Pierre Corneille I’ve been thinking about lying recently. One reason is because I recently saw a David Ives adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s 17th century comedy The Liar at the Washington Shakespeare Theater. Another is because of Maureen Dowd’s interesting NYT column Sunday about politicians who lie when they don’t have to. Dowd is writing about Richard […]
Tag Archives: politics
The Insidious Novels of Ayn Rand
When I first started hearing the name Rand Paul, I thought that it was a political pundit’s joke. I thought the talk was about his father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, not the man who last week became Kentucky’s Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. Since Ron Paul espouses certain libertarian principles, I assumed that people were […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Fountainhead, Libertarianism Comments closed
Casablanca, a Film for Every Occasion
Film Friday What is it about Casablanca that makes it applicable to practically any occasion? A couple of weeks ago I referred to it when comparing Goldman Sachs to a casino. Then a couple of days later Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen mentioned the scene of rounding up suspects when writing about Arizona’s new immigration […]
Better Austen than Bronte on the Court
An interesting New York Times column by David Brooks has me doing some more thinking on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s enjoyment of Pride and Prejudice. Here is some of what he wrote: About a decade ago, one began to notice a profusion of Organization Kids at elite college campuses. These were bright students who […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged David Brooks, Elena Kagan, Gail Collins, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, satire, Supreme Court Comments closed
Elena Kagan, Lover of Pride and Prejudice
Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett Elena Kagan, current nominee for the U. S. Supreme Court, is a “literature lover” who used to reread Pride and Prejudice every year. So we are informed by a fascinating New York Times profile. Does this tell us anything about what kind of justice she will be? I wrote last year […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Elena Kagan, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Supreme Court Comments closed
Are Dystopian Novels Useful?
The new Arizona immigration law, which authorizes police to engage in racial profiling (even while claiming not to), has me thinking back to Almanac of the Dead, a 1991 novel by Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko. This imaginary recreation of a 21st-century future predicted this would happen. I don’t like Almanac the way I like Silko’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Almanac of the Dead, Ceremony, Dystopias, Illegal immigration, Leslie Marmon Silko Comments closed
The Damned Human Race
Last Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death. To mark the occasion, Ben Click, our enterprising department chair, set up a panel to discuss what Twain had to say about “race, religion, politics, and the ‘damned human race.’” On the panel were Peter Sagal, star of National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell […]
Gambling at Goldman? Shocked, Shocked!
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault famously exclaims in Casablanca, only then to be secretly presented with a bribe from the winnings. Why did this scene come to mind when I heard about the shenanigans of Goldman Sachs this past week? It did so, I suspect, because […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1984, Banking, Casablanca, George Orwell, Goldman Sachs, Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck Comments closed
