The American Spectator

At its core, anarchism isn’t simply a negative political philosophy, or an excuse for window-breaking, as most people tend to assume it is. Even while calling for an end to the rule of coercive states backed by military bases, prison industries and subjugation, anarchists and other autonomists try to build a culture in which people can take care of themselves and each other through healthy, sustainable communities. Many are resolutely nonviolent. Drawing on modes of organizing as radical as they are ancient, they insist on using forms of participatory direct democracy that naturally resist corruption by money, status and privilege. Everyone’s basic needs should take precedence over anyone’s greed. (December 19, 2011)

New York Times

Edith Palmer writing from a Brooklyn sanatorium relates how the fiendish David Koch spoiled her grand-daughter’s Christmas in a letter to the famed “Ethicist” column of the venerable Times—and we shall be monitoring this column avidly:

I was excited to take my granddaughter, Rachel, to see a local production of “The Nutcracker.” But this season, the production was being underwritten in large part by David Koch, a billionaire who supports numerous political causes that I think harm our nation. He also supports many worthy medical, educational and arts organizations, but I think those good works buy the complicity of the institutions in question. I’m sure my granddaughter would have liked to see the show, but rather than validate this patron’s actions and beliefs, I boycotted it. Should those who feel as I do have joined me?

— Edith Palmer, Brooklyn (December 30, 2011)

From the Archives

Timeless Tosh from Current Wisdoms Past

(March 1992)

Allure

In another feminist journal of intellect, the female scientific turn of mind is displayed by Dr. Jane Fonda as she discourses on female thermodynamics after 50:

Fonda is rapping on about menopause. “You know where I had my first hot flash?” she asks, sounding excited. “At the Acropolis. During the sound and light show. I’m not kidding.

“It was last year. Ted and I were sailing with another couple around some of the islands. We arrived in Athens. My moods had been very erratic. And Ted said to me, ‘Honey, do you suppose this is menopausal?’ And I thought, Nooo! Two days later, we were sitting at night looking at the show at the Acropolis. I started feeling this kind of burning tingling all down my fingers and chest, and…it was such a kick that Ted had known what was going on with me and I hadn’t.”…

Though she is wildly chatty, almost embarrassingly so, on the subject of estrogen—replacement therapy-“it stops the biological clock a bit in terms of vaginal lubrication and things like that”—certain topics are verboten. (January 1992)