I’m still caught up in Ambassador Gillerman’s statement that Israel is a “far better” country than most others because it produces scientific and artistic talent. My friend Richard Witty acknowledges that this attitude is unfortunate when he hears it from…
During my parents’ seder on Saturday outside Philly, there was a lot of political talk, and my 7-year-old niece came up to me with a big smile. She said: “Hillary lies.” Her comment was just the cherry on the top…
Last week two Harvard Law School professors had a fascinating debate over the Iraq war and American power. One professor was Duncan Kennedy, a pioneer in critical legal studies–i.e., a leftwinger. The other was a prof barely half his age,…
My friend Michael Massing has a wonderful piece of reporting in the latest New York Review of Books on who is the volunteer army. It is not a statistical hodgepodge, no, he went to Fort Drum in Watertown, N.Y., to…
Values: –Eliot Spitzer grew up on Park Avenue, I gather, the son of a real estate guy. Maybe we’re in a recession, but he could drop $5000 on regular assignations, allegedly. –William Kristol’s column yesterday included the statement, “the bad…
I read the New York magazine profile of Chelsea Clinton hungering for any evidence of something idealistic she believes in. No, she seems insipid, a pale copy of her parents, with a New York lifestyle. She’s on the board of…
The meritocracy hates Ralph Nader. He’s getting trashed all over Huffington today. That’s because Ralph is a true revolutionary. He changed the auto industry, despises capitalism, has always worked outside the system, is Lebanese and understands the plight of the…
Did you see the Times article about the staggering fees commanded by Hillary’s genius strategists as the campaign lost its way? The three are pollster Mark Penn, whose team collected over $10 million in January, ad maven Mandy Grunwald, who…
I was in college when the last social order went out, the WASP establishment, labelled “the Episcopacy” by one of my Harvard classmates. The bluebloods had screwed up bigtime with Vietnam, and had a series of scandals, from the assassinations…