Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Media Matters

  • The Real Meaning of the O’Reilly Ouster

    Andrew Klavan may have nailed it. Posts of mine anent Klavan.

  • Meme Shift: From Trump-as-Hitler to Trump-as-Incompetent

    A salutary saltus. Good for the country. The muse is with me this morning. 'Salutary' fits nicely with the downing of the deeply-flawed health care bill.   But my purpose is not to preen and plume but to self-effacingly send you over to Scott Adams' place where you will find yet another installment of highly…

  • Liberal Bias and the Political Problem of the One and the Many

    A March 15 WAPO piece begins like this: "States’ rights is making a comeback, but this time it’s progressives, not slaveholders or white supremacists, raising the cry." This implies that those who for years have been speaking out for federalism and Tenth Amendment rights are either slave holders or white supremacists. I'd call that left-wing…

  • How to Age Disgracefully in Hollywood

    Camille Paglia on Madonna Louise Ciconne: Madonna's opening line at the awards gala was edited out of the shortened official video: "I stand before you as a doormat — oh, I mean a female entertainer." Merciful Minerva! Can there be any woman on Earth less like a doormat than Madonna Louise Ciccone? Madonna sped on…

  • Thomas Sowell Bids us Farewell

    Thomas Sowell hasn't quit the mortal coil, but he has put down his pen at age 86.  A loss to us, but a release and a relief for him. Jason Riley and other sensible blacks will carry on. Related articles The Left's Central Delusion Soccer Moms Against Common Core Micro-Totalitarianism

  • If The New York Times were a serious newspaper . . .

    . . .it would start by recognizing that Trump is a remarkable leader and that this is a new phenomenon. Then it would try to explore and understand the differences between the old order and the world Trump is trying to create. Then it could describe the context of the President-elect and educate its readers…

  • Mass Media and Spiritual Deterioration

    A Facebook user told me he left  it because it had become for him an impediment to spiritual growth.  I concur and generalize:  inordinate consumption of any and all mass communications media militates against spiritual health for all of us.  Mass media content is a bit like whisky: a little, from time to time, will not hurt you,…

  • On Seinfeld

    I confess to being a fan of this TV series many of whose episodes are now over 20 years old.  I have seen every episode numerous times.  I am not a student of the series as I am a student of the great Twilight Zone series, but then numerous episodes of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone,…

  • Bill O’Reilly Makes His Abortion Mistake Again

    He did it again last night.  So it is right, fitting, proper, and conducive unto clarity of thought that I re-post the following entry from 16 November 2012. …………….  The other night Bill O'Reilly said that a fetus is a potential human life.  Not so!  A fetus is an actual human life.  Consider a third-trimester human…

  • The Left’s Hatred of Conservative Talk Radio

    This entry from over five years ago stands up well and is worth re-posting.  Slightly improved, typos removed, infelicities smoothed.  It originally saw the light of the 'sphere on 24 March 2010.  As usual the MavPhil doctrine of abrogation is in effect:  later posts abrogate earlier ones. …………….. The qualifier 'conservative' borders on pleonasm: there…