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Reason Magazine - Hit & Run (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
The 19th century American writer Henry Adams said the descent of American presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant was enough to discredit the theory of evolution. And as Steve Chapman writes, the same could be said of the pantheon of conservative political heroes, which in the last half-century has gone from Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan to Sarah Palin.
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London, City, Summer? (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
On Saturday night we went back to the Barbican, this time to see the National Theatre of Scotland's co-production with New York based theater company TEAM of Architecting . Architecting is a musical, multi-media time-bending epic peopled with Scarlett O'Hara pageant contests and anarchistic architects. It rockets from the American Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction to a desolate bar in post-Katrina...
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RealClearPolitics (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
The 19th century American writer Henry Adams said the descent of American presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant was enough to discredit the theory of evolution. The same could be said of the pantheon of conservative political heroes, which in the last half-century has gone from Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan to Sarah Palin. That refutation may be agreeable to Palin, who doesn't put...
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The Corner (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
In the crowded field of the founders' revival, the historian I read most often is Joseph Ellis, who combines academic chops and readability. Some old books are still best. Clinton Rossiter's 1787: The Grand Convention is the book I would recommend on the Constitutional Convention; Carl Van Doren's Benjamin Franklin is my favorite biography of Ben. History doesn't get any better than Henry Adams's...
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Scratches (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
One thing about Veterans' Day events is that one's brothers and sisters come out of their silence and make some connection. Today, for example, I learnt that Wayne Burton, President of North Shore Community College, served in the Brown water navy at the same time as Sen. John Kerry; indeed close enough to see Kerry earn his Bronze Star. This piece of the Vietnam-era navy interests me greatly. Had I...
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This14U (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts - Henry Adams . Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire - William Yeats . The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been - Alan Ashley-Pitt . What is a weed? A weed is a...
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Growing Old Disgracefully (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Welcome to the November 5, 2009 edition of carnival of the vanities. Greg Laden presents The Irony of Henry Adams: The most misunderstood quote evah! : Greg Laden’s Blog posted at Greg Laden’s Blog . Madeleine Begun Kane presents A Limerick For Traitor Joe posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness . FMF presents The Difference Between the Wealthy and Everyone Else posted at Free Money...
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Christian quoter (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.-Henry Brooks Adams "The Education of Henry Adams" There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence. Henry Brooks Adams (1838 -; 1918) American writer A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Brooks Adams "The Education of...
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Christian quoter (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
More than any other county in England, Yorkshire retained a sort of social independence of London. Scotland itself was hardly more distinct... To a certain degree, evident enough to Yorkshiremen, Yorkshire was not English--or was all England, as they might choose to express it. --Henry Adams, 1906
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Curbed (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
As Friends of the High Line learned very early in the game, it pays to have celebrities (Ed Norton!) and well-heeled sophisticates (Barry Diller!) on your side when it comes to against-all-odds preservation efforts. And so, the burgeoning campaign to landmark the gigantic and very awesome McKim, Mead & White IRT Powerhouse (the full-block Hell's Kitchen beauty between 58th and 59th Streets along...
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A Blog Around The Clock (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
Follow me on Twitter to get these, and more, in something closer to Real Time (all my tweets are also imported into FriendFeed where they are much more easy to search and comment on, as well as into my Facebook wall where they are seen by quite a different set of people): Defending Science Isn't Always Pretty and When critics disagree with me, I'm a Pharma Shill. When critics disagree with a woman,...
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Greg Laden's Blog (Free subscription) | 10/27/2009
I just received a mass emailing from Julia's high school, in the name of the principal. Routine business. At the end of the missive was this quote: A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. What does this quote mean to you? If you don't know its context, you may be in for a surprise. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...
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The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 10/22/2009
Another trip to the fabulous River House overlooking the East River.
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The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
How did I, an unknown from the provinces, black and gay, first find myself at lofty River House facing the East River?
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The Classic Liberal Blog (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
In “clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,” I quoted Robert Higgs as follows: Henry Adams observed that “politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” This marshalling of hatreds is not the whole of politics, to be sure, but it is an essential element. Thus, [...]