One of the best article bullet summaries I've ever seen: Paul Theroux depicted V.S. Naipaul ten years ago as a stingy, tantrum-prone, racist snob badly in need of driving lessons. He was far too kind. And the bullet is apparently accurate. The Nobel Naipul is quite a guy:
It is not a pretty story; it will probably destroy Naipaul's reputation for ever, this chronicle of his pretensions, his whoremongering, his treatment of a sad, sick wife and disposable mistress, his evasions, his meanness, his cruelty amounting to sadism, his race baiting. Then there is the “gruesome sex”, the blame shifting, the paranoia, the disloyalty, the nasty cracks and the whining, the ingratitude, the mood swings, the unloving and destructive personality.
__________
Makin' Momma proud:
Then again, Mom's been around me when I've been drinking.
__________
Speaking of which: Oh, those clever pranksters! A campaign has been launched in the historic village of Lunt to change its name because vandals keep defacing road signs.
__________
Don't judge. Maybe they're just closely-shaven dwarves: Legislators are seeking to ban mixed martial arts competitions – sometimes called "cage fighting" – among children in Missouri.
__________
Nothing screams "boring" like an old joke, and these Dear Abby letters have been going around the web since Al Gore invented the Internet. But they're true, and they're funny, and I hadn't seen a few of them until this morning.
__________
Late night with Craig Ferguson: "The next stop for the Olympic Torch is San Francisco. Police there expect huge protests. It'll be the first time San Francisco's ever protested against anything flaming."
__________
Wilhelm Roepke promoted at Lew Rockwell. Good to see. Excerpt: "Here's a man who played a pivotal role in raising Germany from the ashes of World War II and yet the typical economics student has no idea of who he is. Over fifty years ago he was warning the post-war Western world of the dangers of a mass culture, mass society and mass man; where the soul of man is neglected in pursuit of material gain; where the dignity of man is sacrificed on the altar of efficiency; and where the media is employed for the dissemination of economic and political propaganda aimed at directing and controlling the masses. Yet the masses have not heard nor heeded his warning." Highly recommended.
