http://www.marknoferi.com/ 2005-04-24T06:17:02+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/come_writers_an.html Several new books out on Dylaniana, including Greil Marcus on Like A Rolling Stone - here's the Nation on all of 'em.... Dylan mnoferi 2005-04-24T06:17:02+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/return_from_exi.html Imagine that the interpretation of the Constitution was frozen in 1937. Imagine a country in which Social Security, job-safety laws and environmental protections were unconstitutional. Imagine judges longing for that. Imagine one of them as the next Supreme Court nominee.... Law mnoferi 2005-04-23T06:40:42+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/john_browns_bod.html Excellent, and troubling, review in the New Yorker of a new book on John Brown. "He was also, as even an admiring historian cannot deny, a man of violence and, by almost any definition, what we would now call a... History mnoferi 2005-04-23T06:36:13+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/woody_guthrie.html I was lucky enough to win tickets to see Steve Earle at a private gig the local radio station sponsored out here. He played a song called "Christmas in Washington," plaintive, sad and haunting, written after Bill Clinton's second election.... Music mnoferi 2005-04-11T01:50:21+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/nuclear_prolife.html This pretty much sums up my feelings on threatening judges: The rational side of my brain suspects that cooler heads ultimately will prevail... But the emotional side of my brain... hopes that DeLay & Company will step even further over... Law mnoferi 2005-04-09T08:23:03+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/the_world_is_no.html Nice read about the early days of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post and how he used the Summer of Sam to catapult his paper to success.... Politics mnoferi 2005-04-09T08:05:33+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/04/shake_it_to_the.html Came across a couple of good articles ruminating about the future of the American left. Michael Walzer thinks the left should rally around "equality." Meanwhile, William Galston says that "fairness" never was all that popular with Americans, and the left... Politics mnoferi 2005-04-09T07:59:34+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/03/pictures_of_you.html Turns out the HP ad for color printers featuring the Kinks' "Picture Book" won an award for ad campaign of the year.... Music mnoferi 2005-03-09T03:35:49+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/03/farewell_jimmy.html Jimmy Smith, master of the Hammond organ, died last week, and this brings up some memories for me. (More knowledgable people than I eulogized him, here and here for example. If you're looking for a good album to listen to,... Music mnoferi 2005-03-06T07:49:04+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/03/the_pragmatist.html Great read in the Globe about the century-long economic debate between Milton Friedman, champion of all things free market, and John Kenneth Galbraith, economist to the New Deal. Via the Late Adopter. (I've read a bit about Galbraith lately, there's... History mnoferi 2005-03-05T19:55:35+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/03/kangarusskie_co.html Thank God I'm not working for a Russian judge. "Judges are targeted for forced retirement or dismissal if they apply the law to acquit even everyday defendants, issue sentences that are seen as too lenient by court chairmen or fail... Law mnoferi 2005-03-05T19:18:33+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/03/acadian_driftwo.html Via Kevin, a fascinating article about the first ethnic genocide in North America, the Acadian relocation of 1755. (The Band wrote the song Acadian Driftwood about this.)... History mnoferi 2005-03-05T19:15:04+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/03/more_on_hunter.html A few more nice eulogies about Hunter in the days after his death: Ralph Steadman, Hunter's illustrator - "I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time," he told me... Writing mnoferi 2005-03-05T18:44:57+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/02/rip_hunter.html I keep thinking, "How would Hunter eulogize himself?" You know he must have. There was always a method to his madness, and Hunter wouldn't have embarked on something as enormous as suicide without thinking about it beforehand. So how would... Writing mnoferi 2005-02-21T23:00:42+00:00 http://www.marknoferi.com/archives/2005/02/send_in_the_ads.html Rating the Super Bowl ads... and a more cynical take from my DC friend Seth Stevenson, who does this sort of thing for a living. My favorites: GoDaddy, Xzibit's Pepsi party van, and the monkeys.... Pop Culture mnoferi 2005-02-10T07:32:33+00:00