by Victor Misek THE PENSION FUND CRISIS in the United States extends into the public and private sectors of the economy to an extent unprecedented in the history of mankind. It’s instructive to compare two of the most notorious individuals involved in the mass destruction and destabilization of pension funds invested in debt instruments. The two individuals in my cross-hairs are Continue Reading →
a review by George Hunka H.L. MENCKEN cut his satirical teeth on drama and theatre, as the excellent new anthology, The Collected Drama of H.L. Mencken: Plays and Criticism, edited by S.T. Joshi and published by Scarecrow Press, attests. Joshi has collected all of Mencken’s plays (many of which first appeared in the 1916 A Book of Burlesques) and a Continue Reading →
by Gore Vidal AFTER POLITICS, JOURNALISM has always been the preferred career of the ambitious but lazy second-rater. American exceptions to mediocrity’s leaden mean: From column A, there was Franklin D. Roosevelt. From column B, H.L. Mencken. Although Henry Louis Mencken was a magazine editor (The Smart Set, The American Mercury), a literary critic, an expositor of Nietzsche, and a school Continue Reading →
by H. Millard “HEY, MAN,” said Homeless Jack, “you ever read that stuff that says White racism is genetic? You know, like we aware and awakened Whites have a gene for being racist. “I’ve seen some Whites rush in after reading that who try to deny it as though such a gene is bad. Hell, it ain’t bad, man. It’s Continue Reading →
On the 99th anniversary of the verdict, we examine the murder of Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank (Illustration: autopsy photo). by Mark Cohen THE CENTURY-OLD “cold case” Mary Phagan murder mystery — the violent rape and murder of teenager Mary Phagan and the subsequent lynching of the convicted killer, Jewish businessman Leo Frank — has now been Continue Reading →