Robert Chametzky

Barbarism and Culture

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The author responded to recent poems in First and then went further with his thoughts…

“I’m on the side   . . .
[of] the ones used as messages . . .
of those whose deaths are part of an estimated number . . . ”

Oh my, oh my — what to do with (lines from) poems such as this, and those by Alison Stone…Such good lines/poems — are we allowed to admire them, as well as being moved, being led to reflect, to sympathize, to cry? Might there not be something just a bit off in such admiration? But if so, then why have poems at all?  Which, inevitably (for some) leads to . . . Adorno:

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MC/DC (Biden Now)

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Although the rain had thoughtfully let up, midday remained overcast and chilly on Wednesday 1 May, so it wasn’t the weather that brought me, one of my Boys, and a couple hundred other people to an Iowa City brew-pub located in a non-site, amidst building construction and a city-park-in-progress. And it wasn’t to celebrate International Workers’ Day, either. No, we were gathering to hear “Middle Class Joe” Biden.

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Betomania

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“First’s” new, ah, Iowa correspondent follows up here on his first pass at Beto.  This reporter will look to provide close-ups of other Democratic  candidates as they roll through Iowa in the coming months…

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Wilde Week

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The Kavanaugh Affair may have a socially chilling effect, leading drunken, sexually abusive Catholic young men to eschew public service and go into the priesthood instead.

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Trumpty Dumpty

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‘I don’t know what you mean by “glory”,’ Alice said.

Trumpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. ‘Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!”‘

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Morning in Iowa

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A report from an Iowa Caucus-goer.

It looks to be a long winter; Ted Cruz woke up this morning, saw his shadow, but then absolutely refused to go back in his hole.

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