The close, unholy, and corrupt relationship between Wall Street and Capitol Hill isn’t really news any more. And so inured have our sensibilities become to the giant, rigged con-game that is today’s financial-political system, that exposure to yet another one of its details fails to induce any suitably condemnatory reaction. Still, that said, when aContinue reading “How Low Can You Go? The Market for Regulatory Fees”
Category Archives: Politics
Nietzsche on CEOs And Insider Trading
CEO hagiography has a long and well-established tradition in our time. Despite the–sometimes really well-written–mountains of evidence to suggest that they do little to deserve the size of their pay packets–which grow ever more obscene and disconnected from reality, and despite a nagging feeling that especially in the world of modern finance, a CEO’s successContinue reading “Nietzsche on CEOs And Insider Trading”
Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings The Blues”
This past weekend’s viewing pleasures included a long-standing, and much-awaited, resident of my movie queue: Nina Paley‘s 2008 graphically and musically eclectic reworking of the Indian epic Ramayana, Sita Sings The Blues. The movie incorporates four elements: a reworking of the traditional narrative of the Ramayana; a Mystery Science Theater-like commentary on the Ramayana carriedContinue reading “Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings The Blues””
Newt Gingrich Extends The Republican Primaries: Hallelujah!
Like wildfire, news of Newt ‘The Philandering Professor’ Gingrich’s victory in the South Carolina primary has spread through the arid grasslands of the American political landscape, bringing relief to those of us who are still grumpily and bitterly kvetching about being denied Sarah Palin’s candidacy in this election year (Mixed metaphors are called for whenContinue reading “Newt Gingrich Extends The Republican Primaries: Hallelujah!”
Occupy Wall Street And The Police: Why So Estranged?
Last year, as OWS kicked off, and as New York’s Finest (and later California’s) began their usual heavy-handed crackdown on any dissent that might threaten the ruling classes, I was struck by the absurdity of it all. Once again, the plutocratic class had found a sub-class of workers–underpaid and overworked–who ostensibly should have been inContinue reading “Occupy Wall Street And The Police: Why So Estranged?”
Fiction, Non-Fiction, Essays, Posterity
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post disagreeing with Katha Pollitt’s claim that (roughly), Even the best non-fiction writers only get read by future generations if they are lucky enough to have written some quality best-selling fiction. Pollitt had referred to “columnists and essayists and book reviewers” in her original post, but inContinue reading “Fiction, Non-Fiction, Essays, Posterity”
Essays And Expiry Dates
My post yesterday on reportage and war porn, in which I quoted from a 1999 essay by Sebastian Junger, prompted a thought related to my December post on fiction and non-fiction and writing for posterity: How well do reportage-style essays hold up to the demands of time? (I ask this question as someone who, havingContinue reading “Essays And Expiry Dates”
Sebastian Junger, AK-47 Bullets, and War Porn
Reporters on war’s frontlines often produce great investigative journalism (this was truer in the days before embedded reporters.) They also, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes not, produce “war porn,” writing that vividly, graphically, sometimes almost joyfully, details the carnage of war and weaponry, of organized violence, and the men who live and die by its rules. TheContinue reading “Sebastian Junger, AK-47 Bullets, and War Porn”
Katha Pollitt, George Orwell, Essayists and Posterity
For a couple of days now, Katha Pollitt’s obit/remembrance of Christopher Hitchens has been making the rounds to near-universal adulation. For good reasons; the piece is well worth a read, especially as it highlights aspects of Hitchens’ writing and personality that few have seen fit to focus on (especially not by his drinking buddies, whoseContinue reading “Katha Pollitt, George Orwell, Essayists and Posterity”
Nietzsche, Henry Moseley, and Conscript Armies
Years ago, as a schoolboy, I read Isaac Asimov on the evolution of the periodic table from Dmitri Mendeleev’s relative atomic mass version to Henry Moseley’s atomic number version. At the end of the essay, after describing Moseley’s contributions to devising the modern form of the periodic table of the elements, Asimov wistfully noted Moseley’sContinue reading “Nietzsche, Henry Moseley, and Conscript Armies”
Samir Chopra 