Tag Archives: The New Yorker
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Edsels and the Enlightenment: the downside of corporate personhood
A headline in Monday’s Austin American-Statesman reported that the Texas Senate is poised for a political shift as four veteran conservative Republican senators step down before the 2012 election cycle. According to the article, those seats could easily go to … Continue reading
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Tagged Austin American-Statesman, corporations, Enlightenment, Ford Edsel, George Will, liberalism, Rick Perry, The New Yorker
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Beyond the bottom line
During our recent backpacking trip across northern England, my buddy Bruce and I overcame mild hypothermia, frightening falls, nearly constant rain, gale-force winds, aching feet and ankles and knees, multiple blisters, blackened toenails, and one extremely crummy hotel with no … Continue reading
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Tagged Big Box, capitalism, economics, England, locally owned business, The New Yorker
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Silos: my beef with Freeman Dyson
I have a bone to pick with Freeman Dyson, professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and generally acknowledged scientific genius. I bet he’s really nervous. On a recent trip to Aspen, I picked up The Best … Continue reading
Shooting holes in the Constitution: some thoughts on guns and violence
Recently, like many Americans, I’ve been thinking about the issue of guns in civil society. The tragic shooting in Tucson certainly focused attention on the topic, as did a story on National Public Radio that identified the United States as … Continue reading
Barbers, bison meat, and the invisible hand
I was back in my shiny new persona as salesperson last week, driving out to all the dude ranches around Bandera in hopes of scaring up a market for the hundreds and hundreds of pounds of bison meat we will … Continue reading
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Tagged Adam Gopnik, Adam Smith, bison, community, economics, The New Yorker, Wendell Berry
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Hall of mirrors: the lost art of conversation
Last week I found myself in a conversation with someone who doesn’t believe in AGW and has written a soon-to-be-published book explaining his position. AGW—which I had to look up—is short for anthropogenic global warming, or global warming caused by … Continue reading
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Tagged climate change, conversation, environmentalism, Glenn Beck, Grist.org, The New Yorker
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Still more on violence: there will be blood
The other day, I stopped my car to chat with neighbors (a frequent occurrence in our chatty neighborhood). We quickly got to the topic of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its spreading devastation. D. told me that he’d heard … Continue reading
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Tagged Bill McKibben, oil spill, San Francisco, Saul Griffith, The New Yorker, violence
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The Great Texas Camel Experiment
Susan Orlean’s wonderful story on mules in the military in this week’s issue of The New Yorker mentions one of my favorite, and most unlikely, episodes of Hill Country history: the U.S. Army’s Great Texas Camel Experiment of the 1850s. … Continue reading
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Tagged aoudad, camels, Camp Verde, Civil War, desert, Douglas MacArthur, Jefferson Davis, mules, San Francisco Chronicle, Susan Orlean, Texas Hill Country, The New Yorker
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