I’m with Winston Churchill when he said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. Truly democratic states, with guarantees of human rights and freedom of speech, press, and religion, are precious and yet rare … Continue reading →
It’s been a long time coming, but vindication is finally here for astronaut Neil Armstrong. That’s actually–ahem–Neil A. Armstrong. Don’t forget that A, like Armstrong did! Except it turns out he didn’t forget it, he just spoke it too quickly … Continue reading →
I’m going to talk about Iran and regime change. But first I’m going to take a detour for some news of the day. The latter may seem totally unrelated to the former, but please bear with me: though this be … Continue reading →
[Parts I and II.] For anyone who was alive at the time and old enough to pay attention to the news, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Revolution is the hostage … Continue reading →
Richard Fernandez of Belmont Club has posted the entire text of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard Commencement speech, in which the then-exiled Russian warned the Western world that its time might be up soon if it didn’t get religion. That’s a … Continue reading →
This piece from the Atlantic Monthly Online, “The Desert One Debacle,” about the Carter administration’s attempt to rescue the embassy hostages in Iran in 1980, is a sobering read. I vaguely remember the incident–just one in a long line of … Continue reading →
Christopher Hitchens (previously no special friend of Israel’s) deconstructs Juan Cole’s Dowdification of Ahmadinejad’s threats to Israel in this Slate article (via Austin Bay) entitled “The Cole Report: when it comes to Iran, he distorts, you decide.” Hitchens’s contention is … Continue reading →
One of my favorite authors is Milan Kundera. Yes, I know, I’ve said it before–I’ve discussed Kundera’s work here and here, as well as here and here. So, why Kundera yet again (and I doubt this will be the last … Continue reading →
Part of an interesting piece by Dr. Horsefeathers on the subject of Kipling, posted some time ago (ignore the spambot dump that the comments section of that post has managed to become) , is the following observation on Kipling and … Continue reading →
Gerard Van der Leun has written a rumination on the return of history, post-9/11. I offer a few excerpts here, although they don’t really capture the full flavor of the thing (to do that, it needs to be read as … Continue reading →
Now that the case against Abdul Rahman has been dropped, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi has offered him sanctuary: “I say that we are very glad to be able to welcome someone who has been so courageous,” Premier Silvio Berlusconi said. Berlusconi … Continue reading →
Sigmund Carl & Alfred has written a post that tells a story I’d not heard before, of “The Mosque that Sheltered Jews.” The rescue occurred in France during the German occupation of WWII. Here are some details: The mosque-based resistance … Continue reading →