Unca Darrell

JUNE 24, 2020 / Those who can, do. Those who can't . . .

. . . (Unca D among them) read books about it.

Barton Swaim, "The Charm of Novelty: Farnsworth's Classical English Style," The Wall Street Journal (wsj.com), May 22, 2020 (abridged, emphasis added)

Good writing is efficient writing. The ability to say a thing clearly and directly is rather to be chosen than great riches. All the books on English style say so, and they are right. But efficiency, Ward Farnsworth rightly insists, is only the beginning.

April 11, 2019 / Historical amnesia: How did this happen?

Because historical memory is an enemy of the progressive project. Better to forget the past, then enlist those who have forgotten . . .

MARCH 14, 2018 / It depends on what . . .

. . . the meaning of am is.

Senator Elizabeth Warren most decidedly did not nix a run for president in 2020, as some have reported. 

What she said on the Sunday talk shows was . . .  

JANUARY 16, 2018 / Andrew Klavan on the scandal . . .

of truth-telling.

NOTHING SCANDALIZES a leftist like telling the truth. Point out that women and men are different, that black Americans . . . 

AUGUST 1, 2017 / If you and I could write this well . . .

. . . we would: 

March 2, 2017 / The poem our teachers got wrong

TWO ROADS diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Generations of commencement speakers . . . 

JULY 2 / Good riddance

GARY EDWARD KEILLOR, who adopted the fancy-pants name "Garrison," taped his last "Prairie Home Companion" last night in Hollywood. It will be broadcast in Houston today in its usual spot, late this afternoon on public radio.

Mr. Keillor is a gifted man, no doubt. Thought he's four years too old to be a Baby Boomer, himself, he spoke for the boomer generation with . . .

JUNE 18 / We briefly interrupt our period of mourning for . . .

. . . the front-page headlines of the day:

"28 Pages May Not Unlock Mystery of Saudis and 9/11," The New York Times, front-page lede, June 18, 2016.

"28 pages might be key to unlocking mystery of Saudis, 9/11," The Houston Chronicle, front-page, below the fold, June 18, 2016.

The kicker: It's the exact same . . . . 

JUNE 17 / (Bumped) A note to readers

Dear friends,

I'm honored that you stop by occasionally to read Unca Darrell. And I deeply regret that I have posted very little in recent days. Believe me, as Mr. Trump is fond of saying, tiny right hand chopping the air, index finger aloft -- Believe me, I'm sitting on a bunch of really good stuff. Absolutely first class stuff. The best stuff ever. Everybody says so. But life is more important than blogging, and I have reached a point where . . . 

APRIL 27 / Mahbubani and Summers: A case against global declinism

With a small rebuttal by Unca Darrell.

UNCA D is an unrepentant declinist. I believe the United States has made a potentially irreversible u-turn away from the values, institutions, and processes that have made it such a good and remarkable place. Read my old blogs for facts and arguments.  

Now come two public thinkers of considerable consequence to argue "the case for global optimism." The writers are . . .