links for 2009-09-11

• Karajan, or Beauty as I See It | Great Performances | PBS
  As music director of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years, Herbert von Karajan remains one of the most discussed, analyzed and written-about conductors of all time. He was called the ‘General Music Director of Europe,’ leading orchestras and opera houses in Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan and Paris to become one of the most respected, yet intimidating, conductors of the 20th century. Yet behind his imperious, enigmatic face, who really was Herbert von Karajan? For many, he was the epitome of classical music—for others, the last dictator among orchestral conductors, as well as one of the post-War era’s most commercially successful classical music entrepreneurs. Yet all agree that in everything he did, he was ahead of his time.
  (tags: karajan berlin philharmonic music orchestra classical conductor documentary pbs tv)
• The College Republicans – Andrew Sullivan
  Juvenile, manipulative, impossibly smarmy, hateful – or at least more than willing to use the weapon of other people's hate – and, above all, relentlessly cynical. To these (mostly) men, politics is not the "art of the possible", not a means for peaceably grappling with the most difficult and complex issues of the day, or for attempting to improve the lives of people you will never meet. It is nothing but a game, one where the object is not just to win but to destroy your enemies with a weird mix of angry slander and junior high insults – and to have a good chuckle while admiring your handiwork.
  (tags: republican congress cynicism rove hate politics partisanship nihilism)
• Rogues' Gallery Revisited – Charles Gasparino
  Where, now, are the Fulds of the world?
  (tags: finance crisis ceo business wall_street banking)
• Sam Tanenhaus on Conservatism – On Point with Tom Ashbrook
  Sam Tanenhaus has spent twenty years studying American conservatism. Hobnobbed with Bill Buckley. Wrote a much-admired biography of Whittaker Chambers. Dipped deep into the core philosophy of Edmund Burke.

  Now, he looks around to find Rush Limbaugh, Bill Kristol, and Sarah Palin in charge of movement conservatism. Anger replacing loyal opposition. A destructive impulse killing true conservative principles.

  (tags: conservative recommended radio interview republican history extremism politics buckley burke principles ideology cynicism nihilism)

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