Curtis Bowman

David Graeber on the Proliferation of Bullshit Jobs in Higher Education

David Graeber looks at the proliferation of bullshit jobs in higher education. Naturally, he focuses his attention on the massive growth of pointless administrative employment.

During the ten years I spent applying in vain for full-time jobs in philosophy departments, I routinely encountered people with Ph.D.s who either had settled for administrative jobs because they couldn't find proper academic positions or who hadn't even bothered to look for academic jobs but instead had gone straight into administration after finishing graduate school. But I never met a single person who permanently gave up an academic career in order to become an administrator.

Richard J. Evans Reviews Thomas Childers's "The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany"

Richard J. Evans, author of a ridiculous number of books about German history, reviews Thomas Childers's The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany.

Corey Robin Cautions Against Comparing Trump to Hitler

Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump, explains why we should be wary of comparing Trump to Hitler.

Edward Teller Warned the Oil Industry about Global Warming in 1959

Apparently, Edward Teller warned the oil industry about global warming in 1959.

Well, that's an eye-opening story, but, alas, not really surprising.

Thomas Frank's Autopsy of the 2016 Presidential Election

If you follow my blog, then you know that I have a fondness for the work of Thomas Frank. Here's a short interview with him on CNN in which he offers his autopsy of the election.

Scroll down this page a bit and you'll see a video in which Mr. Frank was talking about the same issues months before the election.

More: Here's a written version of Mr. Frank's autopsy.

Thomas Frank Reviews Hillary Clinton's "What Happened"

I always turn to Thomas Frank for insight into how the Democrats manage to lose elections that they should be winning. So, naturally, I was intrigued by his review of Hillary Clinton's What Happened.

The professional self-satisfaction and willful blindness of the highly credentialed professional class has a lot to do with her loss, says Frank, thereby continuing the sort of criticism that he has been offering of the Democratic party for a long time.

The DIA Report on Russian Military Power

Take a look at the eye-opening report from the Defense Intelligence Agency on Russian military power.

I haven't linked directly to the PDF but to the press release which contains the link you need. The PDF is 4.9 MB.

Thomas Frank on What John Podesta's Hacked Emails Reveal About the Liberal Elite

Thomas Frank looks at what John Podesta's hacked emails reveal about the liberal elite. It's no surprise, Frank says, that they take care of themselves and their own. So if you don't belong to the meritocracy, then you're out of luck.

Frank discusses the liberal meritocracy at length in Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?, especially in chapter one. 

Jonathan Chait on the Coming Age of GOP Authoritarianism

Jonathan Chait, whose work I've always found worthwhile, looks at the coming age of GOP authoritarianism. It's only going to get worse, he argues.

Trying to Understand the Dallas Sniper

If you're trying to understand Micah Johnson's motivation for his attack on Dallas law enforcement, you might want to compare his case to that of Mark Essex. I don't know, maybe it will help.

I first became aware of Essex's shooting spree when I read chapter 8 of Elliott Leyton's Hunting Humans: The Rise of the Modern Multiple Murderer. I was just re-reading Leyton's analysis, and I realized that one of his main sources, which I had thought was out of print, is actually currently available in paperback. I'm referring to Peter Hernon's A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper.

I haven't yet read Heron's book, but it's now on my reading list.