Many friends and family members want to know what I have been up to. I take this as meaning, "Why haven't you been blogging as much as you usually do?"
I know to some of you this respite might be a god send, while to others it is a lament. To the former I apologize, to the latter, I say the unprintable. So here is what I've been up to, in brief. Lest I be accused of bragging, I shall remind my critics that it is not bragging to list facts. And, for those that think I'm doing quite a lot, I remind you that this is the one virtue of insomnia.
- I am working a fairly standard 9-5 job at the Claremont Review of Books, where I help with editing and marketing. I have most recently been "turned loose" on its Facebook page, which you ought to join if you haven't already.
- For a good friend, Joel Pollak, I am helping coordinate his opposition research so that he might kick out one of the most left-wing members of congress.
- For my old boss, Alan Dershowitz, I am researching the United Nations' fecklessness at responding to genocide for a forthcoming book.
- I am intermittently writing for Big Hollywood where I reviewed several Pixar films and have had something run in National Review Online which earned me some attention in Massachusetts Republican circles. I'm hoping to publish something soon for The Weekly Standard on Massachusetts congressional politics, focusing on the rise of Jeff Perry in the 10th congressional district. I'm also writing an essay comparing and discussing the politics of Breaking Bad and Weeds. I have yet to find a home for it, but I'm working on it.
- I am writing my thesis on Calvin Coolidge's political thought. It is currently well over a hundred pages. I would appreciate feedback if you'd like to read one of its chapters.
- I'm taking a class in biology at Cal. Poly Pomona. I have been getting some good teasing from friends about it, but I would recommend it. You only need a C- to get the credit to transfer and it doesn't go on your GPA once it transfers. Of course the real reason to take it elsewhere is that it frees up time to consider and pursue more serious subjects in their appropriate depth. The hardest part about the class is getting there.
- I will be attending a week long conference in Annapolis discussing the future of the university. For that, I have been reading several books, the most important of which is Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. I will be attending another conference in Arizona in September, discussing the work of Bertrand de Jouvenel.
