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Sometimes a man finds himself in Arbutus

The American empire may be crumbling, but American pop culture still rules the world.

the return of the serialized novel

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Unmasking the paramilitary enforcers of the immigration crackdown

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One way to split the baby between "The DOJ should be independent of the president" and "The DOJ should answer to the electorate" would be Mark Hatfield's old idea of making the federal attorney general, like most state AGs, an elected office. (OTOH: Imagine what shitshows the campaigns could be.)

bad news for Bigfoot-hunting cineastes

"a Masonic lodge accused of running hit squads"

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I gathered a bunch of movie reviews & micro-reviews that I wrote for other places and added them to my Letterboxd page. Everything from DEATH WISH 3 to THE EAST IS RED. (Plus ORPHANS OF THE STORM, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC, WINTER KILLS...)

Foucault goes to Attica

If you're already insulting our intelligence with "regime change has occurred," you might as well go all out and add "President Trump doesn't bluff, and he does not back down." www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/0...

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I posted another Letterboxd list: the top 20 movies of the '40s

RIP to Slava Tsukerman, director of the immortal LIQUID SKY. "I wanted to put together all the myths of the time, like sex, rock and roll, drugs, aliens from outer space." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/m...

I'm generally tolerant of people's private pleasures, but I draw the line at something as perverse as marrying Kristi Noem.

"Mr. Curtis approached Mr. Machado with three questions: Can you act? Can you sing? Can you dance? Mr. Machado's answers, all in the negative, delighted Mr. Curtis. 'Would you like to be in a play?' he wondered."

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"New U.S. missile hit Iranian sports hall and school, analysis shows. The Pentagon used missiles untested in combat in a deadly attack that struck civilian sites..."

new war goals just dropped

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I reviewed the Peaky Blinders movie.

"Somewhere on Wikipedia, someone spent an afternoon writing about something the world almost never searches for. They cited their sources. They saved their work. And then, in a whole year, fewer than 2,000 people found it. We find those articles." www.lonelywiki.com

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I did another Letterboxd list. This one's kinda niche.

"It's entirely possible for a faith to experience revival and decline simultaneously. That's because conversion is a different thing, sociologically and personally, than what you might call the ordinary transmission of an established faith."

I've thought it over, and the only new Tolkien film or show that I'm interested in seeing is a series set in the Shire after The Return of the King where it's just Sam Gamgee solving mysteries.

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"TV show ends on a cliffhanger? Well, that's a 'design element' to encourage binging....Book chapter ends in the middle of a scene? Well that's a 'design element' encouraging you to read more than you intended..."

"Iranians don't have a missile alert system, so volunteers built their own warning map"

The mysterious drone swarm at the Louisiana air force base

He just couldn't resist clicking on the spam from AmazingCoolSneakers.ir

"It is kind of the equivalent of a new blade or a new point or a new kind of material culture or art form or something, where everybody's getting really excited about having this fun new thing around. And it's useful and it's interesting and it's probably cute."

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Probably the key sentence here: "YouTube is obviously awash in unscripted content already—some of it well produced, some of it not, but all of it capturing more viewing time than any other streaming app."

"office space is a hard sell these days, and may be even harder when what you are offering includes nowhere-but-here amenities like powder rooms that were once jail cells, storage areas with bars, and a display featuring historic handcuffs"

A rural conservative rebellion against a planned prison. "In the state of Arkansas, we're a very split Republican Party. It's big government against small government."

Chip Taylor, RIP. (Also: Chip Taylor was John Voight's brother? Did everyone know this but me?)

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I played around with Letterboxd some more, posted my 20 favorite films of the '30s.

"...like a mix of Buster Keaton's SHERLOCK JR. and Samuel Beckett's KRAPP'S LAST TAPE..."

I disagree with Mr. Hogeland about the movie's merits but I'm on board with the music history.

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Letterboxd list #2: The top 20 movies of the '20s. That's the real '20s, not the ersatz decade we're living through now.

I started a Letterboxd page, which I expect to use more for reading than for writing, but who knows? I already posted one list & maybe I'll do some more.

Welfare for trucking companies, wage suppression for truckers

"All right, I'll tell you. It was a golden horse—a big, beautiful horse—people tell me it's bigger than any horse they've ever seen before. We brought it to the Pentagon and parked it in the middle, and everyone came out to admire it. Pete said, 'Sir, this shows we're winning.'"

bringing Shenzhen to America