Latest Parries
December 2012
Some Consumer Affairs
I’ve tried to enjoy schlepping water, thinking that it serves to keep us to some human roots.
April 2012
From Nokia N95 to iPhone 4S
Annoyances and upsets with the iPhone 4S have been more than offset by its screen, the silkiness of its surfaces, the camera, and the third-party market for both software and hardware.
February 2012
2001: A Space Odyssey: Dry, Juicy, Linear, Luminous
After they finished watching the Bond movies, I figured the next series John Gruber and Dan Benjamin would discuss on The Talk Show would be Stanley Kubrick’s oeuvre. But Gruber refused — too personal for podcasting, he said. Disappointed, I rewatched 2001.
January 2012
A Scheme of a Number of Friends
Instead of acknowledging the wisdom of leading from behind, the Right jumped on the Obama administration’s handling of Libya as yet another example of at best incompetence. They lost me there.
October 2011
The Mouse and the Cantilever
Steve Jobs we lost at the age of 56; when Frank Lloyd Wright reached that age it was still only 1923, the time of merely his second comeback with Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel.
March 2010
Friendship is for Weenies
It’s amazing, given the adulation he enjoyed elsewhere, that the Israeli public knew from the start not to trust this US President.
Before the Setup
Nobody from usesthis.com has asked me what my setup us, nor is likely to anytime soon. So I’m just going to mouth off here about it. But first, some background.
February 2010
Walter Russell Mead steps gingerly into the Wieseltier/Sullivan imbroglio
On the Leon Wieseltier/Andrew Sullivan spat, Walter Russell Mead seems to want to have his strudel and eat it too.
October 2009
My Hope: Obama’s Change
Defeat in the Olympics bid may focus the mind in the Oval Office where it should be: Afghanistan.
July 2009
At Modi’in Mall
There’s nothing else around here except empty desolate pretty hills. The Israel Trail passes by a bit to the west. It’s a hot July Wednesday morning. Things are reasonably busy. The shops are mostly franchises, almost all homegrown — Super-Pharm, Aroma, Tzomet Sfarim, Cup O’ Joe’s, LaMetayel, Mega, Fox, Castro, H&O.
W e saw great history tonight as the two presidential candidates debated, a black man and white. Republicans have misunderestimated Obama’s television presence. Even if during the campaign he’s stumbled and stuttered — and thanks to our widening bandwidth we get to hear these now — this was the big one, and he came off a 21st century Brat Packer. The grey tinges of dignity around his temples offset the boyish small-eared head.
McCain meanwhile seemed so outraged to have to debate this shiny bullshit artist that he got flustered and was nervous, his jokes falling flat. Neither man seemed to reach the audience in the auditorium. Obama occasionally looked into the camera directly to give an impassioned something but even he seemed likeably embarrassed by the hokiness.
McCain, veering from his awkward panned lines, occasionally rose to good direct speech, stuff that could only come from his well-nigh unmatched experience, such as saying about the veterans that they know he’ll “take care of them.” Given who he is, nothing more need be said; Obama simply can’t match that.
Regarding Israel, Obama managed to muster “stalwart ally”, whereas McCain regards the Iran threat through the prism of the Holocaust, making it clear that Never Again is not just American policy, it’s fibre.
McCain pulled through but he’d better improve, better get relaxed. His voice quivered at inappropriate times. We can forgive some stagefright at such a time, but gotta getta grip. If not now, when?
It’s still either man’s race. Both confirmed who they are. I think the financial crisis leans things over to McCain: there’s been a little too much risky high-flying lately, and between these two it’s McCain, despite what appears to be impetuosity, who’s the down-to-earth choice.
Now to catch the memes. First stop, Drudge?
Previously
Encounter at Wetherspoone’s
Nextly
Ebullience, Please