tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post5272764205965425460..comments2024-03-28T00:02:35.850-05:00Comments on driftglass: Seven Year Agodriftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-5880301071010352902014-02-15T17:42:15.549-06:002014-02-15T17:42:15.549-06:00I have enjoyed many a Laphraoig over the years. I...I have enjoyed many a Laphraoig over the years. It has a distinctly Bandaid-steeped-in-Bactine bite to it, but sometimes that it just what the moment calls fordriftglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-91810493123043695542014-02-15T16:50:30.676-06:002014-02-15T16:50:30.676-06:00I'm glad to see you enjoy a good scotch, Drift...I'm glad to see you enjoy a good scotch, Driftglass, but Oban is a second fiddle to Laphraoig 10 year.<br /><br />-Ric from the land of Mick Dodge.<br />-longtime listener, first time caller.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-84455732114958753242014-02-07T11:21:44.691-06:002014-02-07T11:21:44.691-06:00Sorry, Heinlein reference. Sorry, Heinlein reference. Lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05429309964648275918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-59846813676531356332014-02-07T10:46:41.023-06:002014-02-07T10:46:41.023-06:00John - Yes, I wasn't disagreeing, just speakin...John - Yes, I wasn't disagreeing, just speaking to a separate phenomenon. It's the existence of both together that's a problem. If the terrified pre-middle class and pre-intelligentsia had a critical consciousness, there might be an actual force for change (toward reduced returns to capital, reduced labor and consumption, sound mechanisms for distribution of social wealth). Instead it will just be folks threatened for their own and their families' means of stable existence and swinging selfishly at all the wrong targets including each other.<br /><br />Lawrence - Afraid I'm not following.casimirnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-18720668729288724302014-02-06T21:18:19.069-06:002014-02-06T21:18:19.069-06:00Actually, I think that Casimir and I would agree o...Actually, I think that Casimir and I would agree on most things. <br /><br />Just a little side thought. The students of Duke are not under threat like students at less elite institutions. There is really nothing in it for them to truly challenge the social order. And, in fact, if they do not, the potential rewards are great. <br /><br />If they do challenge the social order, they tend to engage in academic exercises that are really more careerist than revolutionary. <br /><br />Me, I learned my lesson long ago not to tip the boat too much, so I'm no one to criticize others. <br /><br />But what I was trying to convey was the great insecurity of hopelessness of many college students these days at less elite institutions. They're going into debt to go to school; yet there aren't a lot of good jobs out there because the austerity chorus is working its magic. <br /><br />I think that this is a fairly explosive situation, and the outcome could be very ugly. <br /><br />Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05630222099564418320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-30807710719711097592014-02-06T19:22:22.631-06:002014-02-06T19:22:22.631-06:00@ casimir
Wouldn't you rather describe your sp...@ casimir<br />Wouldn't you rather describe your spouse as a professor of History and Moral Philosophy, even if it is a stretch?Lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05429309964648275918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-82086293774294038402014-02-06T18:14:33.270-06:002014-02-06T18:14:33.270-06:00Mr DG, righteously well-turned prose, as usual.
A...Mr DG, righteously well-turned prose, as usual.<br /><br />A slightly different take on Mr Brooks's subjects, from that offered by John. One of the very most foundational elements of those who hire Mr Brooks to run their interference is to produce adults who can serve as factors of production but who are incapable of critical thought, oblivious to how power and coercion move through a society, vacant as to history, and indeed are never even visited by the thought that there is such a thing as civic society or a responsibility to participate in it in a factually and morally thoughtful way. As my spouse - a university professor of moral and political philosophy - would confirm, even and especially the brightest go thru and emerge from our educational system without the slightest capacity to resist the imposed dimensions of the tiny Overton window created by BSDI/false equivalence, conservative/liberal as endpoints on the scale, and the message of Republican legitimacy in which the corporate media saturate us all. And so Mr Brooks then uses these heads, so capably emptied by his paymasters, as evidence for the obvious good sense of the corporate-pleasing "middle."casimirnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-75870157500177446122014-02-06T17:15:31.350-06:002014-02-06T17:15:31.350-06:00You know, I teach college students all the time.
...You know, I teach college students all the time. <br /><br />First thing to know is that Duke students are a pretty rarified bunch. Students at public community colleges outnumber students at elite colleges like Duke something like five to one. If you throw in students at all public colleges, you get a figure of something like eight or ten to one. What Duke students think is pretty unimportant, and it is indicative of Brooks' pathology that he magnifies the importance of elite students' mindsets. <br /><br />I teach at a big public research university. The students I meet are often terrified and hopeless. Among the more inquisitive that terror and hopelessness can turn into a smoldering anger. In my opinion, angry students do not always have a clear idea of who to be angry at, but it's not a state of mind that leads them to the calm center, believe me.<br /><br /> Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05630222099564418320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-56615284789663157812014-02-06T15:46:15.661-06:002014-02-06T15:46:15.661-06:00Brooks found some Yale undergrads who like the No ...Brooks found some Yale undergrads who like the No Labels flavor Kool Aid? Color me surprised. Did Rand Paul get the same vibe at Howard? The Right as a corpse at Democracy's picnic, now that calls for a Weekend At Bernie's photoshop.Lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05429309964648275918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-36568107013412354882014-02-06T13:42:59.639-06:002014-02-06T13:42:59.639-06:00Yes, that 30% are a dead loss.
But thanks to the ...Yes, that 30% are a dead loss.<br /><br />But thanks to the structure of the Constitution, which gives states with more cows than people (h/t Gene Lyons), which are dominated by 30%ers, equal representation in the Senate, and disproportionately high representation in the Electoral College, our kinda-sorta-maybe democracy has an enduring bias in favor of 30%erism--even <i>before</i> we get to the shameless gerrymandering of the House.<br /><br />How do you propose to get around that?Monster from the Idnoreply@blogger.com