Back in the day—July 10, 2014, to be precise—I whaled on Bloomberg’s Eli Lake for pulling together a lot of ass-covering/blame-shifting “if only the president had listened to me” quotes from former members of the Obama Administration to explain why the government of former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki failed to prevent the rise of…
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Good American Generals: Were there any?
For some reason, I’ve got the American military on my mind, on my mind. I’ve got the American military on my mind. And I’m wondering: Did we ever have any good generals? I was launched on this avenue of speculation by a recent book review, “Douglas MacArthur’s Brilliant, Controversial Legacy”, by the National Review’s Victor…
“The Conservative Mind” turns sixty! (Sound of one hand clapping)
Actually, the sound of no hands clapping. From the perspective sheer scholarly effort, Russell Kirk’s 500-page tome, surveying Anglo-American conservative thought from Edmund Burke to T. S. Eliot, is an impressive work, examining dozens of both illustrious and obscure thinkers and arranging them in a coherent historical framework that shows considerable learning as well.1 So…
Renee Rosnes Trio plus 1—“Bright Mississippi”
Renee Rosnes, piano, Ira Coleman, bass, Billy Drummond, drums, George Young, tenor saxophone take on Monk’s rewrite of “Sweet Georgia Brown”. Posted by paris0820
Brexit, Part 2: What is to be done?
The impact of Brexit continues to roil and rumble. Paul Krugman say’s it’s not that big a deal—well, not unless you live in the UK itself, where “it looks all too likely that the vote will both empower the worst elements in British political life and lead to the breakup of the UK itself.” So,…
Alan Vanneman’s absolutely unique take on Brexit
That’s right: Other sites sell you candy pills, but here’s the real dope.1 Plenty of people2 are having a high old time praising the Brexit vote as an uprising of the “people” against the pointy-heads, ignoring the fact that the vote also polarized the old against the young, and the “Celtic Fringe”—Scotland and Northern Ireland—against…
Orlando explained! Well, sort of.
Over at Bloomberg, Pankaj Mishra gives a nice take on “The Messy Mind of Omar Mateen”, noting that, among other things, “Mateen was mentally unstable, according to his divorced first wife. His Afghan-born father spoke of his son’s hatred of gays. Obama confirmed that the Islamic State had not directed the attack even though Mateen…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “I don’t get it. You loved Curious George as a kid.” “Okay, suppose we cut banana breakfasts back to three days a week. Does that sound like a good idea?” “Because Bob and Betty’s Magic Monkey Menagerie is going to explode all over the Internet, that’s why.” “Think of…
The Moral of Omar Mateen
The moral of Omar Mateen is that there will be no early end to the disastrous “War on Terror”, which is painfully damaging our culture and causing us to waste hundreds of billions of dollars on a massive and useless military. These are the fruits of “hegemonisn” or “exceptionalism”, promoted so assiduously ever since the…
Paul Ryan prepares for his rearing
If you’re in the mood for unintentional hilarity, then hurry on down to “PowerPost”, where Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis ever so earnestly interviews former George Bush advisor Peter Wehner on the ever-so-delicate topic of whether Paul Ryan, aka “Jesus”, will ever endorse Donald Trump. Intones Pete “Paul Ryan in many ways is the antithesis…