Comments on: Minds that Move the World

By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:02:30 +0000

Speaking of Ashcroft… did you know he performed in a barbershop quartet with his colleagues Trent Lott, Jim Jeffords and Larry Craig?? hahaaha… you can take the interesting quiz here- http://msg.com/speakerseries/

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:10:59 +0000

Wouldn’t it be depressing if, after the series was over, you heard on the grapevine that in actual fact they were all lovely people…

Ollie North did a signing at our bookstore, back in the day. I was a minion in the promotions section, so I overheard the following dialogue:

Promotions Person, “Gah! Why wasn’t he a complete jerk? Why didn’t he at least spit on the Constitution while he was signing books? He was so nice!”
Old Hand, “The evil ones are always nice.”

By: Firas

Firas — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:34:27 +0000

This strikes me as as pretty disingenuous. It’s like saying you’ll never go to an industry conference because obviously you’ve heard the arguments better hashed out elsewhere or you’ll never read someone review a book because it’s been reviewed elsewhere or you won’t listen to a program about something because it’s been talked about elsewhere. You can’t indict someone for lack of sophistication just because they want to listen to someone talk about things (Friedman, for example) that they already know about (as if Al Gore is that breathtakingly different everytime he opens his mouth). You can’t spend all your time scrounging about for what’s new under the sun.

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:08:35 +0000

Sadly, I have an uncle in Westchester County who helped found Israel (was in the Haganah), appreciates Conrad and Ford novels, votes Democratic, goes to the Yale Rep, and is an admirer of Friedman, Kristof, Fish, et al. There is such a demographic.

By: RonK, Seattle

RonK, Seattle — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:35:00 +0000

National (US) Sleep Awareness Week was proceeding quietly toward its March 9 conclusion until you raised the prospect of a telekinetic Ann Coulter.

By: Delicious Pundit

Delicious Pundit — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:14:00 +0000

There hasn’t been a group of minds this uninterestingly balanced since David Broder dined alone.

By: Michael Bérubé

Michael Bérubé — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:52:36 +0000

It’s not about the money, Zamfir, it’s about the cultural capital. One would hope that people living in the middle of a media megalopolis would have ready access to information sufficient to make a speakers’ series like this the bad joke it rightly should be. I mean, it’s not as if New Yorkers—at any income level—don’t have any other options for what to do with their time.

Then again, on this principle one would expect people in Los Angeles to produce really good music and movies. See brand new pony, above.

By: Zamfir

Zamfir — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 14:30:46 +0000

I always wonder what the potential audience is for these things – who could be interested enough in the Middle East, for instance, to have the desire to attend (plus the time and money), yet ALSO be ignorant enough about the subject that listening to Thomas Friedman blather about it would add value?

This is the age-old mistake that people with money must, somehow, have a bit more taste and wisdom than the average person. In reality, people with money just have more money.

By: Shawn Crowley

Shawn Crowley — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 11:52:52 +0000

This reminds me of a motivational show extravaganza with Colin Powell, Zig Zeiglar, some former football player and a host of other notables. That show was real but the ads still result in nightmares of Scientology auditing classes, high-school gym speakers and the national press corps swooning over lies so audacious that lightning should strike.

Seriously, parody is dead. I can’t tell reality from acid flashbacks anymore. Darwin was born 200 years ago and now Reno, Gonzales, and Friedman are bull goose intellectuals. I guess I have to question natural selection after all.

By: Gene O'Grady

Gene O'Grady — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:03:49 +0000

It is certainly possible to fill out reimbursement vouchers in an unmeek way. In one of my many past lives when I was charged with processing such things I questioned a highly questionable expense (as my boss expected me to) and had to deal with an irate manager who asked me “What’s wrong? You think I’m trying to Jew the company out of the money.” I had no response.

By the way, this was not in academia

By: joejoejoe

joejoejoe — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:54:17 +0000

Apparently this ‘The Minds That Move the World’ thing is on tour because a Maher/Coulter event is coming up in Chicago. A quick check of the Google reveals a Boston stop too. It beats the bird flu coming to town but only by a little.

By: Michael Bérubé

Michael Bérubé — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:12:30 +0000

It’s a good question, flubber, because the first time I saw a notice of this here travesty, in was in the New Yorker. One hopes that New Yorkers are, in the aggregate, sufficiently well-informed about the world not to have to pay to see world-moving minds like these in action. Then again, one hopes for a brand new pony.

By: flubber

flubber — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:01:13 +0000

Sounds like the seminars occasionally advertised in the New Yorker – big brains like Thomas Friedman, Fareed Zakaria, Joe Klein, etc. I always wonder what the potential audience is for these things – who could be interested enough in the Middle East, for instance, to have the desire to attend (plus the time and money), yet ALSO be ignorant enough about the subject that listening to Thomas Friedman blather about it would add value?

By: Michael Bérubé

Michael Bérubé — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:23:54 +0000

Yeah, gmoke, it looks like they reserved the real D-league for New York. Don't know quite what to think of that, either, except that if Madison Square Garden Entertainment is involved, that would explain a lot. The organization that gave you Isiah Thomas (Knicks) and Glen Sather (Rangers) really knows how to scout for the most craptastic talent on the continent. Ginger Yellow: I hear that kind of thing can be fun. It's not for me, though.

By: gmoke

gmoke — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:47:55 +0000

The same series is coming to Boston (or will it be simulcast?) but Al Gore is part of it. Don’t know quite what to think of that.