The other day I got a copy of Stephen Walt’s 2005 book Taming American Power:The Global Response to U.S. Primacy and was surprised to read the section on the Israel lobby. It was nearly as forceful as the paper on…
At today’s State Department briefing, a reporter commented that the room was freezing and spokesman Sean McCormack made a joke about, Is that my responsibility? People laughed. Later another reporter commented on how cold the room was. When the cameras…
In reading Dershowitz’s rebuttal to Mearsheimer and Walt, I noticed something else he said: “It is rightfully considered vile to suggest that American Catholic politicians such as John F. Kennedy and John Kerry owe their primary allegiance to the Vatican…
On yesterday’s Fresh Air, Jane Mayer, author of a splendid dissection of the power of Cheney’s counsel, David Addington, in the New Yorker last week, supported the theory that the military is now the thinktank for the antiwar movement. Bravely…
The King of Tonga turned 88 today. Four years ago the New Zealand papers had him dying, still he keeps going. I bring him up because I wrote a book about the murder of a Peace Corps volunteer by another…
The New Republic this week has a snidely-vicious attack on John Murtha as the destroyer of the Democratic party’s hopes for November. The article reflects TNR’s belief that the war in Iraq is a good thing, and underscores the deep…
On Charlie Rose, that is. The outgoing Harvard President was on for an hour, rebroadcast just now. It was interesting to see him up close at last. Some observations: Summers seems a business executive by temperament. He’s too tan and…
Did I really pick the Netherlands for the World Cup semifinals? Boy, was I wrong. I emailed my high school pal, Greg McNair, who is a jazz guitarist living in the Netherlands. Here is Greg’s explanation: As far as our…
Maybe you saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali on 60 Minutes. She is articulate and appealling, the Somali-born member of the Dutch Parliament who came close to losing her citizenship over errors on her asylum application of 1992. Hirsi Ali is world-famous…