James Stevens Curl and the Meaning of Architecture
Posted By: DW626, 10/30/2025 2:29:46 PM
The academic and civic life of James Stevens Curl presents a singular case in twentieth- and twenty-first-century architectural historiography: a scholar who combined rigorous research, pedagogic dedication, cultural activism, and a steadfast defense of beauty in the built environment. Born on 26 March 1937 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Curl’s career would span architecture, town-planning, heritage scholarship and cultural critique, culminating in works that not only set out descriptive histories of architecture but also advanced normative claims about the value of tradition, proportion, and visual harmony.
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The academic and civic life of James Stevens Curl presents a singular case in twentieth- and twenty-first-century architectural historiography: a scholar who combined rigorous research, pedagogic dedication, cultural activism, and a steadfast defense of beauty in the built environment. Born on 26 March 1937 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Curl’s career would span architecture, town-planning, heritage scholarship and cultural critique, culminating in works that not only set out descriptive histories of architecture but also advanced normative claims about the value of tradition, proportion, and visual harmony.
Stepping on Rakes
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The recent news cycle has showcased stunning examples of leftists earning near-constant ridicule as their fabrications blow up in their faces. The Left's moral posturing crumbles under even cursory scrutiny and reveals a consistent pattern of hypocrisy, fabrication, and embrace of extremism. References to pots and kettles, glass houses, specks, beams, rakes, and petards are all getting a workout, and it's glorious to behold. Conservatives are basking in schadenfreude, needing only videos of Democrats performing perp walks to make our joy complete.
While campaigning in Derry, New Hampshire in 2019, Joe Biden suggested that coal miners simply learn to code to transition to “jobs of the future.” Joe said, “Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet in a mine, sure in hell can learn to program as well.” He made that remark almost five years ago. Little did he know he was flirting with the future, sending a warning about the characteristics of future jobs.
Naomi Mitchison published a book in 1935 entitled We Have Been Warned. That title expresses Joe’s sentiment perfectly. Although Joe didn’t specifically cite Mitchison, he nevertheless sent a warning
President Trump took to Truth Social Sunday night with a post that has ignited fresh speculation about his administration’s findings regarding the 2020 presidential election.
“What’s worse, the NBA Players cheating at cards, and probably much else, or the Democrats cheating on Elections,” he asked. “The 2020 Presidential Election, being Rigged and Stolen, is a far bigger SCANDAL. Look what happened to our Country when a Crooked Moron became our ‘President!’ We now know everything,”
Think about that last line: “We now know everything.”
The line has fueled speculation that the Trump administration may have uncovered what it considers conclusive evidence tying together multiple irregularities in the 2020 election.
Florida Attorney Peter Ticktin has known Donald Trump personally since grade 10 of their high school days in 1961, when both attended New York Military Academy. Ticktin has publicly described Trump as a classmate and friend from that period (snip)
Ticktin has actively pursued litigation and public advocacy alleging election fraud in the 2020 election. As an attorney, he represents numerous clients seeking federal pardons and many J6 defendants, whom he prefers to call patriots. (snip) I had this conversation this week with Ticktin regarding his concerns about the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche’s role in running the DOJ and what it means for Trump’s second-term agenda..
Bari Weiss seems to have confused some of the folks at CBS News after being hired as its new editor in chief.
The New York Times reported that Weiss stunned members of senior staff of the show “60 Minutes,” by asking a simple question: “Why does the country think you’re biased?”
The inquiry was met with stunned awkwardness, according to three people who recounted details from the private session in Midtown Manhattan. The staff of “60 Minutes,” the nation’s most-watched news program, view their coverage as firmly nonpartisan and reject criticism from President Trump and his allies who argue that it has a liberal slant.
Here comes BO
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As you've heard, there is a governor's race in Virginia. It looked like an easy victory for the Democrats a few weeks ago, and then some texts surfaced and things changed. It's a lot more competitive, and the Democrats are sending former President Obama to the rescue:
Former President Barack Obama is endorsing Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger in the Virginia governor's race and starring in two new digital ads for her campaign.
"Virginia's elections are some of the most important in the country this year," Obama says in both ads, shared first with NBC News, which focus on the economy and abortion rights.
University presidents aren’t Donald Trump
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Former Secretary of Education, Senator and university president, Lamar Alexander, declared in the Wall Street Journal that “Donald Trump Isn’t a University President.”
The old-school political insider and prior university administrator, goes on to criticize President Trump’s “Compact for Higher Education,” which would establish a national board of trustees for the 6,000 universities and colleges across the United States.
Mr. Alexander tells readers that this will have the apparently distasteful consequence of establishing admissions guidelines, managing university costs, creating testing standards for faculty competence and hiring, and setting criteria for international student admissions. He asserts that this is an example of federal overreach.
Barack Obama really should follow the lead of old-time presidents and, instead of seeking the limelight, opt for a rocking chair on his front porch. In that way, he could spare himself the embarrassment of saying really stupid things. During a podcast with Marc Maron, Obama made a comment about using the National Guard that was meant to attack Trump, but merely made Obama look ignorant and partisan.
Before even getting to the substance of what Obama said, what’s notable about the interview is how Obama looks. He’s wound up as tightly as an angry suburban leftist woman explaining to her psychiatrist why her husband was completely wrong
Like the fictional Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, New York Attorney General Letitia James had one overriding goal: to destroy the great white creature known as President Donald Trump. And like Ahab, she thought at one point she had succeeded. But if James had been better read, she might have known that she was going to destroy herself and her ship, while “Moby” Trump happily swam off into the sunset. Letitia James ran to become New York State’s attorney general on a single issue: she would destroy Donald Trump.
Color me shocked. After more than a decade of breathless cheerleading for the so-called Affordable Care Act, the editorial elites at The Washington Post have finally admitted what conservatives have been saying all along: Obamacare was never affordable. As the Post’s own editorial board now concedes, the law “was never actually affordable.” This sudden burst of honesty comes amid the latest government shutdown showdown, which Democrats sparked in part by demanding yet another blank check to keep Biden’s lavish, COVID-era insurance subsidies alive.
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nakhchivan, and Syunik are not names most Americans are familiar with. However, the TRIPP (Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity) Corridor through these countries, cities, and regions is a decisive strategic move in the Caucasus and Central Asia against three U.S. adversaries at once: China, Russia and Iran.
The TRIPP will link the city of Kars in Turkey to the port city of Baku in Azerbaijan. Baku is the most important port in the Caspian Sea, an inland sea connecting Azerbaijan directly to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Together, these countries have proven oil reserves of 37 billion barrels
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staffer for Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey was hit with drug trafficking charges after authorities intercepted eight kilograms of cocaine being delivered to a state office building.
LaMar Cook, who has served as deputy director of Healey’s western Massachusetts office since 2023, was charged with trafficking over 200 grams of cocaine, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition related to the bust, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced Wednesday.
Multiple parcels containing about 21 kilograms of cocaine have been seized by Massachusetts State Police throughout the investigation into Cook.
Rosie O'Donnell is asking for prayers as her daughter, Chelsea, faces a "scary future."
"My child chelsea belle - before addiction took over her life - i loved her then i love her now as she faces a scary future- prayers welcomed- #addiction awareness #love #family," O'Donnell wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of Chelsea as a child.
Just days prior, on Oct. 22, Chelsea had her probation revoked and was sentenced to serve time in prison, according to court documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Bill Gates sees the light on global warming
— but will lefty climate warriors follow suit? 24 replies
— but will lefty climate warriors follow suit? 24 replies
Suddenly, Bill Gates is admitting that climate change won’t lead to “humanity’s demise” after all.
Now he tells us, after he long joined other climate alarmists in warning of “disaster,” as the West burned trillions on “decarbonizing” and steered economies toward the stone age.
The “doomsday view” that “cataclysmic climate change will decimate civilization” is “wrong,” the Microsoft co-founder writes; people will “be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.” His 2021 book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” somehow missed these truths; he predictied instead that global warming “could be worse” than COVID.
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen said Tuesday that parent company Unilever prevented the ice cream maker from creating a "flavor for Palestine." Cohen and the Vermont-based ice cream maker are known for social activism, often supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel. "Unilever / Magnum stopped Ben & Jerry’s from creating a flavor for Palestine — so I’m doing it myself," Cohen wrote on X, referring to Magnum Ice Cream, Unilever's ice cream unit. "I’ve got a watermelon, an empty pint, and I need your help: Name the flavor or suggest ingredients. Or design the pint packaging," he continued. Watermelons have become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity
Springsteen’ Movie Bombs All over the World
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Here in America, the Springsteen biopic opened to a truly dreadful $9.1 million. With billions more customers available overseas and Springsteen’s status as a global superstar, you’d think that’s where the money is.Nope.
The movie only scooped up another $7 million internationally, which means that its overall global take was a measly $16 million.
How bad is that?Well, box office analysts believed the worst it would do just here in America was $15 million, and it ended up only barely topping the domestic worst-case scenario all over the world.
Is this a case of “Go woke, go broke?”
Well, as I wrote on Sunday,
Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), who serves as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said MAGA voters who cheer the Trump administration’s military strikes on alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific would not like who a potential President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chooses to kill.
Jansing said, “You’re the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. Have you seen any evidence to support the administration’s allegation that these are narco-terrorists?”
Himes said, “We have not seen lists of the individuals who were targeted. We have not heard what the protections are, what the checks are, to make sure that these are, in fact, drug boats
King Charles III on Thursday initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.
"His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence," according to the statement. "Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation."
The palace said the censures "are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."
Andrew announced on Oct. 17 that he was relinquishing his Duke of York title, following
A 15-year-old boy and his father were “beaten, handcuffed and forced to sign documents” after being arrested Monday in Durango by federal immigration officers, the boy’s mother told an immigrant services nonprofit.
Estela Patiño said she spoke with her son, Kewin Daniel Patiño Bustamante, in a phone call shortly after 10 p.m. Monday – the last time she has heard from him as of Wednesday morning, according to Compañeros: Four Corners Immigrant Resource Center.
One of America’s most iconic cities appears to have fallen to the radical Islamist left thanks to unfettered immigration from hostile foreign nations.
On Thursday, a viral video emerged showing 35-year-old Minnesota Democratic State Senator and mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, a Muslim and son of Somali migrants, smiling and waving his native country’s flag. The footage appears to be from a rally held by Fateh in August at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis. As one can see, he pledges his complete loyalty to Somalia while speaking in either Somali or Arabic and urging his fans to vote for him in November. Can you believe this is happening in America?
Karine Jean-Pierre, the dolt who became Joe Biden’s White House Press Secretary through affirmative action (she’s black, gay, a woman, and learning disabled), has once again proven she’s every bit as stupid as everyone suspected.
Even the far-left New Yorker — an outlet inclined to fully embrace and protect black, gay, learning-disabled female Democrats — couldn’t protect her from herself.
You see, she’s selling a book about her time in the White House and her selling point is as nonsensical as those press briefings she used to deliver. It goes something like this… Karine Jean-Pierre is leaving the Democrat Party and becoming an Independent
Ronald Reagan was known for a typically cogent observation about government: "Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." As is so often the case, he was right. He likely didn't foresee the onset of electric vehicles and the climate scolds' touting of them to prevent the planet from catching on fire; those were subsidized before they ever moved in the first place.
But those subsidies are gone now, and so a bunch of people who worked on vehicles and batteries are finding themselves out of work.
President Donald Trump’s firing of all members of an independent federal agency expected to review some of his construction projects, including his planned $300 million White House ballroom, has sparked an online backlash.
Trump fired six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a group of architectural experts that advises the federal government on historic preservation and public buildings, on Tuesday. The Washington Post first reported the firings.
A White House official told the newspaper that new members who were more aligned with Trump’s "America First" policies would be named to the commission.