The Weekly Screed

A voice in the distance

By David Benjamin | 03/15/2024 | Comments Off on A voice in the distance

by David Benjamin   “Back then, it was students against the institution. Now it’s very different because it’s student against student.”” —Paul Brest, professor emeritus, Stanford Law School   MADISON, Wis.—When I was matriculating at a little liberal arts outpost called Rockford College (pop. 450), there were two noticeably outspoken right-wing students. One, from Boston,…

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Privy counsel

By David Benjamin | 03/07/2024 | Comments Off on Privy counsel

by David Benjamin “… conservatives … argue that the crisis in Americasn schools is … about leftist teachers propagandizing on critical race theory and giving kids new pronouns while denying them safe bathrooms.” —Nicholas Kristoff, The New York Times   MADISON, Wis.—In Nicholas Kristoff’s eloquent assessment of the real problem with American public schools, I…

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Toward a philosophy of the gun

By David Benjamin | 03/01/2024 | Comments Off on Toward a philosophy of the gun

by David Benjamin   “Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding.” —Stephen King   MADISON, Wis.—My gun of choice is a .22 caliber rifle with a telescopic sight. It’s actually the only gun I’ve ever used. It belonged to…

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“The usual deal for hard-up rich guys”

By David Benjamin | 02/19/2024 | Comments Off on “The usual deal for hard-up rich guys”

by David Benjamin   “Life is little more than a loan shark: It exacts a very high rate of interest for the few pleasures it concedes.” —Luigi Pirandello   (An ill-lit table in the dark corner of a bar in Hell’s Kitchen. A man, hatless and nattily attired in a custom tailored blue suit with…

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“The tube is flickering now … “

By David Benjamin | 02/16/2024 | Comments Off on “The tube is flickering now … “

by David Benjamin   “When the shouting and tumult dies, the American people and president will realize that the unprecedented mudslinging against the committee by the extreme left-wing elements of press and radio was caused solely because another Fifth Amendment communist was finally dragged out of the dark recesses and exposed to public view.” —Sen.…

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The Houthis in our midst

By David Benjamin | 02/10/2024 | Comments Off on The Houthis in our midst

by David Benjamin “The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is “What does a woman want?” — Sigmund Freud, to Marie Bonaparte   NAPILI POINT, Hawaii—Once, in the course of writing a novel, my…

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The osmotic effect of Mickey Mouse and Miss September

By David Benjamin | 02/01/2024 | Comments Off on The osmotic effect of Mickey Mouse and Miss September

by David Benjamin “…  Our morality is based, in large part, on mystical dogma, not reason, our lives are governed by superstition and prejudice rather than knowledge. Self-sacrifice is prized above self-interest and self-esteem. Society is placed above the individual. And the goal of happiness is lost in a labyrinthine maze of emotional responses, self-doubts,…

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Fat Linda throws an incomplete pass

By David Benjamin | 01/26/2024 | Comments Off on Fat Linda throws an incomplete pass

by David Benjamin “Data technologies do not simply predict the future by guessing what an individual or group might do or want to do in the future. It is rather that those futures already exist, completely realized, and they reach backwards into the present to guide it. The possible paths for our desires to travel…

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Do helicopter parents have heliport kids?

By David Benjamin | 01/17/2024 | Comments Off on Do helicopter parents have heliport kids?

by David Benjamin   “Herbert T. Gillis: Son, is this the book you were looking for?  “Dobie Gillis: Oh, yeah. Thanks, Dad. I don’t know what I’d do without you.  “Herbert T. Gillis: Yeah, neither do I, but just thinking about it has made my whole day.” —“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”   MADISON,…

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CES ’24: ‘Ah feel ya, man.’

By David Benjamin | 01/13/2024 | Comments Off on CES ’24: ‘Ah feel ya, man.’

by David Benjamin   “… Feelings, whoa, oh, oh, feelings/ Whoa, oh, oh, feel it again in my arms/ Feelings, whoa, oh, oh, feelings/ Whoa, oh, oh, feel it/ Whoa, oh, again” — Morris Albert   LAS VEGAS—Watching a relay team of Sony, Honda and Microsoft execs at a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) “press conference”…

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