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"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Texas
Who Governs: The Work of Taylor Sheridan
Taylor Sheridan (b. 1970) is America’s leading storyteller. He writes the scripts, directs many of the episodes, produces the series, and owns much of the land and livestock his cameras record. Over a single decade he revived the Western for … Continue reading
Posted in Montana, Taylor Sheridan, Texas
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Texas
Texans do not compete for authority by saying they want power. They compete by invoking moral languages that frame their authority as fidelity to the Constitution, loyalty to Texas exceptionalism, or responsibility for defending independence against federal overreach, demographic change, … Continue reading
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The Jurisdictional Wars: Alliance Theory and the Battle for Texas
Texas presents itself as simple: low taxes, growth, and freedom. In practice it is a fast-expanding arena of coalition competition where authority is being restructured across energy, migration, and state power. No one says they want control. They say they … Continue reading
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Why Is The MSM So Infatuated With James Talarico?
Per Alliance Theory: The mainstream media’s fascination with James Talarico follows a predictable pattern of Status Signaling. Talarico is the ultimate “Sweetie” character for a liberal establishment that is currently locked in a “Meany” struggle over the role of religion … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Journalism, Texas
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Decoding Taylor Sheridan
Gemini says: The rise of Taylor Sheridan is a textbook case of an actor-turned-creator using “coordination intelligence” to build a parallel power structure that bypasses the traditional Hollywood gatekeepers. In David Pinsof’s Alliance Theory, status is not just a personal … Continue reading
Posted in California, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Taylor Sheridan, Texas
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Vengeance (2022)
Here’s the cleanest way to map Charles Taylor’s porous and buffered identity framework onto Vengeance. The fit is surprisingly tight because the whole movie is about how people defend themselves against vulnerability and meaninglessness. I. Ben is the fully buffered … Continue reading
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I Love The TV Show ‘Landman’
ChatGPT explains: You love Landman because it hits several deep buttons at once, not just because it is well made. It gives you a world with authority. The rules are clear. The stakes are real. People know their role. In … Continue reading
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Failure of Governance In Texas
Political scientist Steven L. Taylor blogs: Yes, markets work because supply and demand are real forces that drive human behavior. So, yes, it makes sense that as electrical supply dwindled in Texas at the same time that demand was surging … Continue reading
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ESPN 30 For 30: What Carter Lost
This documentary begins by talking about what fine folks attended the black Carter High School in Dallas. How the community was comprised of doctors, PhDs, professionals and the like. All good folks. In 1988, Carter High School (eight of these … Continue reading
Three Time National Champion Football Coach Darrell Royal Was No Leader On Racial Integration
Over the weekend, I watched a couple of movies (My All-American and The Story of Darrell Royal) about University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal and was struck that all of his national championship teams were all-white. The Austin Chronicle … Continue reading