Okay, it’s National Review week at Literature R Us. I’m bouncing this post off a nice review by NR’s Kyle Sammin of Brit historian David Cannadine’s new book, Victorious Century, The United Kingdom 1809 – 1906. I’ve got Victorious Century already loaded on my ebook, but my backlog is pretty massive, so I won’t be…
Tag: military spending
Fred Kaplan: So sadly so right
I blow hot and cold on old Fred Kaplan, who hangs his hat at Slate, most recently, cold, when Fred waxed hot, announcing that “America’s retreat from the world under Trump has shown why we’re still the indispensable nation”1, vaguely claiming that all the world is crying out for American “leadership” to solve all their…
Larry Summers is a big, fat liar
Maybe I should just change the name of this blog to “Harvard Sucks”. After spending 9,000+ words last week whaling away, largely on Harvard Law Professor David Kennedy but also on Harvard Law Professor Samuel Moyn, I’m back on the attack, this time beating up on former Harvard President Larry Summers, now “only” Charles W….
David Ignatius thinks you’re an idiot (Redux)
Perhaps I should say, David Ignatius hopes and prays you’re an idiot. This is the way Dave begins his latest column, “America is no longer guaranteed military victory. These weapons could change that.” “The fight against the Islamic State may get the headlines. But it’s the military threats from Russia and China that most worry…
Gen. H. R. McMaster: I only lie when I really need to
Okay, Gen. McM didn’t really say that. But he has been willing to lie before, when it was, you know, necessary, like when Congress might not give the Army all the money that it really, really needed. When H. R. first got the job as national security advisor, I recalled in a brief post, “Lt….
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster: Will lie for money
Donald Trump’s new pick for national security advisor is Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster. McMaster has received deserved praise for his study of the Vietnam War, Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam, accusing the joint chiefs of lacking the nerve to tell their civilian…
Yes, [INSERT NAME] is an idiot. This week’s winner, Robert Samuelson!
Yes, we do have a winner, as we always do. Bob takes home this week’s trophy for obsequiousness to the Pentagon above and beyond the call of duty, and in the face of all economic sense (his area of expertise, supposedly). After attacking fellow Postman Bob Woodward (for suggesting that the Pentagon could save $25…
Is there a silver lining to Trump’s victory? Probably not.
Well, maybe there is, if we’re incredibly lucky. And since we’ve been so incredibly unlucky recently, aren’t we due, just maybe, for a crop of four-leaf clovers? I won’t think about all the bad things that are incredibly likely to happen under Trump, because if I do think about them I’ll start screaming, and my…
New York Times Obituary Department now wholly owned subsidiary of Rockwell International and U.S. Air Force
Sam Iacobellis, father of the B-1 bomber, the plane that won the Cold War, is dead. Well, that’s what NYT obit dude Sam Roberts tells us, in a stunning outburst of chest-beating Reaganite nonsense. Sam is dead (I guess), so that part of the obit is true, but the rest of it, I strongly suggest,…
Peter Thiel is pathetic
Angry, middle-aged billionaire Peter Thiel has a column up in the Washington Post that is remarkable for both its incoherence and lack of substance. Briefly, he advocates the election of Donald Trump so that we Americans can have a universal health care system that works, dadgumit, just like the one in Canada. And it won’t…