James Poulos

Be sure to tune in tonight to catch my friend and friend of this site Matthew B. Crawford on the Colbert Report . He’ll be talking about surly men, the need for speed, and his great book, Shop Class as Soulcraft . Hopefully he’ll also refer to himself as “the anti-Michael . . . . Continue Reading »

Teaching by PowerPoint is out . . . . . . and teaching by Twitter is in. . . . . Continue Reading »

Freddie responds to my tweet on Iran, solidarity, and fashion: I could imagine that James’s refusal to show solidarity with the protesters (or at least his discomfort in the same) is the product of apathy or fear of the other. I think, applied generally and not specifically, that’s a . . . . Continue Reading »

Steve Sailer suggests that booze works wonders: Perhaps alcohol enables one individual to display a wider range of personalities than can be achieved through solely genetic means, thus allowing personalities to evolve farther in directions suitable for making a living, while still allowing people . . . . Continue Reading »

If Andrew can do it, so can I. Except these are all my tweets — Test of new era: clustered riot police having rendered physically mass politics impossible, ‘cloud’ politics succeeds Thought: above all, solidarity with the Iranian opposition has been *inspired* (not justified) by . . . . Continue Reading »

A.O. Scott on the latest Woody Allen film: [ . . . ] Mr. Allen’s imagination has returned to Manhattan after that invigorating European sojourn afflicted by an extreme case of jet lag. In spite of a few up-to-date references — to Barack Obama, red states and gay people, for instance . . . . Continue Reading »

1. I like the Iranian reformers more than I like the mass politics of solidarity by symbolism. 2. Imitating the right things for a people to say or do does not make those things the right ones for a President to do. 3. If Iran really has imported 5,000 Hezbollah enforcers, a more robust official US . . . . Continue Reading »

I’ve said elsewhere that our vision of politics is being corrupted by a well-meaning but misguided epistemology of compassion: increasingly, we consider the person or group demanding a right to be the most trustworthy source of information about whether they deserve it. Anyone aggrieved, we . . . . Continue Reading »

It is not clear why a chunk of the blue-collar working base has swung almost overnight from Left to Right, but clearly we are seeing the delayed detonation of two political time-bombs: rising unemployment and the growth of immigrant enclaves that resist assimilation. — The Telegraph I am . . . . Continue Reading »

And them , too: When dining out Saturday night at a no-star bistro, La Fontaine de Mars , the presidential party was served water, Coke and table wine to accompany foie gras, lamb and steak with shallots, and paid for meals “like any client,” said owner Jacques Boudon. “It’s . . . . Continue Reading »