RIP: Irving Kristol

Writer Irving Kristol died last week at 89. Though I didn't directly read a lot of his work (and there is a whole lot of it) I have been steadily influenced by those who he influenced and mentored, his son Bill and wife Gertrude along with James Q Wilson and others. I wish I would have known his magazine The Public Interest in its heyday.

Christopher Hitchens and James Q Wilson have articles about him below. They are especially useful in trying to understand the true origins of the term neoconservative without all the post-Iraq war baggage.

Hitchens on Irving Kristol

Wilson on Irving Kristol

On...If Only It Were True

How Newspapers Should Report...HERE

On...The Michigan Way

Two Governors and a Failed Idea

For those of us who live in Michigan this article in the Wall Street Journal is depressing. Sure the true believers (in Gov. Granholm, all twelve of them) will deny it and say the numbers are wrong and check back in 10 years, etc. Others will ignore it. But many will shake their heads and know deep down that this is what they feared. Michigan and its 15% unemployment, which would be even higher if people weren't allowed to leave, is becoming the New Mississippi. Progressives don't understand basic economic principles and refuse to learn them. Instead they role out big government (even on the state level) and expect miracle cures. It simply doesn't work that way. Yes, organized government can solve some problems on a small scale, but the marketplace is not one of them. But they'll keep trying.

Anyway, the article is HERE: Michigan Subsidies Fail

I found the movie subsidy aspect disappointing. I thought maybe that was a good idea initially. See, even I can get suckered it from time to time.

On...Texas Tea

Black Gold

Author of the award-winning history of oil, The Prize, has a new article in Foreign Policy magazine where he examines the controversial and volatile necessity of OIL in our modern world.

It's Still the One by Daniel Yergin

On...Fall Books

An Autumn Read

Quick link also from Slate.com that lists a number of books/novels coming out this fall. Sort of a small Fall Book Preview.

HERE

On...Forest Hills Garden

Suburbia

Slate.com just posted this image montage of Forest Hills Garden development in Queens, NY from 1909. It reminded me that I meant to blog more about my trip to NYC and my time with Professor Ken Jackson of Columbia (first-rate urban historian). I read his classic book Crabgrass Frontier, which among many things covered the history of suburban development. I'm partial to the Forest Hill Gardens style and not the Levittown style that clearly won in the 20th century. Hopefully more mindful development will be at the forefront of the 21st. Ah, to have a billion or two (dollars that is).

HERE for FOREST HILLS

HERE for Crabgrass Frontier