Ritchie McLennison
901 posts
I'm impressed with the increasingly mad hit pieces "liberals attempt"--in this case, an attack on Harvey Mansfield, the "conservative ogre" with the "clumsy" "interventions in campus culture wars." Mansfield's 'accuser' seems to be a British mediocrity writing in the London Review of Books, a publication of no intellectual worth. He wants to attack Leo Strauss. He's barely able to describe Strauss's position without condescending remarks everywhere, the same with his summary of Mansfield's book. Awareness of what he dislikes may perhaps be an insult to him, so knowing clearly what he disagrees with is impossible for him--he has been compelled to learn about Strauss & his students & he resents it, is my guess. What's impressive is that this non-entity admits Melzer's Philosophy Between The Lines gives overwhelming evidence from philosophers' own writings about esotericism--but his animus to Strauss & Mansfield is undiminished, his blindness to philosophy unrevealed. But on the other hand, if one wanted to present the shocking arguments of Strauss & Mansfield among the blind, perhaps this is the only way to do it & escape censorship! The review suppresses evidence of greatness of thought, admittedly, but it provides enough controversy & adequate summaries of revolutionary views of modern philosophers from Machiavelli to Rousseau so that anyone with wit should throw himself into the reading of Strauss to escape the boring senility of academia. All in all, I'm grateful to see it! Of course, intellectuals & academics are continuously in decline, their only comfort being that the people hold them in contempt, so that their failures are ignored. But those of us who want to replace them have to take all our opportunities, including this review. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book…
In your opinion, what is the best intellectual history book written since 2000.
George H.W. Bush kept his assets in a blind trust, as did Bill Clinton. Neither Obama nor Biden traded stocks or bonds while in office. 3,700 trades is probably more than all the trades of all the presidents until now. And he is trading stocks that are affected by his decisions. A walking conflict of interest, at the least, and perhaps insider trading. Just as members of Congress should not be able to trade stocks, so too the president. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true?
@patientinvestor We sold Google and bought Microsoft. Interesting. I have enormous respect for Chris.
“He is not going to get away with this forever. His efforts to line his pockets more and more, to pillage everything that isn’t nailed down, before he’s sent packing once and for all—this can only sharpen the electoral vengeance that’s coming for him.” open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark…
Pope Leo XIV bestowed the Vatican’s highest diplomatic honor upon the Islamic Republic’s Ambassador, Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari. The man is part of a regime that slaughtered 42,000 of its own people and imposes the death penalty on Muslims who convert to Christianity.
NEW: The cost of President Trump's plan to repair the Reflecting Pool has jumped by 88 percent, to $13.1M, gov't records show. The price appears to include a 20 percent profit margin for Trump's handpicked contractor, who got the job in a no-bid contract. nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/…
