Let’s Bring Back Bourgeois and/or Post-Aristocratic Existentialism

Such as you find, for example, in the some of the best parts of the American FIFTIES. Read what I have to say here .

There sure were a lot of responses here, there, and everywhere to the St. John’s stuff below. I will get to them soon. The most PROBING was an email I got that wondered why my post mentioned THREE CANADIANS—George Grant, Hugh Gillis, and Leonard Cohen. I probably shouldn’t even be writing this down, because I’m sure all our Straussian readers picked up on that on their own.

I was very tempted to add a FOURTH CANADIAN in some extended comments on Joan Baez. She’s particularly EROTIC when she sings tunes that were written to be sung by a man. There are a lot of them. But sticking with Canadians: There’s SUZANNE, of course. There’s also the best Confederate remembrance written by a Canadian (THE BAND’s ROBBIE ROBERTSON) that begins “Virgil Cain is my name . . . ” Unlike the Canadian woman with a particularly haunting voice—K.D. LAING—we don’t believe that Joan Baez is making some statement about her sexuality. She’s saying somethng about the LONGINGS aroused by the song being found in both men and women.

At the ISI Conference, this question really came up: Who’s the best Canadian comedic actor—JOHN CANDY or MIKE MYERS? The answer is obvious, of course.

So now you have SEVEN CANADIANS in two days.

Seriously folks, I really am grateful to Carl for the fabulous posts.

AND Pete is exactly right, as usual, on SANTORUM. He has made an indispensable contribution to a genuinely just and potentially winning Republican brand. But the studies that show that the Republican runner-up wins next time add that the winner, in each case, is from the more moderate wing of the party.