Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Simon Says

One of the greatest film and theater critics of the 20th century, John Simon, is actually blogging.

That such a literate and urbane (and famous) man of letters now resides in the blogosphere is surprising enough. That John Simon is doing so is doubly surprising; up until recently, I suppose, he wrote all his reviews and essays by hand initially, typing them clumsily, with two fingers, on an electric typewriter only after the pieces were finalized.

At any rate, enjoy a remarkable critic with a near-Menckenesque stature.


Saturday, January 1, 2011

It's Taken 20 Years But You Did It

About time, Clive. You finally admitted that I'm clever.

What a great way to start the new year!

Why Won't Wealthy Liberals Give More?

Very clever of you, Cassandra, not to explicitly admit that the greedy, selfish people you scorn in your post are many of them Liberals, as studies have shown.

Liberals proclaim their generosity and their humanity, and the rest of the country probably believes them. It's become a cultural meme: an unexamined assumption that spreads like a virus and never gets questioned or validated with actual data.

As it turns out, however, Liberals aren't quite so generous with their wealth as they want us to believe.

Arthur Brooks, the author of Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, says that "when you look at the data, it turns out the conservatives give about 30 percent more." Brooks adds, "And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money [approximately 6 percent less than Liberals]." The differences between conservative generosity and Liberal generosity stretch beyond money: for example, conservatives are 18 percent more likely to donate blood.

Brooks: "You find that people who believe it's the government's job to make incomes more equal, are far less likely to give their money away." In fact, he writes, people who disagree that the government should redistribute income are 27 percent more likely to give to charity.

So stick that in your stockings, Libs.

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