Jonathan Cohn, writing in the April 29 issue of the New Republic, moans about the “Hell of American Day Care”. In France, of course, they do things much better, devoting about 1 percent of GNP to pre-school services, more than twice the U.S. budget, according to Cohn. He cites New York Times reporter Steven Greenhouse,…
The war crimes of Barack Obama
The New York Times opens a window on oppression, American Style, with a powerful statement by Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, an 11 year inmate at Guantánamo (11 years without being charged of an actual crime). I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime….
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “It was Albert’s particular wish that the announcement of each entre be followed by restrained yet intense applause.” “For my part, I will always remember Albert as the chef who reinvented Caneton à l’Orange for the 21st Century.” “Albert believed that God created geese to serve man, and not the other way…
Rand Paul: “When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, how should I presume?”
Anything that can make a libertarian quote T.S. Eliot can’t be all bad.* Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul took his libertarian act into the lion’s den, or at least Howard University, and tried to explain to a skeptical crowd that the Republicans are the good guys. Lincoln freed the slaves, after all. And Ronald Reagan, though…
It’s not too soon to tell that Paul Wolfowitz is a lying asshole
Yes, Paul Wolfowitz, everyone’s favorite lying asshole, is up to his old tricks again, acting like the lying asshole he is, claiming that “it is too soon to tell” if the invasion of Iraq was a good idea. After all, Paulie tells us, for decades after the Korean War ended, South Korea “struggled.” But sixty…
Margaret’s Ironies, aka Maggie we hardly knew ye
The law, or at least the likelihood, of unintended consequences rarely worked so well for humanity, I would say, as in the case of Margaret Thatcher. As I wrote earlier in a discussion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Falklands War, Thatcher’s massive budget cuts drastically reduced Britain’s naval presence in the Falklands, budget cuts…
Ramesh and Yuval, less than generous, less than ingenuous
Ramesh Ponnuru and Yuval Levin have a heavy rap on how to replace Obamacare over at the National Review, a piece that occasioned less than reverent comment on the left, to which Ponnuru and Levin respond, rather tartly, here. The piece has drawn some critical responses in the past few days — from Ezra Klein,…
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “The thing is, we’re both angry. Which is why, I think it would be a bad idea to ask a perfect stranger to make the decision for us.” “It wasn’t an aggressive honk. I think he was trying to be supportive. And, really, three BMWs in one day is going to look…
Two geniuses at work: insert Tab “A” in Slot “B”
I’ve been reading Stanislaw Ulam’s autobiography, Adventures of a Mathematician, and it’s an excellent read. Despite his brilliance, Ulam hated reading directions. When faced with the challenge of, say, assembling a doll house for his daughter, he knew what to do: call “Johnny” Von Neumann, father of the computer and one of the greatest mathematicians…
Why Can’t Prominence Equal Competence?
David Aaron Miller has a weekly column in Foreign Affairs, which may be half the problem. He is vice president for new initiatives and a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. But this week’s “Reality Check,” with the omniscient title “Why Obama Failed in the Middle East,” reads like it was…