Last week one of my favorite men-of-letters passed away: Gore Vidal.  For me, Vidal was the embodiment of that cultural analysis that I think is so necessary to our future. A man of the political left, Vidal was as unsparing of the moral posturing of Dummycrookery as he was of Republithuggery, though doubtless he would have viewed my characterizations of our "two" political parties as inelegant. At the deeper level, Vidal saw into the roots of the American empire in its heroes and myths. But it was perhaps for his questioning of the whole official narrative of the Oklahoma City Bombing … [Read more...]