Bernard Lewis, ‘Making Noises’
On the homepage today, we have a symposium in honor of Bernard Lewis, the great historian of the Middle East. It’s his 100th birthday today. So, there is plenty to read about him. But I wanted to say...
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Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About the Tomah VA Scandal
From the first Morning Jolt of this short week:Get Ready to Hear a Lot More About the Tomah VA ScandalToday the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will hold a field hearing...
View ArticleThat Man on Their Shirts
Today, I begin an “Oslo Journal,” which mainly brings notes on the Oslo Freedom Forum. The opening installment mentions Martín Guevara — who was a participant in this year’s forum. He is the nephew of...
View ArticleWatching Our House and Economy Burn Down
What the country is experiencing “is the difference between a car crash and having your house burn down,” Democratic pollster Peter Hart tells the Wall Street Journaltoday. “A car crash is something...
View ArticleWho Are the Sanders Voters, Ctd.
Last week I mentioned a New York Timesop-ed in which two academics argued that, contrary to what one might have expected, Sanders voters were to the right of Clinton voters on economic issues. Today’s...
View ArticleThree States Left Out of Trump’s 15-State Strategy
Fox News reports that Donald Trump has a “fifteen state strategy” to win the presidency, which combines some traditional swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, as well as some big,...
View ArticleRomney Is Out — Very Out
I was struck by this passage in a Wall Street Journal article about Romney and Trump. Not only is Romney a “no” to a third-party bid, he doesn’t even want to criticize Trump anymore (also, note the...
View Article1992 in Reverse
Last week I reviewed the strategic options available to Clinton as she prepares to run against Trump. I suggested that many Democrats would be tempted to run against him as an extreme right-winger and...
View ArticleIn the Matter of Harambe
Count me as an ardent admirer of apes and all other charismatic megafauna, but the tragic shooting of the gorilla Harambe that has stoked such outrage online doesn’t seem a close call — a child’s life...
View ArticleWhat's Wrong with Russia?
David Satter says things may get much worse in Russia before they get better. He’s my latest guest on The Bookmonger, and he’s the author of The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to...
View ArticleAlas, Harambe the Gorilla Had to Die
I hoped to avoid comment on the killing of Harambe the gorilla.But I keep getting asked, so here goes.Rich is correct, it is not a close call, but I think a bit more needs to be written:The sturm und...
View ArticleTrump's Missing Intellectuals
Fred Barnes has a piece in the latest Weekly Standard that has sparked some conversation in some of my circles. It’s titled “Trump’s Intellectuals,” and I read Barnes as trying to make room for the...
View ArticleRe: The Torricelli Solution
Andy has a very interesting piece on the “Torricelli solution.” It has a vaguely Ludlumesque sound to it (a la: The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Osterman Weekend, The Rheineman Exchange and of course,...
View ArticleTen Things that Caught My Eye Today (May 31, 2016)
1. (Crux) On ISIS and the presidential election.2. (Public Discourse) How and Why We Remember the Dead3. (AP) At least 1,000 people died on the Mediterranean last week.4. (U.K. Independent) Abortion...
View ArticleJames Taranto Misses Something
In his always-readable and incisive Best of the Web column, the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto, who has been, let’s say, anti-anti-Trump for most of the campaign, today levels some long-overdue...
View ArticleAdventures in Censorship: The EU, Again
Let’s take this bit by bit.The Financial Times:Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have signed up to new EU rules on taking down illegal hate speech as lawmakers and internet giants try to cope...
View ArticleTrumpservations
1) It’s not just that Donald Trump talks and behaves like a bully. He talks and behaves like a juvenile bully. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like it since Tappan Intermediate School in Ann Arbor. (My...
View ArticleKrauthammer’s Take: Timing of Trump’s Vet Donations ‘a Heck of a Coincidence’
Donald Trump held a press conference Tuesday to address whether he had donated $5.6 million to veterans, as he had previously claimed. It emerged that Trump had donated $1.9 million of that amount in...
View ArticleFrench is Preposterous? This year?
Twitter tittered with a combination of contempt and amusement yesterday when word leaked that it might be our own David French who is considering an independent run for president. On MSNBC’s “Morning...
View ArticleCan’t Miss World Go Elsewhere?
Today’s installment of my “Oslo Journal” features Anastasia Lin, who is something rare: actress, beauty queen, human-rights advocate. A Chinese-born immigrant to Canada, she was crowned Miss World...
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