I’ve been reading, with a great deal of pleasure, John Lewis Gaddis’ estimable We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, written in 1997 after the release of much formerly secret material from the former Soviet Union. While writing about the Korean War, Gaddis quotes an unnamed (of course) source with the CIA to the effect…
The Judith Miller Show: Weaving new false narratives to replace the old
After the French Revolution, it was said that of the old aristocracy that they had forgotten nothing and learned nothing. After the disastrous second Iraqi war, it may be said of the Wall Street Journal that it had learned nothing and forgotten everything. The latest entropy effusion from the WSJ Memory Hole is Judith Miller’s…
Monk Inc—“Boo Boo’s Birthday”
According to the “Norfolk Gig Guide” (that’s Norfolk, UK, not Norfolk, Virginia), “Monk Inc” is, or was, a band led by Ben Higham and Simon Youngman. I’m not sure if the group is still functioning, but they have a very nice sound. Posted by tmrn21
How much is that senator in the window? Now we know
Ark. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, well he don’t plant cotton, but he sure can harvest the long green. Over at the New York Times, Eric Lipton reports the following: The Emergency Committee for Israel, led by William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, spent $960,000 to support Mr. Cotton. In that same race, Paul…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “Listen, bub, I’ve been goin’ to the moon for thirty years. You can take that space-time continuum crap and shove it up Uranus. Ha, ha! Get it?” “So he says ‘Where have I seen you before?’ and I says ‘Oklahoma’ and he says ‘Where in Oklahoma?’ and I says ‘The third act’….
What Daniel Larison gets wrong about what Iran hawks get wrong
I find The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison to be indispensable reading. Dan never wearies in his pursuit of interventionist nonsense from both the right and left. His only problem, shockingly, is his overabundance of innocence. All too often, he really believes that the neo-cons, and their liberal interventionist counterparts, really believe what they say. A…
Eric Westerink—“Round Midnight”
No film for this one because Eric is a one-man trombone quartet, via overdubbing. But the sound is terrific, so I’m including it. Catch up with Eric here
All right! Gay wedding cakes for everyone!
Am I the only one in Dupont Circle who thinks it’s okay if “Christians” don’t sell wedding cakes to gays? I mean, gays can cook, can’t they? All “fabulous” jokes aside, it would be “interesting” if one of those godly bakeries would refuse to sell a wedding cake for a Jewish wedding, but it’s unlikely…
Capitalism shaky, Mozart firm
OK, perhaps “shaky” is too strong a term, but consider: I recently ordered a high-end office chair from a high-end store for my high-end office, aka “my bedroom.” Yesterday the chair arrived. A hole had been punched in the box, and a handle used to make one of the many high-end adjustments had broken off….
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “If we want to really levitate this fucker I think we should be holding hands.” “Okay, today’s mantra, if you haven’t already guessed, is ‘boots’.” “Was everyone comfortable with that ‘Om’? Or maybe I should say, was anyone comfortable with that ‘Om’? Listen, people. Buddha loves winners, and, by extension, Buddha hates…