Holidays in Hell

I am planning a trip to Israel (my first) and naturally am wondering how to pencil in a side trip to Gaza. Turns out that’s harder than you might think. The Lonely Planet particularly recommends the beaches, but the Palestinian Authority’s web site is most unhelpful. You’d almost think that they dont want any tourists. [...]

Titles of Nobility

After arriving in the US, I was delighted to learn that the Constitution had a “titles of nobility” clause. Before I could apply for a title, however, I was saddened to learn that the clause prevented the federal government from granting a title to anyone.
That leaves the states free to do so, it would seem. The [...]

Solving the GM Problem

The Administration has taken a lot of unfair heat for its takeover of GM. People have wondered how it is that Obama knows how to design a car.
As if that’s so very hard. As it happens, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about car designs while I was a child, and even produced a [...]

It’s All Right When We Do It, vol ccccxxxviii

I happened to see Joe (”the Plumber”) Wurzelbacher last night, and recalled his effrontery in questioning Barak Obama. What was especially galling was that he had once had a tax lien registered against him, as we discovered through the good offices of the Ohio tax department. The point is that a person with a questionable [...]

It’s All Right When We Do It, vol. cccxxxvii

On July 7, 2008, Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (”CREW”), reported on Huffington Post that CREW had filed complaints against Bush DOJ staffers for politicizing the Justice Deparment by firing liberal U.S. District Attorneys.
So here is the same Melanie Sloan in today’s Washington Post. “They can’t want [...]

Springtime for Hitler

At 10 am it’s already over 70 degrees. The seasons have changed. The crocuses are out and the daffodils will soon follow. Spring has arrived, and with it a spate of news stories about Hitler. I don’t try to explain this. I simply note a curious fact of modern journalism.
Michael Dirda reviews Hitler’s personal library [...]

Crime and Punishment

The Washington Post today offers a startling new insight into the debate about Guantanamo. In a story headed “From Captive to Suicide Bomber,” the sub-heading continues, “Accused of Being Little More Than a Low-Level Taliban Fighter, Abdallah al-Ajmi Was held by the U.S. for Nearly Four Years. After his Release, He Blew Up an Iraqui [...]

The two cultures

I noted a post back that Michael Ignatieff had lectured for me on Simone Weil, and that led me to wonder about other politicians who displayed any talent or knowledge in fields beyond politics, economics or public policy. Burke wrote on aethetics and Gladstone debated theology with Cardinal Manning, but who is their like today? [...]

Michael Ignatieff

I was amused to see that, when he met Michael Ignatieff, Obama seems to have spent most of his time talking about friends they have in common. Not surprising, since Ignatieff knows everyone. I mean everyone. Well, at least 6 billion people anyway.
I once received a change of address email from him, with many hundred of [...]

Disinvestment from Israel

The trustees of Hampshire College in western Massachusetts have voted to divest from six companies that do business in Israel, making Hampshire the first U.S. college to do so. The trustess said that the move was not anti-Israeli, and was prompted by general social concerns. However, the move came after complaints came from the Students [...]

Quebec 1759-2009

Plans to stage a 250th anniversary reenactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham have been cancelled, after protests by separatists. In the 1759 Battle, Wolfe defeated Montcalm and won a continent for the British Empire.
Sore losers. Here in Virginia reenactors in blue are regularly whipped by Stonewall’s foot calvary, while to the north the boys in [...]

Where is the hate?

If conservatism is the politics of ridicule, liberalism has become the politics of hatred. That’s not a comment on Obama, or on Democratic politicians. Indeed, the election of Obama was importantly a repudiation of hatred and a healing of ancient animosities, and Obama went out of his way to chastise the angry netroots for their [...]

Science Studies at the Washington Post

I am at a disadvantage with other bloggers because I don’t take that rich source of nuttiness, the New York Times. However, the Washington Post occasionally rewards its readers with an unconsciously ridiculous story.
Today it was a WaPo page one account of a battle over vaccines and autism, and the connection or absence thereof between them. [...]

Limits to Privatization

Two Pennsylvania judges have been accused of soliciting bribes to jail kids. Remarkably, the bribes were offered not by the parents but by the jail, which had been privatized.
One of the judges in question shut down the county-run juvenile prison and helped a private company secure the prison contract. The judge then allegedly extorted bribes [...]

State Secrets

The Obama administration has done a 180 on the “state secrets” doctrine, under which the United States might invoke a national security privilege to exclude evidence from a trial, or even to dismiss lawsuits in advance. For this, the new administration is catching flack from Glenn Greenwald in Salon. Greenwald argues cogently, but misses the [...]

Liberal Feminism

Fundamentalist Hindus beat up some women drinking in an Indian bar. So how are Indian feminists answering back? Hint: there may be an incentive problem here.

Government Spending: Stimulus or Pork?

Google Fight knows:
stimulus: 40,000,000 results
pork: 30,700,000 results
But pork is gaining…

Why the bailout was needed

To save us from this.

No Logo

Naomi Klein thinks (is that the right verb, where Naomi Klein is the subject?) that company logos distract us for substantive issues and take choices from us. So what’s the biggest brand name in the world today? James Bowman knows. Here’s a hint.

Peace in our time

Through Canadian World Domination.

Reality check

Shas’ new slogan is:
Yes we can! … with G_d’s help

Where is Cindy Sheehan now?

In the place where costly (non-cosmetic) climate change legislation soon will be.

Politics as Mental Illness

An (as always) thoughtful piece by Peter Berkowitz in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal (1/31/09) sees Bush hatred and Obama euporia as two sides of the same coin. In both cases they signify lives too heavily invested in politics. To say that such people make a religion of politics is unfair to religion, which teaches [...]

A Letter from China

A friend, now in Taiwan, writes:
It is hysterically funny that former-president Chen [of Nationalist China] is thinking of suing [current] President Ma here for treason [for inviting ChiCom president Hu Jintao to Taiwan]. … Chen is currently in jail himself, awaiting trial on extremely serious charges of corruption. His daughter, his son-in-law and some other [...]

On the Feast of Charles the Martyr

We remember today Charles I, who was led to the scaffold 360 years ago today, outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall. “He nothing common did or mean, Upon that memorable scene,” observed Marvell. In fact, we don’t really remember his death, except perhaps as a step in the triumph of Whig principles. But as the King’s [...]

Buckley’s Mix