The Covid era cut through traditional ideological paradigms like knives on tissue. Nothing behaved as we might have expected. The civil libertarians were nowhere in sight. The courts did not work. Big business and media fully cooperated. The major religions caved. The national security state thrived, while both parties let it all happen. The population […]
Rarely has my heart raced so fast in a movie. Eddington (2025) is nuts. Brilliantly crazy. Beyond belief. Beyond words. It might be the most politically and culturally realistic film I’ve ever seen. It is particularly gripping because it deals with a madness that everyone tries to forget but which we dare not. It covers the strange […]
In 1883, when the Pendleton Act was passed, creating the US civil service, it must have seemed like no big deal. The forgotten Chester A. Arthur was the president. The fear of being assassinated like his predecessor James Garfield convinced him to back the legislation. The case for passage: government needs professionals with institutional knowledge. Technicians were […]