Dear Intelligent American,
James Lileks is a man of great wit, and a master of prose—equipped too with one of those voices made for radio—who, for quite some time, has penned the “Athwart” column for National Review. For quite quite quite some time, he has also penned (can one “pen” if one is typing?) a popular column—this being his day job—for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The final one was published this week past.
Over at Ricochet, James plays host to the site’s anchoring program, with the rococo name The Ricochet Podcast (703 episodes and counting). And then there is his diner-visiting, monologuing podcast, again with an intriguing name: The Diner. As the Latin saying goes, outio checkthemibus.
Good news: James is not going anywhere. But his farewell column prompts the thought that he deserves homage, and homage he shall have.
Why? Because, dear reader, you deserve to know of this man of exceptional talent and mirth. He is architect of the most intriguing website in America (get out the decoder ring: It’s called Lileks.com) which explores and catalogues a variety of pop-culture subjects—for example, The Gallery of Regrettable Food, which archives Betty Crocker competitors of once-upon-a-time crazes such as, well, Gel-Cookery, with crazed sub-sections such as BHG Salads, recalling there was a time when Sputnik ruled space, and Knox Gelatin and molds the suburban kitchen.
Gosh, you best be hungry.
Thanks for all the fun, James. Now, your intellect’s appetite needs some satisfying, so pay attention to what follows, and feel free to come back for seconds.
On the Menu: 14 Savory Dishes, Set in Wisdom, Not Aspic
1. At City Journal, Pierre Manent explains the paralysis of French political life. From the article:
To present the current political situation as a confrontation between democracy and populism/nationalism—between democracy and its enemies—is thus grossly biased and, more importantly, superficial. What we now call democracy on the one hand and populism-nationalism on the other are the results of the process of separation that I am attempting to clarify. When democracy was strong, that is, when the representative republic was fulfilling its purpose, it succeeded in accommodating disagreements much more intense, powerful, and threatening than those surrounding the National Rally, and thus in reconciling them to the ongoing pursuit of the common good. This is worth repeating: the representative republic is the regime capable of accommodating the greatest differences of class, opinion, religion, and tradition—the greatest diversity of spiritual families.
Under such a regime, every great political movement brings about a certain synthesis: a great number of citizens, otherwise very different in their fortune, their opinions and tastes, and so on, can recognize themselves in its physiognomy. The last great synthesis was Gaullism, a synthesis that General Charles de Gaulle, at once a sincere republican and a faithful Catholic, a conservative committed to public liberties, had pondered deeply and pursued deliberately and constantly over many years, never losing sight of the need to gather together all of France’s history by embedding a sense of the monarchical and the classical in the very form of the republic. The approval that now surrounds the personage of de Gaulle allows us to forget or overlook all the divisive, at times hateful, battles through which the Gaullist synthesis was effectuated, as is indeed the case for all great political achievements.
2. At Fusion, Kirstin Anderson Birkhaug finds that students think Robert Nisbet has a cool factor. From the essay:
Nisbet seemed to me, at first glance, a strange suitor for this rising generation. While he lived closer in time to them than the likes of Plato or Locke, I thought that Nisbet might suffer by merit of his proximity. I worried that my students would find him outdated, or even perhaps a bit uncanny—a thinker who wrote of a world very similar to the one in which they live, but one devoid of terms such as “smartphone” or “social media” that represent powerful shaping forces in modern politics and society. More than anything, though, I was concerned that some of my students might discount Nisbet because he is considered “conservative.” Because part of my job is to teach my students to judge ideas on their merits, regardless of ideological labels, I decided not to teach Nisbet as a conservative qua conservative; instead, I decided to let Nisbet speak for himself.
I put the book on my syllabus. I did not expect that, out of every text we read for that class, it would be the one that resonated most deeply with my Gen Z students. The Present Age explores the intertwining expansions of individualism and statism in the 20th-century United States over the course of three sections, respectively entitled “The Prevalence of War,” “The New Absolutism,” and “The Loose Individual.” In each of these sections, my students found something that resonated with them, ideas that reflected their own impressions of the political world into which they have been thrust. Our classes on Nisbet were the most dynamic classes of the semester. Students dropped by my office at surprising rates, wanting to talk about specific passages in The Present Age. When the final paper of the class came due, over half of my students chose to write on Nisbet. It seems as though Nisbet may have written a book ahead of its time. Gen Z may be his most receptive audience to date.
3. At California on Your Mind, Lee Ohanian unveils grim economic news about the Golden State. From the piece:
Businesses are leaving because it is no longer economically feasible for them to stay within California. Well-known departures in recent years include the headquarters of Tesla, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Charles Schwab, and Chevron, which last week announced it is relocating to Texas. But it is not just well-established large headquarters that are leaving. Small but rapidly growing businesses that may become the economic powerhouses of tomorrow are also leaving. These include Envirotech Vehicles, which creates zero-emissions trucks, heavy equipment, and buses, and which left California for Arkansas; AquaMetals, which has developed a new, unique way of recycling strategic and rare metals, including lithium, used in smartphone batteries, and which left California for Nevada; and Maxar Technologies, a rapidly growing business specializing in radar and satellite technologies, providing 90 percent of the geospatial intelligence used by the US government for protecting our troops and other national security purposes, and which left California for Colorado.
California’s weak labor market is not just a consequence of people and businesses leaving the state. Businesses that remain in California are hiring much less, and California now has the country’s second highest unemployment rate. The state’s Employment and Development department expects to pay out $6.8 billion in unemployment benefits this year, financed by only $4.8 billion in payments into the insurance fund. California had borrowed $20 billion already from the federal government in 2020 to cover its unemployment insurance benefits shortfall, which led to an increase in the state’s unemployment insurance taxes on businesses. Combined with this year’s expected $2 billion debt, California’s unemployment insurance deficit will rise to about $22 billion by 2025.
4. At RealClearPolitics, Peter Berkowitz lays out the antisemitism of the Left and its consequences for our republic. From the article:
Left-wing antisemitism and the identity politics that fuels it present a severe test to liberal democracy in America, and throughout the West.
Other bigotries that have marred America’s promise of individual freedom and equality under law—discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and sex and gender—violate the nation’s founding principles and constitutional imperatives. But by and large, other bigots did not reject those principles and imperatives. To preserve an unjust status quo, they dissimulated, concocted ugly excuses or far-fetched rationalizations, or swept the contradiction under the rug.
In contrast, left-wing antisemitism’s alliance with identity politics brazenly rejects America’s most basic political commitments and seeks revolutionary transformation. To assume that rights inhere in groups, not individuals; to believe that people must be sorted into oppressor and oppressed classes; to insist that supposed oppressors can do no good and supposed oppressed can do no evil – is to repudiate America’s constitutional ethos.
5. At RealClearReligion, nepo-author Andrew Fowler bemoans the consequences of growing paganism for America, wondering if it will suffer the fate of ancient Israel. From the essay:
Civilization, as we know it, came from the Judeo-Christian faith. Therefore, expunging God from society will not breed — and has not bred — a happier existence, particularly for those living on the margins. In fact, according to a Harvard University study published in October 2023, 36% of young adults are more anxious compared to 18% of teens; and 29% of young adults suffer from depression compared to 15% of teens. Yet the New York Times reported that “Just one-third of respondents ages 12 to 17 said things were going well for children and teenagers today….Less than half said they thought they would be better off than their parents when they grew up — a downbeat view shared among teenagers in many rich countries, other data shows.” . . .
Indeed, numerous societal forces are contributing to the state of this anxious nation, including, but not limited to, politics, inflation, social media, the media, education, chronic debt, lack of parental involvement, environmental issues, and more. Furthermore, Christians could argue Our Lady of Fatima’s prediction that the “final battle” would be over marriage and the family is more relevant than ever to our era’s woes. But the troubles of the age can mostly be simplified into two key elements: the lack of cohesive understanding of what the truth is and hyper-individualism, taking the “pursuit of happiness” to its extremes.
The individual does not exist in isolation. And while inner peace is certainly an admirable desire to achieve (which can only be found in communion with God), it should not be at the expense or violation of another person’s rights or the whole. This collapse in a collective understanding of American principles, both privately and in the public square, had led us astray from what made the United States a formidable nation in the first place, and even attractive to millions upon millions of immigrants over the centuries.
6. At The European Conservative, Jonathon Van Maren explores Russia’s grappling with the murder of the Romanovs. From the piece:
But as Galeotti observed, a Romanov restoration is largely the stuff of royalist fantasy; 3% of Russians want old tsarism; less than 10% want Russia to become a monarchy, although twice that many would be willing to consider monarchy if a supportable candidate emerged. Such a candidate, incidentally, would unlikely be a Romanov, as most are now considered to be foreigners. Putin has cautiously embraced the Romanovs, even bringing the remains of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna to St. Petersburg from Denmark nearly 80 years after her death to honor her wish to be interred next to her husband and granting her a public funeral in 2006. That, too, is likely part of Putin’s longstanding quest to resurrect the Russian identity out of the ashes of the Soviet Union, which also fuels his support of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Romanovs are a useful link to Russia’s past, not contenders for influence or power.
All that is left of the 300-year-old dynasty in Russia now are restored remains. I walked through the Winter Palace and its grounds on a snowy day in February—its sheer grandeur is still breathtaking. After it was sacked during the October Revolution, it was turned into a museum. The Romanovs had rarely been in residence, but it was easy to imagine the family there, still together and still happy despite the black clouds gathering on history’s horizon. Like many hapless royals in happy marriages, Nicholas would have likely been a contented man if he had avoided the crown; perhaps a more competent tsar might have been less catastrophic. The murder of the Romanovs stays with us because they were among the first of more than sixty million victims of communist terror to follow. The murder of ‘Bloody Nicholas’ was the end of the tsars, but the beginning of a seventy-year horror show that reaped a vast and deadly harvest of Russian daughters, sons, mothers, and fathers.
7. At First Things, Gerald Boersma hails a new monument that is a “masterpiece.” From the piece:
To forge a collective memory is the sacred responsibility entrusted to the sculptor commissioned to create a public memorial. The purpose of his art is to direct a nation’s gaze back over its past with reverence and gratitude; it is also to cast our values, ideals, and faith irrevocably into the future. Artistic public monuments like A Soldier’s Journey bridge past, present, and future, forging a common identity. “I am my memory,” remarked St. Augustine, “there I meet myself, I recall what I am, and what I have done.” What is true for the individual is true for a people. To walk the hallowed precincts of the National Mall is to meet America, to share its memories—to recall what it is and what it has done.
We live in an age that prefers to forget. This is not only because our attention spans are calibrated to the evanescent flickerings of a screen, to a barrage of quickly forgotten tweets and disappearing images. These are merely symptoms. The deeper moral malady is the malaise of memory—of the will to forget. Today, the very notion of a collective memory, a shared identity, or a common life is met with deep suspicion. And so, we live in an age that tears down its public monuments.
The soon-to-be-unveiled National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., serves to resist such willed amnesia. America’s contribution to the war in Europe was immense: 4.7 million Americans served in the trenches and battlefields across Western Europe, and over 116,000 gave their lives in the various theaters of war. And yet, this staggering national sacrifice receives only a fraction of the attention given to the American Civil War fought fifty years earlier or to World War II. Indeed, World War I is the only major conflict of the modern era not represented by a great national monument.
8. At After Babel, Lenore Skenazy and Jon Haidt describe what happened when the kids found themselves in the elements, sans smartphones. From the piece:
What was the best part of the trip? “All of it,” they told her. “Oh my God, so much fun!” “Sooo much fun.” “The fire was amazing. We got a ton of logs from the wood, and we made s’mores . . .”
“As the accounts of their adventure tumble out,” Decca writes, “two things become clear. The first will not please our health-and-safety team. The riskier things got, the more they enjoyed it.” (Not that we endorse crazy risks!)
The second?
“[B]y simply eliminating adults, even something as familiar as camping becomes thrilling,” Decca wrote. “What difference, I ask, would it have made had I taken their Tube, sat in another carriage on the train, and camped nearby in my own tent? Jake looks horrified. ‘I would have hated it.’ Through clenched teeth, ‘Hated every single second.’”
“Don’t you see?” says Albie earnestly. “The dream thing for people our age is to go camping and just have fun without parents. The no-adult aspect is literally the dream to us.”
9. At The Free Press, Sally Satel shows that blacklisting and antisemitism are thriving in the mental-health field. From the beginning of the article:
In March of this year, a therapist on a professional listserv in Chicago passed on a request by a potential patient seeking a therapist who was “a Zionist,” because the patient was dealing with feelings about the “current geopolitical climate.” Many mental health practitioners rely on such online groups to make and accept referrals for patients. It’s common for the request to indicate a preference for a therapist of a particular ethnicity, gender, religion, or age range.
But what happened after this request was made on the Facebook group Chicago Anti-Racist Therapists was not at all common. When therapists responded by putting their names forward on the listserv, one member took action. She announced to the group: “I’ve put together a list of therapists/practices with Zionist affiliations that we should avoid referring clients to.” The listmaker, Heba Ibrahim-Joudeh, added: “Please feel free to contribute additional names as I’m certain there are more out there.”
Contribute to this blacklist they did. The group administrator of Chicago Anti-Racist Therapists chimed in: “This list was made to be transparent about clinicians who promote and facilitate White supremacy via Zionism.” Enthusiasm was high. “Wow, this list grew very fast! Thank you for taking the lead on this,” one user said. Another noted, “I had planned on doing this soon on Excel! Thank you for getting it started.”
10. At National Review, Jack Butler reflects upon Richard Nixon, on the 50th anniversary of his resigning the presidency, and his complicated relationship with conservatives. From the article:
Eventually, some conservatives had had enough. In 1971, Buckley and a group of other conservative leaders issued the Manhattan Declaration, in which they formally suspended their support for Nixon on account of his various transgressions against conservatism. Some of the leaders of Young Americans for Freedom were involved in this declaration as well; that group had also suspended its support of Nixon the same year. National Review went on to endorse a failed primary challenge to Nixon by stalwart conservative congressman John Ashbrook (R., Ohio). Conservatives’ complaints about Nixon may have been inefficacious, but they were real and legitimate.
So who, then, were more audacious? The conservatives who distrusted Nixon just before his historic landslide (albeit one that did not much help Republicans in Congress), or those on the right who subsequently sought to rehabilitate a man who was not just unreliably conservative but is now seemingly forever saddled with a sullied reputation among the general populace? To answer, one must turn to that ugly matter: the attempted burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters, the cover-up of which Nixon was ultimately implicated in.
11. At Law & Liberty, David Hebert reminds us that tariffs and taxes end up in the same place. From the beginning of the essay:
In a recent American Compass article, Michael Lind asks “So What If Tariffs Are Taxes?” In doing so, he defends the position of so many on the left and right that tariffs are good economics, good policy, and essential to reverse the damage allegedly caused by zealously pursuing trade liberalization. Unfortunately, he gets both his history and economics wrong. Because of these errors, his policy recommendations are misguided and reflect an antiquated, pre-Adam Smith view of the world that promotes mercantilism, cronyism, and a “beggar thy neighbor” approach to international relations. These policies have been tried before, with the same result each time: the impoverishment of the nation and its people.
Lind’s call for “Sticks, Not Carrots” belies a subtle truth: he believes it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure that Americans are well-off. This starkly contrasts the historical position of the American Right up until the 2010s, not to mention a core principle of the American Founding: our well-being is primarily our personal responsibility.
The carrots Lind wants us to cease using are “countervailing subsidies” in response to China’s “subsidized dumping of goods.” Were his call to end subsidies to US firms the end of his policy proposals, Lind would have a leg to stand on. Instead, he advocates the use of sticks—via tariffs—to punish American consumers for purchasing foreign-made products. This is not just bad policy. It is economic lunacy.
12. At Plough Quarterly, Zac Koons finds that silence may be the best help to offer the suffering. From the article:
But suffering is a more complicated beast than that. I have found over time that there is something that matters far more than where someone’s particular tragedy ranks in the master list of things that can go wrong in this life. Rather, it is the degree to which they are alone with it. Which is to say, I believe the intensity of our suffering comes not so much from our lack of goods, but from a lack of company, a lack of solidarity, a lack of friends.
This helps me understand what is happening in all those conversations in my study. For what is a person in a clerical collar if not someone upon whom you can safely test your loneliness. Here is someone bound by the cloth to confidentiality, who has taken vows to love and care, who surely you can trust will not judge you too hastily. Here is someone who exists so that you don’t have to be alone. . . .
And it is precisely in this moment that we have the opportunity to do something beautiful. We must summon all our strength and resist the urge to do anything at all – to offer advice, to offer a favor, to say anything that amounts to the words, “If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know.” Instead, all we must do is hold the space. Don’t do for, just be with. Be silent. Say things like, “That sounds really painful,” and “I’m so glad that you told me” and “I wonder what feels like the hardest part of all.” And when they deflect and say something like, “Well, I know you have lots of other important things to do . . .” you get the gift of being able to say, “There’s nothing more important for me right now than to be with you.”
Lucky 13. At the Oconomowoc Enterprise, Karen Pilarski shares the good news of a Wisconsin fundraiser that brought a young boy a very special example of man’s best friend. From the beginning of the story:
A Waukesha restaurant successfully raised money for an Oconomowoc child to get a service dog. Neighbors Bar and Grille, S16-W22255 Arcadian Ave., held a Pawsitism fundraising event on Saturday. The total amount won’t be known until later this week but it looks like they might be able to help another child.
"We were amazed how our community came together to get Dane his service dog. We raised enough to cover the full cost. There are so many great people out there and they showed up in waves. We cannot thank the community enough and appreciate the support. We achieved our goal thanks to them," Chris Potratz, owner of Neighbors Bar and Grille, said.
Potratz said these service dogs that are specifically trained to help children with autism are extremely expensive.
Bonus. At Tablet Magazine, Jamie Betesh Carter praises a dessert delicacy. From the piece:
From a very young age, I was used to eating exotic foods. Both Ashkenazi and Sephardic foods were staples at our family meals since three out of four of my grandparents were immigrants. Except Grandma Molly—she was from Manhattan. My other grandparents would make dishes like malabi and baklawa for dessert. But Molly would make “regular” food, like chocolate pudding. In reality, she was a first-generation American, a little Jewish babushka from the Lower East Side of New York City. To me, she was so fancy. She had perfect diction and impeccable handwriting. She had a way of making everything feel and taste special.
One of our favorite dishes—one that I hadn’t thought about until last month—was bananas and cream. As a kid, after day camp, I’d go to my grandmother’s house to have a snack before going home. It was after lunch but before I’d have dinner with my family, so we had to have something light. Oftentimes, we’d make bananas and cream. It was the simplest, most refreshing dish, with just the right amount of sweetness. I vividly remember standing on her kitchen stool, slicing the bananas into the bowl, scooping out the sour cream on top, and whisking in the sugar. In fact, I think that making this dish was when I first learned how to use a knife. We’d then sit at her kitchen table chatting about our days, eating bananas and cream until my mother would call to say it was time to come upstairs.
For the Good of the Order
Uno. Central to a nonprofit’s successful development program is having “major gifts” clicking on all cylinders, or even some. Crazy, no, that this is an area of fundraising where many organizations flub. To quote the great Alfred E. Neuman: “What, me worry?” Maybe you should. But maybe you can do something more—something constructive—than worrying. The good news: There’s wisdom to be had, and courses to be corrected, and fixing and u-turning and up-buffing will happen September 4-6 in Washington, DC, when the Center For Civil Society will host its acclaimed, intensive, in-person “Major Gifts Training Seminar,” where a quartet of AmPhil experts will teach participants how to set goals, find major donors, secure visits, and so much more (including a planning-giving primer). Time’s running out. So are spaces. Get complete information right here.
Due. At Philanthropy Daily, Carter Skeel explains significant differences between big and small nonprofit fundraisers. Read it here.
Tre. Attention, all Givers, Doers, and Thinkers: C4CS will host a consequential conference on K to Campus: How the Education Reform Movement Can Reshape Higher Ed. It takes place at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA, from October 23 to 24, and just about every bit of info you want/need to know can be found here. Fun fact: The kick-off event will be Yours Truly interviewing the great Victor Davis Hanson. Come, and prepare to be inspired.
Quattro. From the bountiful archives of the “Givers, Doers, & Thinkers” podcast comes a profound conversation on alienated America between Jeremy Beer and author Tim Carney. Listen here.
Department of Bad Jokes
Q: What do scholars eat when they are hungry?
A: Academia nuts.
A Dios
On the phone the other night, late, Yours Truly was yapping with old high-school pal Kevin, discussing angels, and not the California ones, and their roles—“their” being guardian angels. Of interest: He cautioned against giving your guardian angel a name (such as “Lenny,” but any name for that matter). Maybe it’s best to stick with “Hey You!” Said reverently, of course.
May We Know and Seek Divine Mercy,
Jack Fowler, who can have his wings clipped at jfowler@amphil.com.
