This is the first posting for a new blog, the Punching Bag, which I hope to use to both to work off rage and to build rhetorical biceps by hitting the page with responses that might otherwise be shouted at the TV, webpage, or newspaper. Our current public sphere is infected with incredibly high quotients of mendacity and stupidity, linked with the power to inflict great harm both to oneself and to others. Most of my postings are likely to begin from a sense of outrage at what our politicians and media pundits get away with, though I also will be trying to think about and share thoughts about good ideas I learn about or come up with on my own, particularly ideas about the way American arts and culture work and what they do.