“Presidential Pampering: Vulgar Pragmatism and the ‘Trumping’ of American Exceptionalism” by Myron Moses Jackson

European philosopher Peter Sloterdijk once wrote: “pandering obstructs pondering.” Nothing could be more evident than considering the travails of US political coverage of the latest presidential circus. The romantic nostalgia that Trump’s candidacy has tapped into represents a few of the dark underbellies of America that we would do well to take heed. Unlike most…

“Three Kinds of Soldiers” by Randall Auxier

by Randall Auxier [Editor: Flashing back to Empirical Magazine, I want to invite you to read Randall Auxier’s October 2012 article “Three Kinds of Soldier” in the pdf format that includes the original layout and photographs that went with the essay.] Three Kinds of Soldier

“Extreme Virtue 25: A Train Leaves Boston” by Randall Auxier

                                A Train Leaves Boston . . . by Randall Auxier You suffered though algebra, especially those awful simultaneous  equations in high school— if a train leaves from Boston and another from Chicago . . . and so on— but you might never have seen them as a sort of story, at bottom. The examples…

“D.I.C.” by Hugh Mercer Curtler

One of the sobering consequences of the revolution that has placed electronic toys in the hands of everyone who can hold one is what I would call “D.I.C.”  — diminished imaginative capacity. By coining this term I join with others who seem to love to make up names, and especially acronyms, for common events and…

“Pleading for Tolerance” by Hugh Mercer Curtler

There is a disturbing movement afoot across the country on America’s college campuses. I speak of the growing tendency to exclude certain points of view from being heard. In the name of defending the campuses from what they regard as “hate speech,” numbers of liberal students and faculty members are banding together to make sure…

Joe The Plumber

If we are interested in such things, we can read in Wikipedia the following text about one of America’s “heroes.” Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known by the nickname “Joe the Plumber“, is an American conservative activist and commentator. He gained national attention during the 2008 U.S. presidential election when, during a videotaped campaign stop in…