In Part I of this near-random collection of jottings, I remarked that Edward Gibbon, despite his near-obsessive concern with politeness and polish, tells you more about the sex lives of historical figures than virtually any modern historian. I also remarked that his modern-day fans, despite their frequently amazing levels of erudition and enthusiasm, studiously avoid…
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John Lewis Gaddis—“They Really Believed That Shit!”
Way back in 1978, a dude named John Lewis Gaddis started in his academic career by publishing Russia, the Soviet Union and the United States: An Interpretive History (America & the World), which looked at U.S./Russian relationships from the time of Catherine the Great to Jimmy and Leonid. John probably expected to spend his life…
The Pentagon’s Short- and Long-Term Memory Loss
In a story appearing in Politico, “Obama team split over next steps with Iran”, Michael Crowley writes that a “senior administration official” denied that there was any possibility of a presidential visit to Iran—“we continue to have very serious differences with Iran.” Crowley remarks that “That sentiment will be appreciated by military officials who hold…
Is the South finally going to look in the mirror? Well, which South do you mean?
Back in the day—way, way back in the day—in 1953, the day of McCarthy, as a matter of fact—southern historian C. Vann Woodword published a famous article, “The Irony of Southern History,” which began as follows: “In a time when nationalism sweeps everything else before it, as it does at present, the regional historian is…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “The rain does fall on the just and the unjust alike. For the immaculately coifed, things are a little different.” “Hey, hey, Mr. Skeptical Environmentalist! Wet enough for you?” “Okay, ‘It always rains on the unloved’ is a saying. You know who said it? Charlie Brown. Do you want your psyche to…
Good Court, Bad Court
The U.S. Supreme Court decided, rightly, in my opinion, that the statutory construction given the Affordable Care Act by the Obama Administration is consistent with the overall intent, if not the letter, of the act. The Court also decided, wrongly, in my opinion, that homosexuals have a constitutional right to marry. Both decisions were quite…
Maybe we were not skeptical enough about Bob Schieffer
I was never a Bob Schieffer guy—I mean, I didn’t hate him—but, since I never watch TV news, I never saw him. But it seems that Bob has saved the worst for last, pausing before he shuffles off to oblivion by remarking “Maybe we [the media] were not skeptical enough” about President Obama back in…
The British are not coming!
Conservative “analysts” are worried, as well they should be, that the British lion is no longer willing to play up, and play the game. A week before the election, the Washington Post could already read the handwriting on the wall: “the overarching result is already clear: A stalwart U.S. ally is growing weaker, more inwardly…
From the politeness of experts, Lord, deliver us
Rosa Brooks is a senior fellow at New America and a law professor at Georgetown University. From 2009 to 2011, she served as a senior adviser to the undersecretary of defense for policy. She is also the author of a book review in the April 16 Washington Post of Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger’s…
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…