Author Archive | David Post

There’s an interesting posting on Dani Rodrik’s always-interesting blog about the difference that the President’s party affiliation makes to the distribution of income during the four years of the president’s term. Citing a new book by political scientist Larry Bartels, the data apparently show that when a Republican president is in power, people at the […]

The great classicist Robert Fagles passed away a couple of days ago. Fagles was one of a handful of people who have translated the Big Three of classical literature (the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid); I have read pretty much every translation of the Aeneid that I have been able to lay my hands […]

“Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write!” So reads the promo on the “John Adams” poster advertising the HBO mini-series starting on Sunday. Give me a break! A better slogan for Adams would be: “Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write — though nothing critical of the Government!” Adams was a […]

The Defenders of Pork are preparing for battle, now that McCain has put pork in the center of the political debate. Joel Achenbach, in an article on the front page of today’s Washington Post (“McCain sees Pork where Scientists See Success; Candidate Criticizes Ambitios Bear Study”), reports on a $3 million federal study to collect […]

Speaking of Arrested Development…

In today’s Washington Post, Ruth Marcus has an op-ed piece bemoaning the public release of the federal budget documents exclusively in electronic form, rather than in the form of a 2,200-page printed document. “It isn’t the same,” she writes, “as having the volume — volumes, actually — in hand, being able to flip through the […]

Maeby!

So the Washington Post reported yesterday that the CIA briefed a “bipartisan group” of senior Congressional officials — including Democratic Party leaders Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harmon — about the use of “waterboarding” and other aggressive interrogation techniques back in 2002, and that at the time no objections were raised. I’m a little surprised this […]

The headline in today’s lead New York Times story (page 1, column 8 top): ” Studies on Pupils Say Bad Behavior Is Not Dooming.” “Dooming” as an adjective?? In a New York Times headline? Aargh . . . (And interestingly enough, the headline of the web version of the story was the grammatically less grotesque […]

For those who, like me, take an inordinate interest in all things Italian (I spent a semester in Bologna during the run-up to last year’s Presidential election, and hope to spend a good deal more time in that extraordinary country in years to come), a couple of recent books have caused a sensation in Italian […]

. . . when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, that “satire is now obsolete”? Sen. Larry Craig was inducted last night into the Idaho Hall of Fame — his “first ceremonial appearance back in his home state,” as the AP put it, “since his arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting became […]

There was a lot that was cartoonish, and even occasionally embarrassing, about Pavarotti and his career — the hankie, the big smile, the mediocre crossover stuff he performed in the late stages of his career … he was a little too much, sometimes, like the Italian Tenor right out of central casting … But man, […]

I don’t know how many of you saw the HBO Special that aired several weeks ago about the Brooklyn Dodgers (“The Ghosts of Flatbush”), but it was really wonderful stuff, and I recommend it to those of you who didn’t see it but who might be able to catch it as part of an On […]

Like many of you, I suspect, I spent a few hours this weekend at the theaters watching the Simpsons movie. I thought A.O Scott, in his review in the NY Times, got it just about right — it’s not (and not trying to be) some sort of grand Simpsons apotheosis, but rather just a good […]

I just got home from my local sports bar, where I watched the Iraqis win the championship over Saudi Arabia in the Asia Cup (sort of like the world cup, but limited to “Asian” teams [including Australia and most of the Middle East). I’ve taken a lot of stick from people on this blog over […]