THERE'S NOTHING MORE AMERICAN THAN NARRATIVE CONTROL

  As I make the rounds of various news and opinion media, I feel increasingly like a tragic figure naively carrying a lantern into parts unknown-- we've heard lately from various comedians and commentators that liberals live in a bubble, and I don't deny that, but the implication that conservatives are bubble-eschewers is entirely fatuous. I go from one bubble to another, it seems. As I carry out my investigations into a series of news stories and how they are treated by different journalists and pundits, a picture emerges of a network of hives and cubicles, a honeycomb of buzzing professionals whose job it is to control the narrative on behalf of their side, or their boss's side.
  As always, I confess up front to my own considerable left wing bias, but I also confess that I'm becoming less interested in policy and issues and more interested in the carnival of pitchmen and rubes that tuck us in at night so that we'll vote the way one party or another wants us to vote, until Death sneaks in and removes us from their grip.

POT CALLS OUT KETTLE FOR WILLFUL LACK OF CLARITY REGARDING VARIOUS SHADES OF BLACK

  National Review is an interesting phenomenon; it's one of the few remaining loud conservative voices that hasn't drunk the Trump Tang. Over at the Post, columnists George Will and Charles Krauthammer have retreated a bit from their pre-election anti-Trump tone. I'm reluctant to slam them on this; others won't be shy about it, of course, but I don't plan to forget how Will and Krauthammer stuck their necks out several times a week during Trump's candidacy.
  To their credit, National Review is sticking to their story. A recent appeal to subscribers addressed them this way:

  "You represent a broad spectrum of opinion about our president-elect: Some of you are devoted Trump supporters who "forgive" us; some of you are reluctant Trump supporters who appreciated seeing our various writers grapple with the Trump phenomenon in real time and so honestly; some of you are still Trump skeptics."

  I haven't read any of the anti-Trump pieces they refer to here; but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. NR is one of many print media veterans desperately trying to figure out how to evolve in our post-print world. After thirty seconds of effort, I lost patience trying to access their archived stories. To put it in perspective, the New Yorker frustrated me for years with their various bunglings and missteps in this area, but their current online presence is greatly improved, to the point where it's now difficult to STOP reading New Yorker articles. Possibly the liberal elites who read the New Yorker have sped past their conservative brethren in this regard; I'm still trying to help my dad learn how to use his cell phone, but that's anecdotal evidence at best.

MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION-- TO BE DISGUSTINGLY INFORMED

So it's come to this-- in order to be more informed about the thinking of people I don't agree with, I am now reading the following:

National Review (they offer a free year's digital subscription)

Henry Ford's "The International Jew-- the World's Foremost Problem"
(Thanks to George Greene for recommending this. A quick scan of the contents page reveals this fascinating chapter title-- "Jewish Jazz Becomes Our National Music")

 Celine's "Trifles for a Massacre"
(This one's an especially weird experience for me because Celine is one of my favorite writers despite his indefensible antisemitism)

I suppose I'll be rereading Will Eisner's book about the Protocols, and I think I have another book by him about jew hatred in America.

And I'll need numerous palate cleansers. My various collections of Milt Gross seem like a good choice, and I'll also need to dip into the intriguing recent book about Krazy Kat auteur George Herriman that suggests Herriman was actually black, passing for white.

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A TAR

Son: Dad, want me to show you how I put pine tar all over my baseball gear?
Dad: (looks up from some stupid thing he was doing) Huh?
Son: For example, see how I put it all over my batting helmet?
Dad: What does that do?
Son: It makes the helmet easier to pick up.
Dad: I thought people put pine tar on their bats.
Son: They do. Check out my bat. It's got pine tar all over it.
Dad: I thought pine tar was illegal.
Son: It is. But only if you put it on the barrel. It's ok to put it on the handle. Makes it easier to grip the bat.
Dad: And why do you put it in this middle area of the bat, the part that's neither barrel nor handle? What does that do?
Son: I don't know.
Dad: Isn't that stuff all sticky?
Son: Only if you touch it.