I’ve been slowly plowing through Allan Bloom‘s dense but nevertheless wonderful 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind. It’s an indictment of alarming trends in higher education that took hold in the 60s and have only accelerated since. I … Continue reading →
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. Over forty years after the fact, documents have been unearthed that turn on its head the common understanding of a seminal event in German history: The killing in 1967 … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I decided it was high time for a repeat of this series (first posted in December of 2006) on how the press came to consider its function to be changing popular opinion rather than informing the public. Here’s the … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I decided it was high time for a repeat of this series (first posted in December of 2006) on how the press came to consider its function to be changing popular opinion rather than informing the public. Here’s the … Continue reading →
Yesterday I wrote a post about President Obama’s recent press conference use of the Churchill quote, “We don’t torture.” I mentioned that I’d Googled to find the article Obama mentioned, the one he’d been reading “about this,” but could find … Continue reading →
Several have pointed out that Obama’s use in last night’s press conference of an anti-torture quote by Winston Churchill is highly suspect, in that there’s a great deal of evidence that the British did exactly that—used torture—during World War II. … Continue reading →
The topic for the day is anti-Americanism. Some liberals think it all started with Bush. Some Leftists like to pretend it did, although they may know better. And some people think it’s because America is a swaggering, aggressive, imperial power, … Continue reading →
Commenter “expat”—who is in a position to know a thing or two about Europe’s reaction to Obama—has written in regard to German opinions about Obama’s statements on Turkish EU membership: They resented specifically Obama’s public lecturing tone, which was obnoxious, … Continue reading →
…I didn’t know him, Horatio. Please note this trenchant comment from zhombre: Poor Santayana. Didn’t have a clue. Whether you remember the past or not, you will relive it, because some other SOB doesn’t. George Santayana—for those of you who … Continue reading →
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek feels the Obamalove. In Alter’s cover story about Obama entitled “America’s New Shrink,” Alter tells us don’t worry, be happy, even though Obama has utterly failed to perform what even Alter insists is the first job … Continue reading →
Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic is happy about recent political developments. Very happy. After decades of wandering in the Republican desert (and he includes the Clinton years as a craven accommodation to Republicans), the good guys (liberals) are finally … Continue reading →
For some reason I was under the impression that our abundance of lawyers as President was a somewhat recent phenomenon. But I found this list striking and surprising: the tendency goes way back. Seems like it’s lawyers all the way … Continue reading →