Taki's Daily Blog
Friedrich Nietzsche observed, “it requires more genius to spend than to acquire"—making money being a question of diligence and cunning, wasting it a matter of taste. When the great philosopher wrote these words, he was actually concerned with the pervasiveness of the ascetic ideal among the capitalist elite: “The most industriousness of all ages—ours—does not know how to make anything of … [Read More]
I’ve never been one for ruthless consistency. I learned young the fine art of emotional doublethink, from the experience of being at one and the same time: An orthodox Catholic who mentally assented to official Church teaching on sexuality, according to its 1917 formulation in the old Catholic Encyclopedia. A teenage boy. You needn’t read James Joyce to understand the game … [Read More]
My Southern suspicion that New England is full of crazy people gained another exhibit for the prosecution last week. The “Parade of Horribles” in Beverly, Mass., a Fourth of July tradition of grotesquerie that is exactly what it sounds like, featured several floats mocking the Gloucester “pregnancy boom” in which seventeen girls at one high school decided that sixteen was an … [Read More]
I reported to registration to receive my official totebag, T shirt, and condoms. In the bustle, I was only able to grab three packs, but luckily, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and NARAL were handing out prophylactics in the display area (unfortunately labeled “Screw the Drug War”). The Campus Progress National Conference had begun. Campus Progress is the Left’s answer … [Read More]
One probably shouldn’t look to the New York Times for analysis of the ongoing Death of the West; however, Russell Shorto’s latest article in the Magazine, “No Babies?” is worth considering, if only because it’s one of the more interesting—and interestingly wrong—Left-liberal responses to the European birth dearth. Quoting Hans-Peter Kohler of University of Pennsylvania, Shorto opines, ‘high fertility was associated … [Read More]
Summer is here! Therefore, rich New Yorkers are going out to the Hamptons to compete for status. One of the many ways they do so is of course to build big and expensive houses. In the past, competition among the super-rich has inspired America’s most distinctive architectural styles--for example, the famous ”Shingle Style” that became popular in the late 19th century. … [Read More]
I’m not a great fan of Adam Sandler who always seems to be doing an impersonation of Jerry Lewis, whose shtick as a juvenile retard I had enjoyed until about the age of…mm…six? I saw Sandler last time in “50 First Dates, a movie that I actually liked (it’s a less sophisticated and funnier take on “Memento”), but I do my … [Read More]
The question of whether or not to see “Sex and the City” is easy to answer: if you are a man, no. There is nothing here for you. If you are a woman, still no. The sugary cocktail of glamour and sentimentality may prove addictive; those DVD box sets aren’t cheap, and watching them will make you dumber. For sensible people, … [Read More]
I love politics and movies. So it’s probably not surprising that I enjoy political documentaries, like Errol Morris‘s “The Fog of War”, a portrait of one of the leading architects of the Vietnam War, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. The film which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, compresses 20 hours of interviews that Morris conducted with the controversial … [Read More]
Indiana Jones was born in 1899 which would make him 102-year old on September 11, 2001 and which explains why he couldn’t be taking part in the war against Islamo-Fascism in 2008 in the new “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” that was released last week. And that’s too bad. Just imagine a plot in which Osama bin … [Read More]