One hardly knows how to take the belated tick-tock, “How a U.S. Citizen Came to Be in America’s Cross Hairs,” turned in by Mark Mazzetti, Charlie Savage, and Scott Shane in Saturday’s New York Times. Did NYT Executive Editor Jill Abramson fill Scott’s bowl with Kibbles and Bits* and then say “Okay, you guys! Get…
Why the Republican Party won’t be storming Wall Street any time soon
Oh-oh. Republican pundits are getting bored. Over at Politico, Jonathan Martin collects the moans and groans of a dozen right-wing double-domes who couldn’t get elected dog catcher in Peoria’s tamest suburb, all of them urging the GOP to, you know, push the envelope, take the initiative, and, above all, BE BOLD! Wildest of the wild…
Ramesh Ponnuru, not that innocent
After heaping praise on Ramesh yesterday, I feel it’s only my duty to point out the guy’s seamy side. As Daniel Larison, my favorite Russian Orthodox paleocon notes, Ramesh did not distinguish himself in a recent post arguing that, even after repeated electoral defeats, Republicans “have reacted by trying to kick people out rather than…
RDH
It’s no secret that half the thinking done by the Republican Party is done by ringers, “designated hitters,”* a band of Asian-American and Jewish outsiders who have nothing in common with the white, Protestant or Catholic masses whom they serve. What’s even more fascinating is that most, though not all of these ringers are double…
Bill Keller may have made a glaring mistake in his latest NYT column? No, Bill Keller told a big fat lie in his latest NYT column
Felix Salmon’s “Countparties,” which should be “Counterparties,” executes a ludicrous euphemism in linking to the Wash Post’s Greg Sergent’s nice takedown of former NYT executive editor Bill Keller’s smoke-blowing complaint that the sequester is all President Obama’s fault. Felix inexplicably titles the link “Bill Keller may have made a glaring mistake in his latest NYT…
The Avram Fefer Trio— “Friday the Thirteenth”
Featuring Avram Fefer, sax, Igal Foni, drums, and Michael Bisio, bass. Posted by Ludlow Lowdown
O mores O tempores, Lit Crit division
Over at the New Republic, Christopher Benfry has a nice piece on T. S. Eliot, containing the following passage: Religion provided a refuge from domestic disorder. “Born & bred in the very heart of Boston Unitarianism,” as he put it, Eliot had recently experienced a spiritual awakening—friends witnessed him falling to his knees before Michelangelo’s…
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Yeah, when I think of the salary schedule for the women’s NBA, I want to puke. Where is gender equality when you need it?” “They were magic beans, but not, you know, that magic. They barely got me to Weehawken.” “As human pyramids go, Henderson, it was not too shabby. And now…
Republican Reform, Douthat Style
It’s no secret that the Republican Party is going through an agonizing reappraisal of its policies. Well, the Elephant can stop worrying now, because Ross Douthat has it all figured out. Let’s start with domestic reform. What needs to be done? Ramesh Ponnuru, echoing though not quoting President Obama, says we have a healthcare spending…