Note: Duty (survival) is calling, and, though I have a couple of more theoretical than topical posts that I might polish up and publish, I expect that otherwise my blogging may be relatively light for the next few days, if…
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Bonfire of the Islamophobic Vanities – Updated after Breaking News
To mark 9/11 this Saturday, I plan to gather together printouts of certain blog posts, articles, and interviews, and burn them on my outdoor barbecue grill – specifically within a charcoal chimney – before fixing some dinner and getting back…
Got your shalom right here, Portnoy
Our old friend Howard is back to his usual… stuff today: Did you know that the word islam is a cognate of the Hebrew word shalom, meaning “peace”? Don’t berate yourself if you didn’t, because it isn’t true. This is…
Last Testament: Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
If a resuscitation and revival, a last ditch effort at salvation, or a transfiguration of social democracy is not on today’s political agenda, that may be all the more reason to pass this book on, following Tony Judt’s last requests, to a young person looking forward. It may even be the conservative thing to do.
Posted in Books, Featured, Politics Tagged with: Conservatism, Edmund Burke, Social Democracy, Tony Judt
Two-Way Street – Frank Rich on Iraq
Frank Rich’s Sunday NYT column concludes on what I think is meant to be a savagely ironic note: Of all the pro forma passages in Obama’s speech, perhaps the most jarring was his entreaty that Iraq’s leaders “move forward with…
No alternatives
David Brooks’ Friday column consists of a rather melancholic “what might have been,” an “Alternate History” in which the Democrats under Obama’s leadership put up “No Quick Fixes” signs all around the White House, and “define themselves as the economic…
Worse is better – American Taliban vs. Liberal Fascism
All around the blogosphere today, progressives and fellow travelers may have managed to hit the broad side of a barn at two paces without having to resort to a re-load. It seems they’ve figured out that Markos Moulitsas’ new book…
The great set-up
In the process of wrapping up a detailed “crystall ball” prediction on the mid-term elections – House takeover for the Rs, Senate on the bubble, big gains among governorships – the very non-partisan political scientist Larry Sabato makes the following…
The Iraq Syndrome
Many on the right think President Obama’s Oval Office address last night should have credited “the Surge,” and they would have preferred thanks to his predecessor for taking and implementing a decision that Senator Obama and others fiercely criticized. The…