Category Archives: Miscellany
To Err is Human, to Kvetch Divine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th November 2020Earlier this month Commentary published its 75th anniversary issue. It contains a long dialogue (Editing Commentary – A Conversation) between John Podhoretz the magazine’s current editor and his father Norman a previous editor. The conversation, nine pages of it, is a largely congratulatory depiction of how heavily edited is the copy published. John describes an…
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On Equality
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th August 2020We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal… This self evident truth is obviously not self evident. Thomas Jefferson undoubtedly knew such to be the case. He meant that we all should be equal before the law and that the laws should be designed without bias or special benefit not thought…
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Apropos of Nothing – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th June 2020Woody Allen’s autobiography caught my attention because of its title. Any book with “Nothing” in its title demands my notice. Allen and I grew up in neighboring parts of Brooklyn at the same time. He went to Midwood High School, I to James Madison – the latter less than 2 miles south of Midwood. Both…
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Livin’ the Dream – Governments, Polls, and Other Blunders
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd May 2020The current state of societal and economic collapse is completely the governments fault. Yet what’s seen as the solution? More Government action. Since the viral epidemic was recognized, we warned here that locking down the economy would make things a lot worse, which sure enough it did. We’ve had worse viral outbreaks, some within living…
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COVID-19: A Medical Example of How Science-Guided Policy Goes Wrong
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th May 2020COVID-19: A Medical Example of How Science-Guided Policy Goes Wrong is the title of an article by me published on the National Association of Scholars website. Among other topics its discusses the problem of false positives test for the virus. The issue has largely been ignored. Consider the five soccer players in Spain who have…
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On Retirement
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd May 2020Embalming fluid – the only cure for presidential fever* Forced retirement is now imposed on much of the world, I thought it of interest to comment on the retirement of four great figures, three of whom are not usually thought of as ever being retired. The fourth is a strange case of premature retirement. The…
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Corona Craziness – Why We Surrendered Without a Fight
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th April 2020Genghis Khan was the greatest administrator who ever lived. He always knew when to temper justice with brutality. Anonymous How did we reach a social point where most of the world would accept suicide as a remedy for a serious, but not unmanageable, contagious disease? We’ve endured plagues, famines, natural disasters, wars, and a Pandora’s…
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Why Walmart is Doomed
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th April 2020The title is hyperbole. I don’t think Walmart will go out of business, rather it will fall victim to what the great economist Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction. In the mid 20th century General Motors was the exemplar of American industrial excellence. In the first decade of the next century it went bankrupt and was…
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Dead Links Revived
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th April 2020You may have noticed that all the links to music going back several years were dead. They were the result of an error by me about 10 days ago. Fortunately, it was fixable. All the links have been brought back to life and should work as expected. I’m sorry for any bother that readers may…
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Two Pertinent Quotations
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th March 2020Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule” – Friedrich Nietzsche America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between – Oscar Wilde Nietzsche ended up mad and Wilde went to jail.
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