Okay, that was a little rude. The subject of my latest outburst is a posting in The National Interest (the “Buzz” column, to be precise) by Zachery Keck, providing a synopsis of a recent symposium held by the Center for the National Interest. Among the speakers was Robert Kaplan, a Senior Fellow at the Center…
Vanneman v. Gates, the struggle continues
Back on Jan. 11, 2011, I unloaded rather loudly on then SecDef Robert M. Gates, in a post rather testily entitled “Robert M. Gates, totally full of it. Totally,” expressing skepticism with regard to Gates’ statement that in five years North Korea would be able to target the U.S. with an intercontinental ballistic missile, which,…
What de Blasio did wrong
In recent days I’ve been razzing, pretty heavily, on the New York City Police Department. Recently, the New York Times ran a nice article by Michael M. Grynbaum, J. David Goodman, and Al Baker listing all of Mayor William de Blasio’s missteps with the police, strongly suggesting that de Blasio came into office as lazy,…
Monk Electric Band—“Brilliant Corners”
Mitt Romney will not run in 2016. Because the gods are not that kind.
That is my reason for doubting the recent spate of Mitt Might Run! articles now cluttering the political press. It won’t happen because it would be too much fun for us Democrats if it did. We’ve been good kids, pretty much, but no one deserves that much candy. The three-cushion shot argument is that Mitt…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Well, I lied, okay? The sound of your voice doesn’t make me wet. I was trying to be polite and it came out very, very wrong.” “Bryan’s ‘Cross of Gold’ and Burke’s ‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’, those are my choices?” “My saying ‘everything’s better between the sheets’ was…
More bad news from the New York City Police Department
Steve Osborne, a retired lieutenant with the New York City Police Department, turns in a depressing yet predictable op-ed for the New York Times. It is a measure of restraint, but only a measure, that Lt. Osborne does not go nearly as far as Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, who notoriously announced…
George F. Will, right on target
How many times have I made fun of George F. Will? I’m not sure, and I won’t take it back, but his latest column, on the U.S.A.’s out of control incarceration machine, the Department of Education’s oppressive puritanism, the civil forfeiture racket, and much, much more, is superb. Rock on, Georgie!
The New York Times orders fainting couches for Muslims
Politicos Dylan Byers has the story: NYT executive editor Dean Baquet won’t publish Charlie Hebedo cartoons because they might hurt the feelings of Muslims. NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan passes along a quote from Dean: “We have a standard that is long held and that serves us well: that there is a line between gratuitous…
Daniel Larison is confused
The mills of God grind exceeding slow but exceeding fine. Mine grind exceeding slow. A decade or two ago in blog years, the American Conservative’s Daniel Larison, writing in a post labeled “George Will and ‘Cuba Derangement Syndrome’,”1 proclaimed himself mystified by Georgie’s “strange conclusion” regarding a dispute between Ky. Sen. Rand Paul and Fl….