A year ago, I had a hare-brained idea: to write about whatever I thought was interesting, in the hopes that some people might want to read it. Looking back on the year now past—and some brain food!
Happy Anniversary to one of my favorite subscriptions. Looking forward to another year of thought provoking, and important, musings from your always insightful perspective.
Congratulations Brian! Well done for sustaining such intriguing and informative work. It’s such a pleasure to read and makes me think and often smile (a nod to Zorro). All the best and many more. John
The fact you bring your full self and all your varied interests to your writing is a big reason I became a paid subscriber (plus having a little extra money for now lol)! I love that one newsletter will be a reasoned exploration of what America would probably look like if Trump wins again which followed a delightful read about a giant Scandinavian goat and the annualized human antics to either protect or destroy it! Always informative and always a treat!
We appreciate you, Brian!! So glad you followed your hare-brained idea. (Of note: If you didn't, I'd be in my living room concocting related hypotheses without a thought partner. <shudder>) May this work keep bringing you joy.
My favorite Mick Herron line is when a character is described as “nasty, British, and short”. I will be ordering David Mitchell’s book..sounds sort of Bill Bryson-ish. And I eagerly await yours, which I’ve pre-ordered. Thank you, and I love that you share your thoughts with us! You both teach and entertain.
Congratulations on a wonderful year of writing and reading. I came across your work while on holiday in Australia, sitting by the river in Brisbane during a hot Christmas week. Back home in Canada this Christmas it’s cold and grey but your work is still adding thought, humor and random interesting facts and ideas to my day. Thank you!!
Happy Anniversary and Happy New Year, Brian! I love reading your stuff, and I love where it sometimes leads my thoughts. Unfortunately, even though I am a paid subscriber, my Substack feed chooses not to highlight your newsletters, and I have to search to find you. This means I miss some of your good stuff. Luckily, I found this one, and it led me to a new Substack subscription, Adam M, whose last name I am sure I won’t be able to spell, and spellcheck would mangle it anyhow. (It mangled your last name twice earlier in this post so I just left it out...). I look forward to the new year and hopefully to getting my Substack figured out. Thanks for being one of the things I look forward to.
Happy Anniversary Dr Klaas. I always learn something new from your musings in diverse areas, which to me is an important part of the meaning of life. Recently, I loved the recommended article on statistics in the Kingdom of God. With respect to one of your top articles, The Case for Amplifying Trump's Insanity, the NY Times just published a guest oped implying that your proposed strategy will not work https://tinyurl.com/yckr9h25. The oped does not say that directly but its analysis does imply that many (non extremist) people have enough reasons (true or not) to discount warnings of insanity. Actually, the same process of normalization of the hard right is happening throughout the western world, and it does not seem like the left leaning intelligentsia has a good handle on why.
Felicidades! 🎉 Your writing and thought process is amazing and always though provoking! It is a highlight of the day when I see you have published your Substack and I get to read something interesting and completely different from my day to day work.
But the question I have for you is, “How do you find the time to be so prolific and productive?” That is truly amazing to me!
Congratulations on the 1 year anniversary! It is a pleasure to read GFP, and it's educational to boot. A quibble with the reading list in this post, however. The "The US Propaganda Machine of World War I" you posted is factually wrong in the origin story and overplays the role of CPI. Yes, what the author wrote is the commonly accepted narrative, but just as you like to peal the onions to get at the core, I have done so with CPI (since it related to my writings on the Smith-Mundt Act). I've shared the details, with some of the receipts here and there in my writings, but the main will be in a forthcoming book. In short, the concept was developed primarily by the Secretary of the Navy, a newspaper owner who practiced yellow journalism and used his paper to support segregation, along with the US Army War College, for the psychological defense of the nation against foreign influence operations. George Creel was hired at the last moment to run this "Bureau of Information," one the working names, with Creel unsure whether to take the job. Further, the narrative ignores the local patriotic societies that demanded more information and were more often in the "last three feet," so to speak than CPI's people, the earlier attempt at a central hub created by the US Chamber of Commerce at the request of the Secretary of War, working with the Secretary of the Navy, and that much of the narrative comes from Creel himself. Local press, which sometimes didn't otherwise receive news until days or a week or more after events happened due to the communications networks across the mostly rural US at the time (also ignored in the narrative), often ignored the deluge of CPI materials. In particular, you may enjoy the "Three-minute women" (versus the 4-minute men) and how school teachers, not in the employ of CPI, were trusted conveyors of info. In the end, the JSTOR post you shared is based on and furthers a faulty narrative sourced primarily by George Creel to promote his work for post-war clients. (Also, Congress didn't shut down CPI, as Creel's narrative claims. The end of the fiscal year came and Congress saw no need to apportion more money for CPI's shutdown, which started much earlier, that Creel mismanaged. It was the White House who tried – weakly – to get another department to give up some of its money to shoulder the shut down and, surprise, neither State nor War were interested in paying. Creel didn't mention because it would reflect poorly on his former boss, Wilson.)
Happy Anniversary to one of my favorite subscriptions. Looking forward to another year of thought provoking, and important, musings from your always insightful perspective.
Congratulations Brian! Well done for sustaining such intriguing and informative work. It’s such a pleasure to read and makes me think and often smile (a nod to Zorro). All the best and many more. John
The fact you bring your full self and all your varied interests to your writing is a big reason I became a paid subscriber (plus having a little extra money for now lol)! I love that one newsletter will be a reasoned exploration of what America would probably look like if Trump wins again which followed a delightful read about a giant Scandinavian goat and the annualized human antics to either protect or destroy it! Always informative and always a treat!
We appreciate you, Brian!! So glad you followed your hare-brained idea. (Of note: If you didn't, I'd be in my living room concocting related hypotheses without a thought partner. <shudder>) May this work keep bringing you joy.
My favorite Mick Herron line is when a character is described as “nasty, British, and short”. I will be ordering David Mitchell’s book..sounds sort of Bill Bryson-ish. And I eagerly await yours, which I’ve pre-ordered. Thank you, and I love that you share your thoughts with us! You both teach and entertain.
Congratulations on a wonderful year of writing and reading. I came across your work while on holiday in Australia, sitting by the river in Brisbane during a hot Christmas week. Back home in Canada this Christmas it’s cold and grey but your work is still adding thought, humor and random interesting facts and ideas to my day. Thank you!!
Happy Anniversary and Happy New Year, Brian! I love reading your stuff, and I love where it sometimes leads my thoughts. Unfortunately, even though I am a paid subscriber, my Substack feed chooses not to highlight your newsletters, and I have to search to find you. This means I miss some of your good stuff. Luckily, I found this one, and it led me to a new Substack subscription, Adam M, whose last name I am sure I won’t be able to spell, and spellcheck would mangle it anyhow. (It mangled your last name twice earlier in this post so I just left it out...). I look forward to the new year and hopefully to getting my Substack figured out. Thanks for being one of the things I look forward to.
Happy Anniversary Dr Klaas. I always learn something new from your musings in diverse areas, which to me is an important part of the meaning of life. Recently, I loved the recommended article on statistics in the Kingdom of God. With respect to one of your top articles, The Case for Amplifying Trump's Insanity, the NY Times just published a guest oped implying that your proposed strategy will not work https://tinyurl.com/yckr9h25. The oped does not say that directly but its analysis does imply that many (non extremist) people have enough reasons (true or not) to discount warnings of insanity. Actually, the same process of normalization of the hard right is happening throughout the western world, and it does not seem like the left leaning intelligentsia has a good handle on why.
Your columns are some of the most interesting stuff I read. You and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are probably my favorite Substackers. Keep up the good work!
Felicidades! 🎉 Your writing and thought process is amazing and always though provoking! It is a highlight of the day when I see you have published your Substack and I get to read something interesting and completely different from my day to day work.
But the question I have for you is, “How do you find the time to be so prolific and productive?” That is truly amazing to me!
Happy birthday, or anniversarie. I loved the recommendation section. Perhaps you could do that semi regularly? Keep on keeping on.
Congratulations on the 1 year anniversary! It is a pleasure to read GFP, and it's educational to boot. A quibble with the reading list in this post, however. The "The US Propaganda Machine of World War I" you posted is factually wrong in the origin story and overplays the role of CPI. Yes, what the author wrote is the commonly accepted narrative, but just as you like to peal the onions to get at the core, I have done so with CPI (since it related to my writings on the Smith-Mundt Act). I've shared the details, with some of the receipts here and there in my writings, but the main will be in a forthcoming book. In short, the concept was developed primarily by the Secretary of the Navy, a newspaper owner who practiced yellow journalism and used his paper to support segregation, along with the US Army War College, for the psychological defense of the nation against foreign influence operations. George Creel was hired at the last moment to run this "Bureau of Information," one the working names, with Creel unsure whether to take the job. Further, the narrative ignores the local patriotic societies that demanded more information and were more often in the "last three feet," so to speak than CPI's people, the earlier attempt at a central hub created by the US Chamber of Commerce at the request of the Secretary of War, working with the Secretary of the Navy, and that much of the narrative comes from Creel himself. Local press, which sometimes didn't otherwise receive news until days or a week or more after events happened due to the communications networks across the mostly rural US at the time (also ignored in the narrative), often ignored the deluge of CPI materials. In particular, you may enjoy the "Three-minute women" (versus the 4-minute men) and how school teachers, not in the employ of CPI, were trusted conveyors of info. In the end, the JSTOR post you shared is based on and furthers a faulty narrative sourced primarily by George Creel to promote his work for post-war clients. (Also, Congress didn't shut down CPI, as Creel's narrative claims. The end of the fiscal year came and Congress saw no need to apportion more money for CPI's shutdown, which started much earlier, that Creel mismanaged. It was the White House who tried – weakly – to get another department to give up some of its money to shoulder the shut down and, surprise, neither State nor War were interested in paying. Creel didn't mention because it would reflect poorly on his former boss, Wilson.)