What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
Politico sends one of its intrepid explorers to the very edge of civilization, where he meets two even more intrepid explorers who have in fact pressed beyond the edge and into the darkness beyond—whence they have returned (alive!) to tell their tales of wonderment from the world of the political right. One wonderment in particular…
Reflecting on his 1912 defeat as a third party presidential candidate, Teddy Roosevelt lamented that “the average American in his party affiliations is largely influenced by a feeling quite as unreasoning as that which makes the average fan depressed or exultant over the victory of a professional baseball team.” That’s from TR: The Last Romantic,…
A British poet and inventor named John Harington wrote a couplet in the 16th century that has survived to the modern era: Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?Why, if it prosper none dare call it treason. It’s a truth that’s been expressed in a lot of different ways through the centuries; Harington’s version is…
I’m just gonna riff here, if that’s okay, because the Danish and American media aren’t occupying my mind right now: I’ve got my wartime goggles on and don’t believe anything I read anyway, so there’s no point trying to make sense of it. And because this is a riff that represents nothing more than my…
Henry Higgins, call your office. Over the past few years there’s been a slow but steady drumbeat on an amorphous issue, or set of issues, that seem finally to have congealed into something covered under the rubric of “the feminization of politics” (or of culture). A single writer has finally, in a single column, pulled…
I’m a Boston driver by nature and nurture, seasoned with additional experience on the expressways of Chicago, the freeways of Los Angeles, and the gridlock of New York, so I tend to mutter a lot while I drive, addressing all the many shortcomings of the drivers with whom I’m forced to share the roads. It…
Late Saturday night (European time), already suspended anchor Chris Cuomo was officially terminated by CNN. CNN confirmed the firing and said that Cuomo had been “terminated … effective immediately” as an outside law firm continues to investigate “his involvement with his brother’s defense.” But wait, there’s more: The station was notified by an attorney representing an…
It’s difficult, maybe impossible, to identify the historical moment one occupies. We’re all caught in the swirl of a thousand different currents at any given moment; the idea that we can somehow lift ourselves outside of it seems almost hubristic. But it’s worth a shot. So: in which age of man do we live? That…
There’s a lot going on in the world these days. The Danish media are bubbling over with stories about the upcoming election, the continuing mink scandal, and reactions to the COP26 summit. The prime minister has called a press conference for this very evening to discuss “the corona situation,” and her remarks will surely dominate…
