Of hillbilly legacy myself (West Virginia though raised in Ohio), I was heartened to see J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. is so Southern – it (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
Why SOME sports fans belong in the dregs of humanity category
07/29/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentFull disclosure: I have never been a sports fan. My wife, my son, so many people in my life are “avid” sports fans (like a (Continue Reading)
As we escape armageddon, just barely…….
01/10/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsA recap of what hit us last week, Jan. 4 to now. The Democrats took the Senate, sending a Jew and a Black from the (Continue Reading)
Shithole countries are us
01/09/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsI’ll bet everyone is wondering where are Pat Barrett’s comments on the events of January 2021. 🙂 To be honest, I don’t know who these (Continue Reading)
Nowhere to tack this
08/30/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’ve tried finding an entry to tack this latest onto but can’t find anything recent that is appropriate: the showdown in Portland between protesters and (Continue Reading)
Black Hats and White Hats
01/07/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’m restarting my Running Commentary category to cover what may prove to be Bush’s Iraq and Johnson’s Viet Nam. Most Americans, I am willing to (Continue Reading)
Where Are We Now?
10/19/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentAs long as Trump was smearing the reputations of Black leaders, tearing Hispanic toddlers from their parents’ arms, denying entry to the country based on (Continue Reading)
What concerned the Framers concerning Trump
09/24/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentEx-Republican, former Congressman from Florida David Jolly laid out on Nicolle Wallace’s MSNBC show Deadline White House just who the Framers of the Constitution had (Continue Reading)
The Obverse
09/20/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentMaybe I’m not using this word right but I’ve written a lot on the conservative pov and the counterpart to that, the obverse, is what (Continue Reading)
Which California would you rather live in?
09/19/2019 Pat Barrett Add Comment“When I asked her what she made of the college admissions scandal, she expressed some puzzlement. Didn’t those rich parents know that everyone would have (Continue Reading)
Dukes of Hazard Redux
09/18/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentComedians make jokes about Red Necks. Black comedians make jokes about Black people and White comedians do so very carefully. As ethnic groups integrate into (Continue Reading)
All liberals are communists and all conservatives are fascists
09/13/2019 Pat Barrett 1 CommentOr at least that seems to be the way our political arguments go. If you do not support Black Lives Matter you must be a (Continue Reading)
Is this coincidence, paranoia, or cause & effect?
09/08/2019 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsWatching Lester Holt’s series on mass incarceration, I was struck by the time-line: early 70s is when the upsurge in incarceration began and it has (Continue Reading)
Like I said……..
09/04/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’ve decided to reactivate my Running Commentary category and here is the first installment: Watching Morning Joe just now Steve Rattner showed a chart where (Continue Reading)
Drum Beat
04/22/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentYou probably expect this to be found in the category Music of the African Diaspora but it is in Running Commentary b/c it refers to (Continue Reading)
From here forward
04/21/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentFrom over a year ago: This past week I ejected myself from all on-line activities except e-mail and this blog. No more flteach, after 20 (Continue Reading)
Retooling of category “Running Commentary”
04/21/2019 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis will go forward as commentary primarily on what I’m reading as I take notes on it. The category What I’m Reading Now will deal (Continue Reading)
What looms ahead?
02/28/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe entry Hate and Special Status discusses a little of Pankaj Mishra’s talk at A.S.U. The rise of anger (his talk and book are Global (Continue Reading)
The Adults in the Room
12/20/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentA piece in the New York Review of Books discusses the figures designated the adults in the room, 3 military and 1 civilian, under the (Continue Reading)
Running commentary April 2017
04/20/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentA new category eclipsing my commentary on the presidential campaign. As I sit 5 hours a night and 4 or more on the weekends watching (Continue Reading)