PicoBlog

I’m Paul Musgrave, a political scientist and writer. This is Systematic Hatreds, my newsletter about my thoughts regarding politics and the study of politics. The newsletter takes its title from a line in The Education of Henry Adams: Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds. This week, we’re talking about the first in our survey of bad members of Congress: “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman (1847-1918), Senator from South Carolina (1895-1918).

Over more than two centuries, more than 12,000 people have served as senators or representatives (or both)—and some of them have been traitors, malefactors, or epic assholes. Bad Congress will introduce you to America’s rogues gallery, helping to put a face on the flaws and failures of the first branch. This week, we’re talking about the third in our survey of bad members of Congress: Edmund Pettus, senator from Alabama (1897-1907).

Vroooooooooooommmmmm! Vrooooooooooooooooommmmmmm! Vrooooommmm! Ronnie Montrose figured out how to make his guitar sound like a motorcycle. It was loud, it was roaring, it scorched the earth as producer Ted Templeman panned it across the stereo speakers. That’s the first sound you hear when you put on the classic album Montrose, the debut album in 1973 by the four piece band named after the guitarist who had already played on Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey album and on Edgar Winter’s huge hit “Frankenstein.

Today we’re taking a quick look at Bad Religion’s “Suffer” as it turns 35. Part of the appeal of the records we love lies in their novelty. We like familiarity, but we love originality. I liked punk, and I loved hardcore, but Bad Religion’s 1988 Suffer LP wasn’t like anything I’d heard before. The riffs are scorching, and the melodies are surprisingly catchy. And it’s all played at 110 mph with a layer of what the band calls “oozin’ aahs” over the top.

Share I got into Jawbreaker in an appropriate way. First time I heard them was through a friend who was in a Jawbreaker-esque shredded vocal pop-punk band. Then he was in a tough guy metallic hardcore band. Then he was in nothing because he died. Second time I heard Jawbreaker was through a girl who had a crush on my skinhead roommate and who lent me a mixtape someone else had made for her.

I. Abigail Shrier is an author best known for her book Irreversible Damage, which argues that teenagers believe they have gender dysphoria due to peer influence and aren’t actually transgender. She recently published a book, Bad Therapy, about how the current culture around mental health is making teenagers more depressed. I agreed with much of the content in Bad Therapy, which made this a remarkable reading experience. I watched my opinions being filtered through someone who’s both stupid and evil.

Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers coaching staff achieved a feat on the recruiting trail the football program has never done before.  In the latest update to the composite recruiting rankings, Badgers outside linebacker Thomas Heiberger from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, received a rating bump from a high three-star to a four-star prospect.  What makes that particular rating bump so significant is that it now takes the Wisconsin Badgers recruiting class, which finished No.

Dan Jenkins was a phenomenal sportswriter and novelist who in 1981 invented a singer/songwriter/barmaid from Ft. Worth named Juanita Hutchins. The title of her fictional hit song was the title of Jenkins’s second most famous work of fiction, Baja Oklahoma. It, like Jenkins’ more famous novel Semi-Tough, was turned into a Hollywood movie. Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristopherson helped make Semi-Tough a box-office success, but Lesley Anne-Warren, Peter Coyote and Baja Oklahoma never had a chance — even with the help of the legendary Willie Nelson and a neophyte Julia Roberts.

Hello! I’m sorry I’ve been away, but I’m back (and better than ever?)! For those of you who’ve been following along, I moved. Still in sweet, sweet San Francisco, but now in the Castro. Still with Joe, but also now with two other sweet friends, Keenan and Sean. There is maybe something profound I will say someday about why I love living in community with other people. About why it’s nice sometimes to wake up and find that someone has already made coffee or to come home and see someone’s left a little bit of dinner out for you.