Saturday roundup

Joseph Epstein has long been one of my idols. His short stories, mostly at Commentary, are unfailingly first-rate. And his seminal 2004 essay for The Weekly Standard, "The Perpetual Adolescent," is something I refer to here at LITD with some frequency. His latest TWS piece is a reminiscence of his acquaintance through the years with the recently disgraced Leon Wieseltier (yet another sexual harasser), who for years was the back-of-the-book editor at The New Republic. Anyone following Wieseltier's career can see that he was a moral preener, a social climber and an aspirant to the most rarified circles of intellectual a activity. Epstein's recounting of his encounters with him over the years, starting with a fawning letter Wieseltier wrote to Epstein in 1977, provides telling details pointing the way to the denouement that is sure to be Weiseltier's irreversible undoing.

Let me state once again a basic sentiment that I have opportunity to assert from time to time: I can't stand Sean Hannity, and that's a position that predates his role as shill for Trump. I've always thought he was the worst polemicist in the realm of broadcast punditry. That said, this film he's had a hand in producing, Let There Be Light, has received favorable views from a few writers I respect to a fair degree. They promised that it was not just one more cornball, heavy-handed exercise in proselytizing. I had my doubts, based on the trailer, and on these reviewers' dropping of hints about the plot contour. Now comes a review in The New Yorker by Dan Peipenbring that while unsurprisingly skewed by identity politics and a touch of Acelia Corridor smugness, gives the fullest account I've seen of the actual storyline, and confirms for me that those other reviews' assurances that it was not just one more cornball, heavy-handed exercise in proselytizing were pretty much wishful thinking. Sorry, fellow righties and Christians, but this ain't the foray into popular culture that is going to give us the solid foothold.

James Rosen is one of those people I see on television who exude cool-guy status whatever they're talking about. (He's the FNC White House correspondent.) The more I read of his written stuff, mostly for NRO (he recently wrote a great piece about the thrill, as a Beatles fan who takes his adulation to scholarly levels, of going to places in London of historical significance, such as the EMI Abbey Road studios), the more my impression is confirmed. Today, he reviews Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith and Life Well-Lived, compiled by the late SCOTUS justice's son and a collaborator. Rosen is just the guy to do such a review. His deep appreciation for those he admires - the Beatles, William F. Buckley - is what allows for his own humanity to grace his examination of his subjects. This one is your must-read for today.

Good on ya, Bob: House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte is the one guy left in the public-policy realm with requisite influence who is willing to call the Renewable Fuel Standard (ethanol subsidies) what it is - government playing favorites in the marketplace and thereby driving up the cost of a whole chain of goods and services. Scott Pruitt, you're so good at so much in this area. Please show that kind of courage here and get on board.