"Grab Tuesday By the Neck and Choke the Life Out Of It" Edition

Boom.

I see you, hunched over your keyboard, dreading every choice that led up to the moment where you browse through the work emails and unwelcome adverts that clog your inbox.

Sit up straight! Cough that damn blackpill out of your larynx, where it has been lodged. Here is a newsletter to revive your soul.

Obligatory shilling. This week I reviewed Scott Beauchamp's excellent Did You Kill Anyone? for the Agonist. The book is highly recommended.

I wrote a paean to by-the-numbers Republican Ron Johnson and the narrow-minded economic liberalism he represents for the Spectator USA.

For paid subscribers to this platform I wrote about Tyskie, my favourite beer, and reflected on taste, identity and meaning.

The blob. Herbalis writes an excellent introduction to Britain's cultural-political establishment. Read it for excellent insights into “dodgy charities, fanatical universities, shadowy campaign bodies, rubbish Commissions, ridiculous Equalities departments, masturbatory parliamentary groups, and marionette-corpses of long dead philanthropists.”

Nerds v. Hacks. A while ago I wrote a column for the Spectator USA about the emerging conflict between Silicon Valley tech overlords and liberal journalists. That conflict erupted last week in a war of words between the biotech guru Balaji Srinivasan and the New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz. I am far from being a big fan of what Tara Isabella Burton calls the “Californian ideology” , which combines techno-optimism rationalism and social liberalism, but I have to chuckle as Srinivasan, Jason Calacanis and other Valleyites take on the pettiness, intrusiveness and self-entitlement of the progressive media class. Big Tech has to be held to account - but so do journalists who play fast and loose with people's livelihoods and reputations.

Love in the ruins. Titus Techera is one of the best cultural critics around, and here he is on one of the best novelists of the 20th century, Walker Percy.

The village. Gareth Roberts considers the enduring cultural relevance of the cult 1970s drama series The Prisoner.

America. The artist still known as Delicious Tacos celebrates the 4th of July in his inimitably funny and disturbing way.

Typhoid August. I enjoyed this moody, eerie, timely collaboration between the poet Sarah Fletcher and the musician Steve Tromans.

Are you feeling better now?!

No!?

Well, what are you going to do about it?