Your Musical Interlude XXXII

This is not just an interlude but a "Get Well soon" to Mr. Curry.


 

Gallows Humor

I've lost track of the number of Obama administration scandals boiling over at the moment. (I think its four: IRS, Sebelius' shakedown of the health industry, Benghazi, and wiretapping the Associated Press.) So, these are embroiling the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services, the State Department, and the Justice Department.

Why do I get the feeling someone should be checking Energy and Education to make sure they aren't stealing booze from the White House liquor cabinet?

It would be funny if we weren't all so very screwed.

Benghazi: No Heavy Analysis Necessary

So Benghazi. What have we learned?

A) The political people around Obama are a profoundly insecure bunch. Their judgement in the wake of the attacks was just plain dumb. There was no way this could have turned the election. It was a terror attack against the US. When have the American people turned against their leaders in the aftermath of such an attack? (The answer is never.) How out to lunch do you have to be not to know this?

B) Those early mistakes were compounded by the refusal to admit there had been any mistakes. As a controversy this should have been over months ago. They can blame Republicans all they want, if anyone is still talking about this it is the fault of the Obama administration and no one else.

C) The capacity for the unofficial/official propaganda arm of the Democratic party, i.e. The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, etc, to run obfuscating disinformation campaigns for the administration is truly remarkable. And disgraceful.

The Reading List Grows

Well, the first trip to the bookstore has taken place and the reading list has doubled in size to four with the purchases of Chuck Thompson's Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer, and Sean McMeekin's July, 1914: Countdown to War.

These were something of a no brainer for me to pick up. Slightly irreverent travel writing is right up my alley, as is any history book that blames the occurrence of the First World War on Russia - right where it belongs. McMeekin also wants to blame France, so I'm intrigued to see what his evidence is.

The trick now will be to not begin to read these until after the semester is over. Easier said than done.

Summer Reading

This is the last week of classes at the university where I teach, which means next week is finals. After that I'm only a few grueling days of grading away from summer. (Which would be especially welcome if it ever stops snowing around here.)

Summer means reading.

Which is, oddly enough, a bit of a problem.

Usually, at this point I've got a stack of books I've procured since last summer waiting to be devoured over the next couple of months. As of right now I have two so far this year; Alan Furst's Blood of Victory, which I picked up years ago and never got around to reading, and Jeff Shelton's Caleb & Callie. Jeff is an online acquaintance of mine, and a hell of a power pop songwriter and performer. (In fact, his new band Hot Nun will make up part of the soundtrack for my summer.) I'm looking forward to diving into his first novel.

The problem is that is it. It is almost disconcerting how unconnected I am to the world of books. Oh, I peruse the catalogs of academic philosophy and social science that fill up my mail box at work, and some of those find their way into my shelves. The larger world of books, however, escape my notice.

This is particularly trying to me as once upon a time I was plugged very deeply into the book world. I managed a good little bookshop for a number of years and got used to being immersed in a sea of books, where currents of information on the new and interesting was constantly at hand. But as time has gone on I've  lost touch with those currents and I find out about books in a haphazard way. We do take the London Review of Books, but really it is a terrible waste. The "reviews" are most often not about books at all, but merely a venue for the article writer to tell you how they view the world. It doesn't help that those views are among the most moralizing and self-congratulatory you will ever find. (Really, when did priggishness make its comeback? Oh, my God, is it annoying.)

Soon, I will make my traditional late spring trip to the local bookstores to see what may be there to catch my eye, but usually that effort was merely to add one or two titles to round out the selection. Never before has it been expected to supply the bulk of the reading list.

I will keep reader here informed of how it goes. I also plan to post little reviews of the things I read this summer.

Any suggestion readers may want to share can be left in the comments. They will be appreciated.

Unallowable Questions

Add a new query to the "too sacred to be uttered" list. Evidently asking if childless adults are less interested in posterity than adults with children is strictly verboten. (And, no, I am not aware of a groundbreaking social science study which conclusively answers such a question. A preliminary search turned up very little, but who needs "studies" when you have moral exactitude!)

I really wish the new American Taliban would publish a list of these unquestionable 'holy of holies" so we can all be as "enlightened" as they are. Of course, being merely censorious is small potatoes when you could be a true visionary, which evidently involves advocating burning books that challenge these new sacred truths.

Exciting times we are all in.