Profiles in Ignorance: Book Review
Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber (2022), Andy Borowitz. After a couple of frustrating reads on...
How Fascism Works: Book Review
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018), Jason Stanley. This book was a warning about fascism: “essentially the danger of...
The Destructionists: Book Review
The Destructionists: The 25-Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party (2022), Dana Milbank. Milbank is a long-time columnist for the...
Thank Your For The Servitude: Book Review
Thank You for the Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission (2022), Mark Leibovich. The last Leibovich book I read...
The Power of Crisis: Book Review
The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats—and Our Response—Will Change The World (2022), Ian Bremmer. Bremmer talks about five or so crisis...
Why Not Socialized Toilets?
On a school trip to Europe with my granddaughter, we discovered an unexpected inconvenience. It was difficult to find a place to pee....
A Splendid Exchange: Book Review
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World (2008), William Bernstein. My main interest was how trade affected the start (and...
Making History: Book Review
Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past (2022), Richard Cohen. Cohen was publishing director for two London publishers,...
Boils on The Butt of Humanity
There is no lack of tyrants, both petty and seriously big. Putin is the most obvious thug now, with plenty of dishonorable mentions for...
Banana: Book Review
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World (2009), Dan Koeppel. This is another tale of American exceptionalism: bringing a...
Algorithms to Live By: Book Review
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (2016), Brian Christian and Thomas Griffiths. An algorithm is a set of...
How to Be Perfect: Book Review
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question (2021). Michael Schur (he created The Good Place). This is a surprisingly...
There is Nothing for You Here: Book Review
There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century (2021), Fiona Hill. Hill became a senior director of the NSA in...
How Europe Made the Modern World: Book Review
How Europe Made the Modern World: Creating the Great Divergence (2019), Jonathan Daly. The Great Divergence has two parts according to...
Thinking Inside a Bigger Box
Paul Krugman indicated that global trade was facilitated by bigger boxes—shipping containers. Their use meant considerably lower costs...