Category Archives: Uncategorized

War in Europe

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

Yesterday I watched “Sound of Music” with my little boy. We are going systematically through the classics of American civilization, books and movies and ideas that made us who we are and more importantly keep us who we are. Some … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Our Ending Age

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Joel D. Hirst

There are ruins strewn across the length and breadth of this world. Tiwanaku, sitting high and sterile in the fastness of the Bolivian Altiplano protected by its Andean ring of mountains and the highland oxygenless lake filled during the last … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged | 10 Comments

Midnight at the Pera Palace

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

“Everybody is writing their Turkey books,” said Rose Macaulay in “Towers of Trebizond“. The Black Sea region of the world is the oldest. Jason and his Argonauts – the chaining of Prometheus. The confluence of empires: Russian and Ottoman and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

To Talk of Many Things… (Vol. #10 – China)

Posted on November 28, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

But wait a bit,’ the Oysters cried,      Before we have our chat;For some of us are out of breath,      And all of us are fat! Today we obsess about China. Much like for the last twenty years, it was ISIS bombers in … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The 100

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

I rarely write reviews of television. If the makers don’t put much thought into creating it, why should I try to find meaning where there is none? I will invariably become disappointed. More so for Netflix – Obama’s pet Gramscian … Continue reading →

Posted in philosophy, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Third-World-Ization

Posted on June 10, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

I’ve been writing about the arriving ordeal for a while now; an ordeal which arrived and which announced itself via a pandemic that was first created and then mismanaged by the center – though the peripheries (as usual) will pay … Continue reading →

Posted in International Affairs, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

3,000,000 – I Grieve

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

Does the earth itself despair, when the strain is too much? When the tears fall down like rain upon screens shorting-out from the warm salty deluge that makes its way onto hardened cement floors of basements or the solid stone … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Adios Hemingway

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

Writers hate other writers. That’s the secret. Maybe not a particularly well-kept one. Its usually professional jealousy – we don’t want to give legitimacy to the fame of others, happier to accrue their success to winds of fate or connections … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Red Pawn – A Review

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

This comic book tells the tale of sacrifice. “How can that be?” You will ask. “It is a story by Ayn Rand, after all. Isn’t she only about how to be selfish?” There is no greater love of self than … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

A River Runs Through It

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Joel D. Hirst

In days of angst and rage it is to art, and specifically to literature that we return to remind us of the American experience and what it means to be part of each other. “Eventually, all things merge into one, and … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Book Review, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment