(Photo: Peggy Noonan)

Here are some my favorite American journalists who rarely fail to amaze me with their wit and erudition, powerful prose, and clarity of thought.

Peggy Noonan

She writes for the Wall Street Journal. Her Friday columns is a must reading for me. She used to be Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter. A devout Catholic and a committed Republican that I trust, despite the fact that I’m neither.

Her recent comments on Hillary Clinton’s turbulent candidacy should be enough to give you a sense of her depth and brilliance as a political commentator:

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Popularity: 17% [?]

This has been on my mind for some time now. It is said that as you age, your taste buds change. As they change, we start to enjoy other foods and dislike ones that previously we had loved. There have been scientific studies conducted that support this and we, as a society, have accepted this. In addition to the change in my taste buds, other things have changed. When I was a young boy, my hair was almost white and now it is a very dark blonde. Some might even say it is light brown. I’m not so much concerned with the physical changes I have undergone over the past decade or two as I am with the mental changes.

The most notable mental alteration is the metamorphosis in my preferences of the opposite sex. I can remember when I was a senior in high school (RHS  ‘96….whoo whoo Go Raiders!) and in a moment of pure enlightenment, I realized that every girlfriend I had ever had was blonde-haired and blue eyed. Many would write this off as a classic case of the Oedipus complex. Sure, I hated my father, who didn’t. And yes, I loved my mother, but not in *that* way. I think that it stems more from lack of exposure to other sects of our culture. I ended up forcing myself to date brunettes, Asians, redheads, and all sorts of other women. It worked.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Marlon Brando upset a lot of people with his specific interpretation of the Nazi officer Lt. Christian Diestl in Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions (1958).

The politically incorrect Brando tried to infuse the Dieslt character with a heroic sub-text.

He even suggested that at the end of the movie he should come down from the mountain where he was hiding with arms open, like a Christ figure.

Montgomery Clift, who was playing the American infantryman Noah Ackerman, threatened he would walk off the set if Brando did that.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

One of the most influential books of the late '50s and '60s was a book called The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow.

It basically lamented the lack of communication between the "two cultures" – Science and Humanities.

I see the same split continuing today.

On the one hand we have the Internet and a Communication Revolution more powerful in its global impact than the "Industrial Revolution" of the 19th century.

We are busy like bumblebees configuring our smart phones and wi-fi networks, setting up our web sites, and leaving behind us as many electronic breadcrumbs as we can.

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Popularity: 27% [?]