For a lot of people, the election of Obama caused them to ejaculate, “I want my country back!” Eight years later, another president was elected (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
A Brief Sketch of African Music
04/03/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentAfrican music as found in the western half of the continent has an overall shape despite major distinctions from north to south. This music came (Continue Reading)
Personal responsibility versus social responsibility
03/12/2022 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsKurt Andersen has made clear the course of thinking in this country derived from Milton Friedman: nothing matters more that making money except making more (Continue Reading)
Who is the true egalitarian
03/04/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhen a conservative savages a poor person, a person of putative lower status, or anyone at a disadvantage, we liberals rush to their defense. But (Continue Reading)
race discrimination vs caste discrimination
02/19/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentMy wife watches a lot of English soap opera and mysteries. Most of them have a character, principal or marginal, who is Black. Over time, (Continue Reading)
The Reshaping of a Musical Culture
01/29/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentJoseph Holloway writes in Africanisms in American Culture that the slaves brought with them their musical culture. That resulted in them reshaping the European American (Continue Reading)
Do you really doubt it………..?
01/15/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhen I saw the faces of the young people caught up in the police dragnet in Belarus, I saw the future of our children and (Continue Reading)
Reason in, Reason out
01/05/2022 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsMichael Steele, former RNC chair, said a friend asked him a good question concerning the Trump/Insurrection supporters: how do you reason someone out of a (Continue Reading)
Rage
12/24/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsSo interesting how we talk about the rage of the Trump voters, the left-behind. How about this though?Just tonight (Dec. 9, 2021) I was listening (Continue Reading)
What I Am Most Proud Of
12/10/2021 Pat Barrett 6 CommentsIn his Atlantic article, “Are We Doomed?” George Packer has two lines that went to something I’ve been saying ever since the rise of Trump. (Continue Reading)
Two against two: ad hominem
12/09/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsThis morning I was standing in line waiting for a blood test. Four of us got to chatting. About the time the doors opened, the (Continue Reading)
Idiomaticity
12/08/2021 Pat Barrett Add Comment“I understand what you mean but we don’t say it that way.” How many times have you heard someone tell you that as you foundered (Continue Reading)
No Serious Consequences
12/05/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsIsabel Wilkerson so deftly put into frame and focus the experience of Black Americans, I wondered as I read what the obverse of that coin (Continue Reading)
The Statue Problem
12/04/2021 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsThe statues some people find objectionable are typically those of men who exploited and extracted, at least in the Americas. We usually don’t get excited (Continue Reading)
New Core Exercises
12/02/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentA friend sent me a video by Bob and Brad. On the side I saw one titled 10 exercises you should not do. Two of (Continue Reading)
Carried along in the rhythm of the music
11/20/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentSitting here listening to a series of performances of Agbadza, the ever popular Ewe dance music, I realized the nature of that pulse, what many (Continue Reading)
Heavy Metal in Africa
11/19/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentA Togolese heavy metal group is making itself known. Heavy metal is associated more with White audiences in the U.S. and even has an association (Continue Reading)
The Fascists Among Us
11/14/2021 Pat Barrett 6 CommentsHaven’t you met natural fascists? Don’t give me the salesman b.s. about “I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.” You know who they are, (Continue Reading)
Trace it back
11/06/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentTake a rhythm in any current song of the Americas and Europe. Trace it back until it disappears. Where was that last point found? Take (Continue Reading)
Oops!
10/27/2021 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsOops could be the name of a category. It is when a point or fact is evidenced as the product of another topic entirely. Here’s (Continue Reading)
You gotta feel sorry for them…….
10/26/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentThose poor guys who attacked the Capitol trying to overturn a free and fair election are just running into all sorts of problems. One dropped (Continue Reading)
Each one gave their best…………
09/04/2021 Pat Barrett 7 Commentsfrom The Language Instinct pp. 377-379 Sometimes an alleged grammatical ‘error’ is logical not only in the sense of ‘rational’ but the sense of respecting (Continue Reading)
Hillbilly Legacy
08/23/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentOf 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)