Giving McCain a Vietnam history lesson

The New Neo Posted on by

Joe Conason thinks McCain doesn’t know much about history, in particular the Vietnam War and the lessons he should have learned from it.

Conason, as the possessor of a 1975 degree in history from Brandeis where they no doubt taught an unbiased version of the entire Vietnam conflict, knows better than McCain. And his subsequent stints at The Real Paper, the Village Voice, Details, and the New York Observer have undoubtedly objectively filled in whatever knowledge gaps might remain.

So what does Conason think McCain should have learned about Vietnam and didn’t? Continue reading →

Hostage rescue: another reason to celebrate this Fourth

The New Neo Posted on by

Hearing the wonderful news of the rescue of the Colombian hostages, I immediately thought of Entebbe. I guess I’m not the only one.

And, since the Entebbe resue occurred on July 4, 1976 and concerns liberty, it’s a fitting event to ponder this Fourth of July.

[ADDENDUM: One of the underhyped successes of the Bush administration seems to have been against FARC, which wasn’t doing so well even before the hostage rescue. Bush and the US have been supporting the battle against FARC for quite some time.]

Here’s a memorable Fourth of July

The New Neo Posted on by

Here’s one you might remember. I certainly do:

Fans of the movie “The Great Escape” (and I must confess that I am one, big-time) will recognize the above as the Fourth of July celebration scene, featuring the incomparable Steve McQueen playing the flute and James Garner with the drum. Continue reading →

Good news in academia—if it’s true

The New Neo Posted on by

The NY Times has what I would consider some very good news: my tiresome cohorts, the baby boomers, are starting to retire from academia, and so their dominance of that particular venue seems to be coming to an end.

I’m not so sure. It’ll be quite a while before all the boomers have left the ivory tower. But the article seems to indicate their replacements among the younger folk are less ideologically bound and less reflexively and relentlessly Left.

Can it be that all those years of indoctrination haven’t borne the desired fruit? One can certainly hope so.

Tennis: always in fashion

The New Neo Posted on by

I grew up playing a fair game of tennis on the public courts of New York. Just to show you how long ago that was, the courts were made of reddish clay that had to be rolled after the games (an implement was kept in the corner for this very purpose), and the rule was that you had to wear all white. And it was enforced.

Those days are most definitely gone, as are the days when my mother used to stop me from going out of the house wearing jeans because they looked too slovenly. Continue reading →

Genes influence voting behavior?

The New Neo Posted on by

Before you put too much credence in this, read this.

I’d love to find a link to the original study so I could read it for myself. Anyone who can supply one?

And I’ve often wondered how those who believe that political orientation is partly genetic—as some of the researchers quoted in the first link do—would explain someone like me.

[ADDENDUM: Just found the link. I’m busy today and can’t read it now, but will try to do so later. In the meantime, here it is for anyone who cares to plow through it.]

The leaders of Africa fail to live up to their Sister Souljah moment on Mugabe

The New Neo Posted on by

If anything is clear, it’s that Mugabe of Zimbabwe is a dangerous thug who has taken his country down the road to economic and human ruin with his ruthless consolidation of power, his quest for revenge, and his Marxist leanings.

And yet his fellow African leaders at the African Union summit in the Red Sea, and even the highly-admired Nelson Mandela, are having trouble saying a discouraging word about him. Continue reading →

300+ French journalists can be very, very wrong: in al Durah/France2 trial, it’s the reputation, stupid

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve written reams about the al Durah libel trial in which France2 and journalist Charles Enderlin were the plaintiffs, some of it from personal observation of one of the trials I attended in October of 2006.

Even so, I’ve learned something new, fascinating, and disturbing from Anne-Elisabeth Moutet’s remarkable piece on “L’Affaire Enderlin.” Continue reading →

Boob jobs, divorce, and the unfashionable human body

The New Neo Posted on by

In my continuing quest to lighten up and at least slightly de-Obamafy this page, I’m weighing in on the pressing question posed by this Time Online piece: does breast augmentation lead to—or is it a sign of—impending divorce?

Since I’m the sort of stuffed shirt (pun intended) that I am, I immediately turned to scientific research to find out. Continue reading →