder, the pipe-bombing “artist” who created a brief scare back in 2002. Arguably more disturbing than Helder’s “art” was the fact that he genuinely thought it was art, because none of the supposed artists or arts educators he was in contact with… Continue reading The Art of Science
What Did Dan Rather Know, And When Did He Know It?
Dan Rather’s just-released statement just begs to be fisked: Last week, amid increasing questions about the authenticity of documents used in support of a 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY story about President Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard, CBS News vowed to re-examine the documents in question—and their source—vigorously. And we promised that we would… Continue reading What Did Dan Rather Know, And When Did He Know It?
MSM Loses its Power to Swing Elections
One of the most notorious lines of the 2004 campaign season came to us in Mid-July when Evan Thomas, the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, said: “Let’s talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards – I’m talking about… Continue reading MSM Loses its Power to Swing Elections
Top Ten Reasons I’m Neither a Liberal Nor a Conservative:
I’m reposting this screed from 2002 because it’s no longer visible on the Web, and in the near future I expect to post some things that will get me accused of right-wing bias. Top Ten Reasons I’m Not A (Left-)Liberal: Gun control. Liberals are completely wrong about this. A fair number of them know better,… Continue reading Top Ten Reasons I’m Neither a Liberal Nor a Conservative:
CBS and SCO Charge: Bush stole Unix!
OREM, UTAH — In a startling and unexpected joint press conference, CBS and SCO, Inc. charged today that President George W. Bush had conspired with IBM to steal Unix code while Linus Torvalds was AWOL from the Finnish army. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the podium, Dan Rather and Darl McBride flourished what they said was documentary… Continue reading CBS and SCO Charge: Bush stole Unix!