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Ecumenical Twilight Updated

I updated John Reilly's short story, Ecumenical Twilight, with a linked table of contents. I love this story. Like so much classic scifi, it is an deep essay on politics wrapped in a shallow speculation about the possibility of life on Europa, the moon of Jupiter. There are

The Long View 2005-06-29: The President; The Emperor; The Zombie Dogs

Maximus Decimus Meridius might point out he found one good use for the gladiatorial games. The President; The Emperor; The Zombie Dogs As is generally the case with George Bush's major foreign policy addresses, there was little to quarrel with in his speech last night at Fort Bragg,

The Long View 2005-06-27: Persian Populist Surprise; Terraforming; the Emerald City

Spengler [David P. Goldman] and John Reilly had sets of ideas that were mildly adversarial and mildly complementary. I don't know whether they ever corresponded. For example, Spengler was right that democracy in the Middle East would unleash terror and war. John Reilly was right that Iran is

The Long View 2005-06-25: Show me the blueprints. Show me the blueprints

Howard Hughes was a remarkable man, especially considering he was also a nutter. Show me the blueprints. Show me the blueprints Last night I viewed the film The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the clinically obsessive-compulsive billionaire entrepreneur, Howard Hughes. (A supporting role was played by John C. Reilly, that

The Long View 2005-06-21: Goodness & Victory

Maybe John lived in the alternative history of S. M. Stirling's Conquistador, where the US fought in the MIddle East and won a durable victory. Goodness & Victory Even the Spengler at Asia Times reads opinion polls and forms the opinions they are designed to create, or so

The Long View 2005-06-15: Conspiracy, China, and the Defenestration of the Clercs

Lots of fun stuff in this blog post from just over twelve years ago. Gordon Chang is still wrong, of course, but why is really the more interesting question. I don't believe Gordon Chang's predictions of doom for China, but I also don't believe

The Long View: Democracy and Populism

This is the money quote, John Reilly paraphrasing John Lukacs: If you believe the author, the president of the United States is one of the two monarchs remaining in the world; the other is the pope. The presidency differs from the papacy in that its operation is becoming increasingly medieval.