Current Wisdom
Jackasses, Assorted
"Current Wisdom" The Great Books Series The Rev. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., whom the redoubtable National Review felicitously designated in its March 17, 1978 issue as "the Professor of Darkness," makes...
...It finally dawned on me that it was not safe, and it was kind of tacky...
...That's melodramatic, but there must be a grain of truth...
...The lesson is not that all mega-millionaires are social parasites, though many are...
...Daniloff had been in possession of "secret" documents when arrested, and so had Zakharov...
...No one ever asked to see our slides, to hear our poetry or songs— the works which would have spoken for themselves...
...Human greed, the seed of capitalist prosperity, is hardier than that...
...When Newsweek wrote its account, Daniloff and Zakharov were in identical positions: Each had been accused, neither had been tried...
...But few do that...
...Later, when 1 discussed this nauseating scene with a friend I was told that I was making too much out of it and would only emphasize my son's longings for a gun by depriving him of it...
...Nancy has a way to go...
...As artists/educators/psychologists/ philosophers, all of which we consider ourselves, nothing is so painful or frustrating as having been given such gifts and not having means to share them with others...
...But this incentive is at constant risk of being snuffed out by taxes, which lower the trade-off between effort and material reward...
...Any country could benefit from the services of this charismatic ambassador...
...There's a pedestrian mall in Kansas City, near the Liberty Memorial, where after 10:00 p.m...
...She could learn from the vibrant Raisa...
...They can't possibly be the rational maximizers of economics textbooks...
...November 10, 1986] The Progressive Another clear-headed observation of injustice from the Progressive, a longtime critic of America's ferociously right-wing media: Accused spies, too, are entitled to the presumption of innocence...
...He derided the federal service, advocated deregulation, promised to balance the budget, combatted inflation with high interest rates and recession and encouraged the injection of religion into public affairs...
...People are moved to be productive in order to increase their claims on the goods and services produced by others...
...Russell Schechter Ithaca, N.Y...
...But I only did it one summer...
...But suddenly—Ehrenreich traces it back to the invasion of Grenada—the sensitive man was scoffed at and called a wimp: "Suddenly the style in masculinity is somebody who is insensitive and can't talk about emotions . . ." [October 19, 1986...
...The explanation must be that the type of person who would be incUned to stop at $10 million—that is, most of us—won't get to $10 million in the first place...
...Michael Kinsley: Capitalist theory—especially in its ClassicComics version, supply-side economics— is based on narrowly behavioristic assumptions about human psychology...
...They work in order to buy...
...We meant men who were generally interested in women...
...The mothers sat around smiling and chatting, sipping diet colas as the hand grenades were thrown and the little tots killed each other off one by one...
...The issue of Newsweek dated September 22 offered a perfect example: "Neither Nicholas Daniloff, the reporter arrested on trumped-up charges, nor Gennady Zakharov, the Soviet agent caught redhanded, was free to go home...
...The peer-panel which made funding recommendations to the Austin City Council denied us any encouragement or support, responding that our intent seemed sincere, but our philosophy, vague...
...What, then, except the urge to be the Administration's press agent, justified Newsweek's use of such terms as "caught red-handed" and "arrested on trumped-up charges...
...November 1986] New Republic Supply-side economics gets the sendup from envy's champion and New Puritanism's comic genius, Mr...
...Well, I've thought long and hard on the subject and have come to this conclusion...
...Our children can only look to us as examples, and if we advocate playing with killing objects we subliminally advocate killing...
...A great number of American films are shown on the Soviet screen...
...Suzanne Hubbell [September 17, 1986] New York Times First Secretary Gorbachev reports back to the grateful Soviet masses on his astonishing encounter with the West's preeminent champion of lubricious capitalism: When touching upon humanitarian affairs, I told the President: "Tkke, for example, cinematography...
...it becomes a cruising site...
...October 23, 1986] Esquire In the correspondence section of the magazine for "man at his best," Ithaca's Russell Schechter deftly deflates yet another puff piece from the Reaganite school of journalism: Praise be to Sanford J. Ungar for showing us what a neat guy Ed Meese is ("Ed the Ordinary," July...
...from The Cycles of American History, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Houghton Mifflin...
...Each had the full backing of his government...
...It's a sickness 1 have in the face of which 1 am helpless," explains arbitrageur Ivan Boesky ($200 million...
...our application, weak...
...We meant a man who could also listen...
...And when I was first having sex, I admit, I did dent a couple of car hoods...
...There's nothing sexier in a man than a genuine interest in women...
...Soviet people have an opportunity through them to get an idea of both the way of life and the way of thinking of Americans, whereas Soviet films are practically not shown in 'Free America.' " The President evaded an answer and, as usual in such cases, pleaded free enterprise under which everyone does whatever one wants...
...This is the sort of heavy-handed propaganda we tend to associate with the official press of totalitarian states, but it is typical of the way the U.S...
...Parents have to take a stand...
...A sensible maximizer would stop accumulating at $10 or $20 million, when it becomes pointless...
...The lesson is that all the ludicrous coddling of wealth in recent years—the large tax cuts, the virtual abandonment of death duties, the cultural celebration of the rich—has been unnecessary...
...Each said he was innocent and had been set up...
...Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., whom the redoubtable National Review felicitously designated in its March 17, 1978 issue as "the Professor of Darkness," makes another obscure point in a sacred ceremony pursuant to his mysterious calling: But Jinuny Carter rejected the commitment of the modern Democratic party to affirmative government and became the most conservative Democratic President since Grover Cleveland a century earlier...
...My 4-year-old son and I attended a birthday party recently for a little boy turning 5. When I arrived, the presents had been opened and the children were running around the vast grounds shooting each other with Rambo M-16s, Rambo .45 revolvers and Uzi submachine guns...
...The NO WAR TOYS slogan is not dead in this family and the lesson learned is love for humanity...
...Why do they do it...
...press reports on allegations of espionage...
...My son will not be allowed to own guns and those given him will be added to the meltdown sculpture created by a pal in Venice where all toys designed for the destruction of human life will meet a fiery end...
...October 20, 1986] American Statesman (Austin, Texas) The cruel condition of two Renaissance minds in far-off Austin, as reported by the more idealistic of the two: Naively encouraged by the words of a Music Umbrella spokesman who granted my husband Steven and me sponsorship for our application for city arts funding, we conscientiously made our bid for money to acquire necessary equipment to turn our "home-style" multi^media photography /music/poetry production A Time for Peace into a professional presentation...
...September 25, 1986] Chicago IHbune George Bloyd—a professor, one would assume—describes the stupendous grace that naturally issues from the First Lady of the fabulous Soviet democracy: I have nothing but admiration for the animated and outgoing Raisa Gorbachev, so clearly visible during the Iceland minisummit...
...In contrast, the American First Lady seems reserved, cautious, somehow feeirful of revealing herself...
...From a longer perspective, the difference between Carter and Reagan will seem less consequential than the continuities...
...In fact, I confess, I was a tramp, I was a scamp, I was a slut, I was a mail bunny...
...We proposed to offer it at least once a week to the culturally and inspirationally needy of the community: those people in hospitals, nursing homes, state institutions, schools, and the like...
...When it comes to covering cases of espionage, the mass media drop any pretense of objectivity...
...As the carnage continued, my son looked at me as if to question if he too could go on a killing spree with his peers...
...A First Lady should mirror the spirit—the ethos—of all Americans...
...The look I returned obviously answered his question and he hopped on a bike to ride alone...
...1 hadn't been doing safe sex," he acknowledges cheerfully...
...November 1986] Los Angeles Times A magisterial declaration from the irenic Michelle Phillips, undergoing therapy on the correspondence page of the Golden State's Times: I have had it...
...22.95] Rolling Stone The story of how Rick Lindley became a grown-up, delivered with the Stones typical pizzazz: Rick Lindley, a loquacious twenty-threeyearold who recently graduated from the University of Kansas, is old enough to have a definite before-and-after sex life...
...The Forbes 400 demonstrates that all the main actors in the American economy are exempt from these basic assumptions about what makes the economy tick...
...Perhaps next month Esquire can feature Ungar's profile of Pol Pot...
...He came out during his senior year in high school and first had sex when he was eighteen...
...1 found out about AIDS a year and a half after 1 came out...
...Michelle Phillips Los Angeles [October 4, 1986] Washington Post A depressing metamorphosis in the American stallion as elucidated by feminist Barbara Ehrenreich, a frequent critic of the shaved-leg look of the American woman: Ehrenreich chuckles at what she calls "fashions in masculinity": "I thought we were getting somewhere a few years ago when we had impressed on men that we preferred so-called sensitivity—by which we did not mean a man who could talk for three hours about himself...
...She radiated happiness and good will as she fulfilled her tasks...
...There were all these diseases...
...She cannot put her own wishes before those of the people...
Vol. 19 • December 1986 • No. 12
