MILT'S
FILE
May
31, 2004:
SAFIRE IS CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC...and has some
useful "inside dope" in today's column about the rise
of Alawi and the fall of Chalabi.
http://www.nytimes.com/
IS
THIS GUY ANOTHER "AMERICAN TALIBAN?" Newsweek's
issue out today features a number of interesting articles about
the new terrorist threats in the U.S. and, in this story, some
good background material about the latest rogues gallery and the
one American in the bunch.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
IN
WHAT WAY ARE PERICLES AND BUSH ALIKE? Victor Davis Hanson, in
the current National Review, points out the eternal regularities
in the fortunes of war and of political leaders.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
BROOKHISER
TAKES THE LONG VIEW...on the war, as only someone steeped in history
can do. He is one of our favorite program guests and we found
this article by him in the current New York Observer
as wise and as informative as he has long proved himself to be.
http://www.nyobserver.com/
SOMETHING
ELSE IS HAPPENING IN THE ARAB WORLD. It is not all regression
to Wahabist terrorism. Rather, there were signs at its recent
meeting in Tunis that some members of the Arab League are grudgingly
yielding to the American display of power and the call for "democratization."
This informative note is from the current issue of the Economist.
http://www.economist.com/
THE
HUNTINGTON CONTROVERSY. The article we mentioned last Friday,
"The Hispanic Challenge" stirred a great deal of critical
and commendatory respoonse in Foreign Policy magazine.
Here is some of that commentary and Huntington's response to it
from the new issue of FP. As noted above, Huntington will be expounding
upon his analysis of the "Mexican cultural threat" on
our program tonight. This link requires a free registration.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
AND
A TALK-SHOW HOST (OR THREE) SHALL LEAD THEM! The struggle to retain--or
restore--democracy in Hong Kong seems to centrally involve a few
members of our odd profession according to this lead story in
today's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE...ACROSS ALL HISTORY. Charles Murray discussed
that with us on our
program shortly after his latest book was published. Now he
chats about the same in a fine interview just published in Reason
magazine.
http://www.reason.com/
HOW
TO UNDERSTAND THE GYPSIES...turns out to be a puzzle for western
sociologists. Or so this review, in the American Journal of
Sociology, of two recent scholarly works wouls seem to suggest.
The Roma and Sinti remain, apparently, not only a rather exotic
presence but a challenge to the social scientoids.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/
LIFE
BEFORE AND AFTER TENURE...in the intimidated American academy
is the subject of a new book whose author is interviewed here
by the editor of Front Page magazine.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
A
STRANGE PRESENCE. That's Christopher Walken, one of the very few
actors whose participation in a film makes us want to see it.
His strange, eccentric and always commanding presence is explained
(sort of) in this profile from yesterday's New York Times
Magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THERE'LL
ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND...BUT WHO CARES? Not the quasi-geniuses at
The Onion.
http://www.theonion.com/
THE
EMPEROR CONCERTO. The last of Beethoven's five piano concertos
in a vigorous but nuanced performance by John Lill and the Birmingham
Symphony conducted by Walter Weller.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
May
28, 2004:
HERE'S THE MAN WHO WILL BE THE FIRST POST-SADDAM
PRIME MINISTER. There is fair reason to expect that he will not
be the last...but it won't be light duty. Still...someone's got
to do it. This report is from our friends at Al Jazeera.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
THE
TERRORIST SUSPECTS: WHO ARE THEY? These brief portraits do raise
some questions. Adam Pearlman? And a graduate of Brandeis? Well,
one has heard of "deep cover" but...
http://www.sltrib.com/
SAM
HUNTINGTON ON THE MEXICAN PRESENCE. His book on the subject has
stirred as much reaction as his earlier one on the "clash
of civilizations." Here's the article version as it appeared
in a recent issue of Foreign Policy. (Free registration
required.) Huntington will be our program guest for the full two
hours on Monday, May 31st.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
A
PROFILE OF AMERICAN ATTITUDES ON FOREIGN POLICY--RIGHT NOW. Drawing
from many seperate studies, the people at Foreign Policy
magazine have put together a composite and "personalized"
portrait of present attitudes. Well done--and, thus, quite informative.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
YOU CAN CALL HIM AL--OR YOU CAN CALL HIM ----? There may be someone
who has responded with full praise to Al Gore's recent fulminatory
oration. But we haven't found him. Most of the commentary has
taken the line (if not with quite the same open condemnation)
pursued here in yesterday's lead piece from Front Page.
http://frontpagemag.com/
CATHOLIC
CANDIDATES, CATHOLIC BISHOPS. One does get a sense of deja-vu
as some (but not all!) men-of-the-mitre say they will withold
the wafer from those candidates who are abortion-tolerant. Hmmmm.
http://www.nytimes.com/
WHAT
DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE ELECTION UP NORTH...in Canada, that is.
It's only a month away and if you need a briefing, here it is--from
four more-or-less partisan "experts" lined up by the
Toronto Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
THE
NEW WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL ON THE MALL...is getting panned by many
commentators. Here's Krauthammer's critique.
http://www.townhall.com/
A
NEW ASTRONOMICAL FINDING WITH REVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS. A planet
that happened almost overnight (i.e. in just a few million years)
has been located. And with it: evidence of the requirements for
the formation of organic compounds. That's life! The report has
just appeared in Astrobiology magazine.
http://www.astrobio.net/
SO
WHAT'S SCIENCE AND WHAT'S FICTION IN "THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW?"
OR: How could global warming produce a new ice age? This article
posted by MSNBC seems authoritative though brief. Appended are
some equally informative links.
http://msnbc.msn.com/
THE
GREAT LIEBLING ON CON ARTISTS IN NEW YORK. Luc Sante in the Village
Voice reviews the career of the greatest of the New Yorker
writers--with special attention to AJ's appreciation of the high
arts of deceit.
http://www.villagevoice.com/
THE
NEXT TIME YOU DROP A FEW THOUSAND IN LAS VEGAS...you may seek
gustatory solace at this place just off the strip. The restaurant
guy for the Las Vegas Review Journal seems to enjoy his
work and here he makes The House of Love sound like a plausible
"destination."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/
MENDELSSOHN'S
PIANO TRIO IN C MINOR. This moving, fluid trio was a virtual companion
piece to his famous violin concerto. Both were written for, and
performed by, the violinist, Ferdinand David. This performance
by members of the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna
is a rich, musicianly reading.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
May 27, 2004:
WILL THERE BE A 9/11 SEQUEL? Here is
the fairly detailed coverage of yesterday's press conference in
which Ashcroft and Mueller warned of a coming major assault in
the U.S. by Al Qaeda. Does this sort of thing reduce the liklihood
of it's happening--and at what cost?
http://www.foxnews.com/
A
WISE BUT CHASTENED BACKER OF THE IRAQ WAR...takes a somewhat mournful
view and adopts a stoic tone in his commentary on where we have
arrived. This New York Times op-ed by Fouad Ajami seems
to us honestly self-critical and disappointed; but its representation
of the Iraqi reality still argues for "staying the course."
http://www.nytimes.com/
GEORGE
WILL TAKES A LONGER (BUT NOT QUITE SANGUINE) VIEW...of the prospect
for lasting success in Iraq.
http://www.chron.com/
THE
SARIN SHELL SEARCH CONTINUES...as well it should, both for its
bearing on the WMD issue and for the protection of military and
civilians against whom the gas might be employed. This coverage
by CNN has a favorable noise/information ratio and some quite
useful links as well.
http://edition.cnn.com/
WHAT
IS DICK MORRIS PROPOSING? We think he is on target in suggesting
that terrorist killings in Iraq are having--and will have--influence
in the presidential election. But to "lie low" seems
impossible. Why not "add on" and go for a decisive win?
http://www.thehill.com/
A
TASTE OF THE FEAST TO COME...as the Kissinger tapes are released
is this story revealing that Nixon was drunk one night when Heath,
the British prime minister, tried to call. The poor man needed
some "surcease of sorrow" as all hell was breaking loose
in the Watergate crisis but it does set one wondering about anodyne-assisted
decision making in high places through the course of history.
http://news.yahoo.com/
A MARXIST PRESIDENT MAKES HIS CASE IN THE WASHINGTON POST. This
is a most curious contribution. Behind its surface plausability
lie rash, anti-deomocratic and unconstitutional violations. The
overall impression we gather is that some American PR firm has
signed on and has produced a fairly good imitation of early (very
early) Castro.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
SO
NEAR AND YET SO FAR! Genomically the human and chimpanzee species
are 98.5% identical. How, then, did they turn out to be so different?
A major study done in Japan has provided some strong leads toward
a definitive answer. Here's the report as conveyed late yesterday
by Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/
AND
SPEAKING OF GENETIC SIMILARITY...there is evidence that the Lemba
tribe of South Africa share a model haplotype with modern Cohanim
(i.e. descendants of the ancient Hebrew priesthood). This great
story about another "lost tribe" appeared in the San
Diego Jewish Journal.
http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/
IF
SWEEPS GO CAN SCARE BE FAR BEHIND? A change in the way they measure
TV audiences may well put an end to the scary stories about the
thousand things that endanger you and of which you have been totally
ignorant until your local news-shop kindly explained it to you.
This welcome news is conveyed in the current issue of the Columbia
Journalism Review.
http://www.cjr.org/
MARK
TWAIN ANTICIPATES THE POMOS. Philip Roth in his most post-modern
vein could not have done better than this. This fall-over-laughing
bit of happy obfuscation and self-parody had escaped our attention
until a happy internet-wandering stumble uncovered it just yesterday.
http://www.worldwideschool.org/
ON
THE ROAD WITH HOPE AND CROSBY. There were seven movies in which
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby pursued their picaresque travels to such
destinations as Zanzibar, Bali, Hong Kong and Utopia. A film scholar
does some light, friendly analysis of the series in this evocative
essay from USA Today magazine.
http://www.findarticles.com/
ANDEAN
MUSIC PERFORMED BY MASTER MUSICIANS! The group is Urubamba, the
recording was produced by Paul Simon and the sound is hypnotically
compelling.
http://boleadora.com/
May 26, 2004:
ABOUT BUSH AND IRAQ, ZAKARIA IS OF MIXED-MIND.
And we are equally double-valued in our judgement of this piece
written for Newsweek after he returned from the World
Economic Forum meeting in Jordan. Read closely this important
essay in which he forsees a Bush-inspired wave of reform in the
Arab world even as that world comes to revile him.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
BROOKS
IS READY TO GIVE IRAQ A DEMOCRACY...but, as Ben Franklin might
ask: Can they keep it? The second house conservative at the New
York Times bets on Bush's bet, but he hedges heavily in this
rather ambivalent column.
http://www.nytimes.com/
SO
IT WAS SARIN! This report on further lab testing of the material
from the Iraqi shell confirms that it was packed with sarin. We
ask again: Doesn't that invalidate--or at least complicate--the
"there were no WMDs" meme. What will replace it?
http://news.yahoo.com/
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HUSSAIN SHAHRITANI? According to this "inside
dope" story surfaced by the Washington Post last
night, he will get the UN nod for Prime Minister of Iraq. A striking
fact: the man spent ten years imprisoned at Abu Ghraib!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
THE
LOOMING ISLAMIC PRESENCE IN EUROPE...is seen in a thousand particulars
ranging from the head scarves issue in France to the debate over
whether "Christian heritage" should be mentioned in
the new European Union constitution. In Spain the latest symptom
(since the railroad murders, that is) concerns the contemplated
return of Islamic worship in one of Madrid's oldest churches.
The story is from the Christian Science Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
THE
HOME PAPER IS OFFENDED BY SENATOR KENNEDY'S "EQUIVALENCE"
STATEMENT...or, at least, the Boston Globe's best columnist
is. But Jeff Jacoby's interpretation is pushed aside by the Senator's
flacks and the media's attention is not engaged. Should it be?
Has the senior senator from the Commonwealth given true offense?
http://www.boston.com/
THE ULTIMATE COST OF CHINAGATE...is here asserted to have been
the communications failure that enabled the 9/11 terrorists to
get in "under the intelligence radar." And, according
to this j'accuse from Front Page, at the center
of the whole self-serving mess was Ms. Gorelick, now of the 9/11
Commission.
http://frontpagemag.com/
A
PSYCHIC-FRAUD DETECTIVE EXAMINES THE "ACHIEVEMENTS"
OF POLICE PSYCHICS. Joe Nickell happens to be a friend of ours;
we have both been long associated with the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of the Paranormal (CSICOP). In this mini-essay in
the organization's journal he clarifies just how they achieve
their "results."
http://www.csicop.org/
SO
JUST HOW "LIBERAL" IS THE AMERICAN PRESS? Even more
than the recent Pew Poll would suggest say the otherwise anonymous
people at a site that seems otherwise to be rather too preoccupied
with Dan Rather.
http://ratherbiased.com/
WHATEVER
HAPPENED TO LITERARY CRITICISM...and, for that matter, to reponsible
(and readable!) literary history? James Wood takes the task of
reviewing the latest volume in the Oxford Literary History
series as an opportunity to specify what went wrong and how.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/
WHAT
SPOOKS READ AT THE BEACH. This feature from the CIA's more-or-less
public journal provides some enticing reviews of recent books
of interest to the espionage professional. This assortment deals
with East German intelligence, the Nazi system and its penetration,
female spies in the first World War and kindred topics. Actually,
you don't have to be a spy to be gripped by this stuff.
http://www.cia.gov/
WHILE
(ALMOST) ALL OUR SWAINS COMMEND HIM...there are a few other things
worth remembering and saying about Michael Moore, the bearer of
the Palme D'Or. The story told here, for the first time, by Fred
Barnes in the Weekly Standard is, to say the least, a
beaut!
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
FATS
AND THE MAJOR. Two still-much-enjoyed American musicians are tracked
in this excellently appreciative biographic article from the current
issue of the New Yorker. The author, Gary Giddins, is
one of the best historians of American music--and, as we know
from our own experience, he makes a great radio guest.
http://www.newyorker.com/
THE
PRINCE IGOR SUITE OF BORODIN. The Polovtsian Dances is the best
known section--but Margaret Field as the soloist gives a stunningly
beautiful performance in the earlier sections.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
May 25, 2004:
Milt's
File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.
May
24, 2004:
WHAT'S THE ARABIC FOR "CHUTZPAH?" Either
Ahmed Chalabi has enjoyed a chutzpahdik rise for the last twenty
years and is a skilled con man or worse--or the CIA (and White
House?) is calumnifying at a high level of disingenuousness. I.E.
What's going on here? The lead story in Newsweek today
seems to contain most of the information--and rumor and speculation--so
far released. The full article is in three parts--all worth your
perusal.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
APOLOGIA
PRO VITA CHALABI. Michael Ledeen, a sometime guest on our program,
is strongly pro-Iraq-war but takes a contrarian position on the
way we have waged it. In this column from the National Review,
he condemns the attack on Chalabi...and offers some "inside
dope" (we don't vouch for its accuracy) to explain why Chalabi
was in contact with the Iranians.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
THE
DISCOVERY OF THE SARIN-LOADED MISSILE...opens up a new set of
questions about the "missing" WMDs. Bill Kristol, in
this piece from the latest issue of the Weekly Standard,
digs into the meaning of some of the additional recent findings
by the Iraq Survey Group.
http://theweeklystandard.com/
THE
MEN BEHIND THE BERG DECAPITATION. You have heard a good deal about
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but what do you know about Abu Musab al-Suri,
his partner in masterminding the terrorist program in Iraq? This
report from National Review introduces another of the
"major players."
http://www.nationalreview.com/
STILL...UHH..."ECCENTRIC"
AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. Our new friend Moammar Gadhafi (You say
"Khadaffi? Let's call the whole thing off!) disports himself
in puzzling style at the meeting of the Arab League on Saturday
in Tunis. This account by the AP (just the facts ma'am) was carried
in the Jerusalem Post.
http://www.jpost.com/
WHEN
GEORGE WILL AND RALPH NADER HAD LUNCH...the other day, one of
them came through as dour and as more "purer-than-thou"
than the other. Read this column by Will and see if you can figure
out just what makes Ralphie run.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/
BRIAN
GREENE EXPLAINS THE UNIVERSE...in this well structured interview
from The Atlantic. And then there's the interview we
did with him a few months ago on our radio program and available
for listening right here.
http://www.theatlantic.com/
SOME
SAY THE WORLD WILL END IN FIRE, SOME SAY IN ICE...and some of
the relevant scientists say there is a new ice age coming rather
soon but that it won't be too bad unless, perhaps, it is. You
want more clarity? It's here in a quite lucid and informative
article from Discovery Magazine.
http://www.discover.com/
THE
MISCHLINGE IN NAZI GERMANY. During the war most Jews still left
in Germany were shipped out to the extermination camps. But those
with one or two Jewish grandparents were treated more variably.
Quite a few served in the military forces. (Our interview with
Bryan Mark Rigg, author of Hitler's Jewish Soldiers can
be heard here.)
Others worked--and many perished--in forced labor battalions.
This review of a new book on the subject has recently been posted
at H-Net Reviews.
http://www.h-net.org/
SURPRISE!
MOST AMERICAN JOURNALISTS ARE "LIBERALS." Well, it's
not exactly stunning news--but it is perhaps rather telling that
our news sources have not reported what the Pew Research Center
has documented and disclosed about them.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/
COSBY
OFFENDS HIS NAACP HOSTS WITH SOME SOBERING TRUTHS. We borrow this
from blogson who has been
on the case for a few days. The remarks that violated the standards
of political correctness that prevailed at the NAACP meeting are
excerpted here.
http://www.rosenblog.com/
PARIS AND THE COSTS OF "URBAN BEAUTY." Robert Moses
remade some of New York--but he was a piker compared to the transformation
(at high human cost) that Haussmann worked on Paris. A good review
(despite the Marxism that leaks out) of what appears to be a fine
book on the Haussmannization of the eternal city.
http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/
SO
WHAT ABOUT MICHAEL MOORE. A British reporter (for the left wing,
Guardian!) gets up close at Cannes--and doesn't particularly
like what he sees in the man or in his films.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/
G.B.S.
AND THE DON. When George Bernard Shaw went to the opera he was--particularly
if they were doing Mozart's Don Giovanni--a hard man to please.
That he felt this opera to be the key to understanding his own
work is a revelation elaborated here in a delightful and surprising
essay, originally delivered as a talk before the Limerick Philosophical
Society.
http://www.ul.ie/
GOSPEL
IN THE COUNTRY STYLE. This genre could be called Nashville Gospel.
Among our favorites are the performances of Patsy Cline, Elvis
Presley, Red Foley and the Statler Brothers.
http://www.hhdarma.addr.com/
May 21, 2004:
WHY
THE TUNNEL-BOMBING IS NECESSARY. According to this op-ed in today's
Jerusalem Post they were bringing more than small-arms
ammunition. Among other weapons, missiles have been coming through
the tunnel system! This link requires a free registration.
http://www.jpost.com/
THE
TUNNELS OF GAZA. Yes, Virginia, they really are there and enable
the smugling of arms to Hamas from Egypt. This BBC photo feature
provides a glimpse of the tunnels and of the Israeli Army "take-them-out"
operation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
THE
MEANING OF THE MURDER OF NICK BERG. Russ Roberts of George Mason
University contemplates the barbaric murder in this essay from
today's Tech Central Station and this leads him--by a
path of reasoning well worth your close examination--to the conclusion
that "We fail to pay attention to (the Arab street) at our
peril."
http://techcentralstation.com/
AFTER THE DISCOVERY OF THE SARIN MISSILE, WHAT? Granted it was
only one missile (so far!) but, says this Federalist
commentator, it transforms the whole "where-are-the-WMDs"
debate and underlines the need to see things through in Iraq.
http://federalist.com/
WHAT
DO THE LEADERS OF EUROPE'S ARABS REALLY WANT? The answer, if Dyab
Abou Jahjah is representative, will not make for easy, dreamless
sleep at the Elysee Palace or in Whitehall. This interview is
from the left-tilted journal, Open Democracy.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/
MR.
CANDIDATE, WILL YOU WAGE THIS WAR TILL VICTORY? That, says Dan
Henninger, deputy editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial
page, is the paramount question that must be pressed upon Messrs.
Kerry and Bush. Will anyone think to ask the same of whatsisname--you
know, the guy who wrote "Unsafe at Any Speed?"
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
THE
"RAPID" DISPERSION OF THE CONTINENTS. The slow shifting
of tectonic plates may not, after all, be the final story on the
shaping of the continents. New findings, reported in this article
from Nature magazine, seem to indicate a more rapid (i.e.
just a few million years!) casting off of the land masses from
a "whirling" core.
http://www.nature.com/
SO
WHAT ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE? Don Feder, formerly of the Boston
Globe, follows a distinctive line of argument in this piece
from today's Front Line: Modern liberalism, he says,
has betrayed its traditional committment to "democratic principles"
by embracing "judicially mandated" changes in marital
law. Gay marriage, in his view, would be acceptable only if, in
response to popular opinion, it was legislatively enacted.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
THE
STRUGGLE TO COMPREHEND NAZISM...continues--and continues to uncover
further complexities--says Jean Bethke Elshtain in this illuminating
essay/review from Christianity Today.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/
THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY: BELLAMY'S UTOPIA, HUXLEY'S DYSTOPIA...and what
really happened. This good try at a "big history" overview
is from Dogma, a philosophical journal edited in France.
http://dogma.free.fr/
FIVE AUTHORS IN SEARCH OF A PRIZE. The reason for linking to this
story from the Melbourne Age is not so much the news
about the coming award of the Commonwealth Literary Prize as the
priceless picture of five of the competitors.
http://www.theage.com.au/
NORMAN
ROCKWELL WASN'T QUITE THAT SIMPLE. A new exhibit of his "Four
Freedoms" paintings (which were truly "iconic"
for Americans during World War II) has just opened in Washington.
Katherine Mangu-Ward of the Weekly Standard casts some
interesting historical light and summons up some thoughtful connections
between then and now.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
AND
LO, A PORN PEDDLER SHALL LEAD THEM. Is there a "Howard Stern
vote" and can that master of debasement exert a real influence
upon the presidential election? This story from Smart Money
makes it seem (ohmigod!) possible.
http://www.smartmoney.com/
A
GREAT PERFORMANCE OF DIE WALKURE. Birgit Nilsson, Regine Crespin,
Hans Hotter and Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
http://80-gateway2.ovid.com.yasu.cc.columbia.edu/
May 20, 2004:
TO THE PRESIDENT FROM TONY BLANKELY..."HOLD
ON!" As usual, Blankley of the Washington Times
speaks strongly--rather than softly--and wields a big stick of
contempt at those who, as he sees it, "want the president's
defeat more than America's victory."
http://www.washtimes.com/
THE
BERG BEHEADING AND THE KORAN. Irshad Manji, a Muslim "modernist"
who is both a college professor and TV personality in Canada,
is the source of this op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal.
Her argument is that Koranic exegesis can be turned toward justification
of murderous and barbaric acts. But have not the sacred books
of all religions, on occasion, been used in just that way?
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
THE
ARAFATIAN PERSECUTION OF PALESTINIANS. A human rights surveillance
organization has documented major terrorist activity against Palestinians
by Al Aqsa and other groups serving the Arafat "regime."
Devastating if true--and this group in the past has focussed on
Israeli violations of Palestinian rights. Clearly, they are not
engaged in a disinformation operation serving Israeli interests.
The story is from today's issue of the Scotsman.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/
SONIA'S
CHOICE. When she decided to pass on the premiership, the second
Mrs. Ghandi essentially appointed this gentleman to the post.
Here, then, a brief profile of the Mr. Clean of New Delhi, Manmohan
Singh from yesterday's Times of India.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
WHY
IS THE LEFT SAYING SUCH BAD THINGS ABOUT THE PATRIOT ACT...and
do they really worry about terrorism? Heather MacDonald (heard
here
on our program) and Joe Williams have contrasting answers to these
and related questions. This debate was organized by Front
Page magazine.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
WHAT
DID CLINTON KNOW, WHEN DID HE KNOW IT, AND WHY DIDN'T HE ACT ON
IT? The evidence seems to be mounting that the al-Qaeda threat
was known but not given proper weight in the Clinton White House.
Among others who so assert is James Woolsey who headed the CIA
during some years of the Clinton presidency. Then evidence and
argument are laid out in a new book, reviewed here in the English
language edition of Pravda's News Forum.
http://engforum.pravda.ru/
SOME
FREE ADVICE FOR SENATOR KERRY...and in this instance it might
be worth more than he paid for it. Robert Sam Anson of the New
York Observer got a fund-raising letter from the candidate
and that set him thinking...
http://www.observer.com/
IS
THIS A "BREAKTHROUGH" IN THE SEARCH FOR EFFECTIVE AIDS
THERAPY? Probably not--or not quite; but this research note from
a group at Mayo Clinic does point to a new direction that may
ultimately "pay off bigtime." This appeared in Medical
Research News earlier this week.
http://www.news-medical.net/
DIDN'T
SOMEBODY SAY THAT AI WAS IMPOSSIBLE? Or doesn't it take artificial
intelligence for a computer to grade essay exams? This New
York Times story fascinates us but leaves us in a state of
residual uncertainty. If the machine's judgements can't be discriminated
from the teacher's judgements--then hasn't the machine passed
the "Turing Test?" And doesn't that qualify it as an
"intelligent being?"
http://www.nytimes.com/
BUGGY
COMPUTERS, VIRUSES, WORMS AND SPAM ARE BLIGHTS UP WITH WHICH WE
SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PUT. And if these IT science people at Georgia
Tech succeed we may be delivered from these evils. The report
is from GT's Research Horizons magazine.
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/
BISHOPS
AND POLITICIANS CREATED HE THEM...and when Catholic doctrine on
abortion is at issue, the nominally-Catholic pols, will not be
influenced by the bishops. Why and how this has come to be and
what--if anything--is to be done about it are the questions preoccupying
John Leo in his most recent U.S. News column.
http://www.usnews.com/
"THE
SKY IS FALLING," CRIED CHICKEN EHRLICH. Our oldest-established
permanent-doomsayer gets his comeuppance in this devastating review/essay
published today in the Wall Street Journal.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
WE
ARE--AND SHOULD REMAIN--CULTURALLY "ENGLISH." So argues
H. George Hahn II in this Baltimore Sun op-ed which is
less than devoted to the value or feasibility of "cultural
diversity."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/
WHEN
EDMUND WILSON WAS STILL A MARXIST ENTHUSIAST...he wrote "To
the Finland Station" and in the process learned a great deal
about history and something about his own fallibility. This fine
essay by Louis Menand, obviously prompted by a close re-reading
of the book, appeared last year in the New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/
THE
YIDDISH THEATER: GONE BUT STILL WITH US...in the spirit and the
performers that derive from it. That's the thesis of this nostalgic
appreciation for the old Second Avenue Scene as recently offered
by Stefan Kanfer in the City Journal.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/
MOZART'S
PIANO QUARTET IN E FLAT MAJOR...was composed in alternation with
his work on the Marriage of Figaro and it has some of the same
"sunny bounce touched with sad undertones." It is beautifully
performed here by Anne-Marie McDermott.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
May 19, 2004:
THE BERG BEHEADING: AN OVERVIEW FROM
NEW ZEALAND. The article is from yesterday's New Zealand Herald
and conveys the same sense of spoken "speechlessness"
that one found in most American (and fewer European) accounts
contemplating the horrific event.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
THE
BERG MURDER AND THE AMERICAN PRESS. Tom Sowell, who does not speak
softly nor suffer fools gladly, examines the performance of that
sector of the press that he would label--if he erred toward understatement--sensationalistic
and irresponsible.
http://www.townhall.com/
A
PROFILE OF THE PROBABLE MURDERER. The BBC reviews the career of
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who has been identified as the likely wielder
of the decapitation knife. Shall we blame his mad enmity upon
Rumsfeld, Bush or Satan?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
NINE
MISTAKEN IDEAS ABOUT AL QAEDA...according to a British journalist
who is an old "Middle East hand." Jason Burke's contention
is that we see them therough a western haze darkly. But, he says,
the "real al Qaeda" is an activist ideology rather than
an organization, and it will persist long after the death of Osama
Bin Laden. This article from the new issue of Foreign Policy
magazine, whether intrinsically correct or not, is in the category
of essential reading.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
PUT
YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUSE GOES! We don't know of any site more
valuable than Real Clear Politics--and we don't know of any political
observers more keen of mind and more dedicated to spreading the
best (and sometimes not quite the best) that has been said in
political reportage and commentary. Now their site needs a little
financial propping and we urge that all who linger here lend them
a hand. So do read on--and develop the realclearpolitics.com-habit
if you have not already done so.
http://realclearpolitics.com/
SENATOR
KENNEDY, LT. COLONEL KWIATKOWSKI AND LYNDON LaROUCHE. A little
judgement about sources might help the senior Senator from Massachusetts
organize his thoughts more competently. This tale just now told
in the National Review is surely--in the terminology
of Polonius--"tragical, comical."
http://www.nationalreview.com/
CAN
ANYTHING BE DONE ABOUT THIS GUY? From the current Economist:
an informative and troubling article about Chavez, the "strong
man of Venezuela."
http://www.economist.com/
AS
TRADITION DIES...in Africa, Greenland and Here-at-Home: In the
current New Criterion, John Derbyshire provides this
wonderfully thoughtful review of what is, apparently, a wonderfully
shocking "travel book" about decadence in Greenland;
and that distant decadence, he suggests, may well be a parallel
to cultural decay in the Anglophone (and surely also the Francophone)
West.
http://www.newcriterion.com/
TO
SIGN OR NOT TO SIGN...THAT IS NO LONGER THE QUESTION. If the publisher
sends an author out on the road to do programs like ours (tonight,
Ron Chernow; tomorrow, Ron Rosenbaum) they will also be doing
book-signing sessions at Border's or at Barnes and Noble. But
what rules and limits are layed down? The dope on that aspect
of "the tour" is found in this article from yesterday's
Wall Street Journal. Nota Bene: we know all the book
P.R. people quoted here and can attest that they do know the rules--because,
in fact, they wrote them!
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
WHAT
G.B.S. SAID TO THE FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. Quite
a lot, actually! This fascinating article about a correspondence
previously unknown to us was a recent accidental discovery. (Web
surfing may be an idle pursuit but it sometimes pays off.) Read
on for a fine sample of the private voice of a very public writer.
http://www.genetunney.org/
MORE
LITERARY LETTERS. This time from Edmund Wilson to such friends
as John Peale Bishop, Van Wyck Brooks and Vladimir Nabakov. This
appeared in an earlier issue of the New York Review of Books
and, happily, we stumbled upon it just yesterday.
http://www.nybooks.com/
THE
NEXT TIME YOU'RE IN TOLCSVA AND WANT A GOOD FRENCH MEAL...of the
"cuisine bourgeoise" category, here's the place to go.
Some of the best restaurant reviews east of the Oder are to be
found in the Budapest Sun. And here's a recent one. Now,
what's the best Hungarian restaurant in Paris?
http://www.budapestsun.com/
A
GREAT YOUNG BLUEGRASS BAND! The Lost Posse bunch don't modernize
the traditional style; they sharpen it! Be sure to listen to Jerusalem
Ridge and Banks of the Ohio.
http://www.lostposse.com/
May 18, 2004:
AN AUTHENTIC AL QAEDA VOICE. Canadian
journalist Stewart Bell spoke to a Bin Laden associate in Islamabad
the other day. In this article from the Canadian National
Post, Khalid Khawaja explains why they are targeting the
U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Australia. But
why not Norway?
http://www.canada.com/
A
WORTHY MAN OF BAGHDAD. This profile of Kanan Makiya is a heartening
augury of how the best may rise to influence in Iraq once the
worst is over. The fine British journalist, David Pryce-Jones
interviewed him for the National Review.
http://www.benadorassociates.com/
AN
INTERESTING CHAT WITH "YOUNG KING ABDULLAH." It sounds
to us as if he has enough mature and balanced understanding (and
probably enough commitment to his American sponsors) to allow
the abandonment of the juvenalizing modifier. Let's make it just
plain "King Abdullah." And let's give some thought to
the predictions he offers in this interview published yesterday
in the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
TELL
IT TO THE HATEFUL, HATING HATERS AT AIR AMERICA. John Fund writing
in the Wall Street Journal asserts that the hate beams
focussed on Bush and company by many campaigning against them
work, paradoxically, to illuminate the programmatic vacuity in
the camp of the Dems.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
INVESTIGATING
THE INVESTIGATOR. Sy Hersh's stuff is always worth reading and,
say some, often worth doubting. Now that he is caught in a mutual
defamation showdown with the Pentagon, the National Review
has thought it appropriate to trot out, once again, their critical
profile, first published on December 3rd, 2001.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
LIST
SEARCH ENGINE PROGRAMMERS. Would that command given to the KnowItAll
search engine (not yet quite on line) produce a list containing
Oren Etzioni? And if he is related to our old friend Amitai Etzioni,
would the print out reveal that possible fact? The search for
better searching apparently has no end as witness this newsnote
from New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/
TERRORISM
AS SEEN BY GEOGRAPHERS. Well, why not? All terrorist events happen
SOMEPLACE and usually originate someplace else. This compendium
sounds--despite the wooden, academic style of the reviewer--like
a possible source of some new ideas and some new techniques for
heading off and/or dealing with terrorist assaults.
http://www.h-net.org/
HOW
DO WE KEEP THIS FROM AL QAEDA? When it comes to compiling the
latest file on "western decadence," this item may come
directly after the bulletin from Cambridge.
http://apnews.myway.com/
IS
RUSSIA A POST-MORAL SOCIETY? Behind the glitter of the new Moscow,
David Satter (an old journalistic hand who covered USSR affairs)
finds violence, corruption, criminality, depravity and despair.
Otherwise, according to this startling report from the Hoover
Digest, things are looking up.
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/
FRANKLIN,
WE HARDLY KNEW YE. Two recent biographies of FDR are reviewed
here--in the Canadian magazine, Walrus--from a special
angle: namely, that both biographers are "conservatives."
Of course, it could be argued that so was "himself."
After all, he did conserve corporate capitalism when it was in
danger of collapse or state-takeover. The review is an exemplary
instance of addressing the actual content of the books under consideration.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/
THE GREAT RORSCHACH BLOT AT THE END OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. The
book of Revelation has been, to say the least, variably interpreted.
Reading apocalypse into its heavily symbolic passages, the evangelicals
have made it their own. But, of course, other readings are possible--and,
indeed, required. Here's how Newsweek handles this theological
hot potato in the current issue focussed on Christian eschatology.
http://msnbc.msn.com/
THE
CULTURE OF THE MAYA...fascianted the proprietor as a young "social
scientist" working in Yucatan at the temple city of Uxmal
and in the village of Pustanich. Here, a brief but informative
overview of that classic Mesoamerican civilization which, as any
traveler heading out from Merida can attest, still persists in
the rural villages and markets.
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/
ON
AMERICA'S FIRST SUPER HIGHWAY. The Camino Real gets a loving appreciation
in this travel article--one of the best we have read in years.
The source is the new issue of American Heritage magazine.
http://www.americanheritage.com/
HOW
ABOUT SOME GOOD, TRADITIONAL LENINGRAD JAZZ? These Russian jazzmen
don't call their group the St. Petersburg Jazz Band--so we will
go along with their nomenclature. Whatever you call them they
do some pretty close duplications of classic American performance.
To us they sound rather close to Eddie Condon's Chicagoans of
the late twenties. Don't miss: Basin Street and Sunnyside.
http://www.ldljazz.com/
May
17, 2004:
DOES SY HERSH KNOW WHAT RUMSFELD KNEW...AND
HOW DOES HE KNOW IT? Here is the article that popped on Friday
in the New Yorker. Hersh asserts that the Abu Ghraib
scandal began much "higher up." The Pentagon has issued
a strong denial. We would bet that NEITHER will turn out to have
been mired in clear disingenuousness...but that the Geneva convention
will get a lot of renewed close reading and "explication
du texte."
http://newyorker.com/
THE
PENTAGON RESPONSE. This should be taken seriously and weighed
in the balance. Easy dismissal on the grounds that they are merely
invoking the deniability option (i.e. that they are lying) forces
the issue into a far too rigid frame. Effective adjudication of
these conflicting claims requires asking: Who said what to whom?
What was meant thereby? What was understood? What evaluative and
supervisory oversight was undertaken? If none, then for Godsake,
why not?
http://news.yahoo.com/
THE
ZARQAWI BOOMERANG EFFECT. Charles Paul Freund is onto something
as important as it is obvious in this article from the Reason
magazine website.
http://www.reason.com/
THE
TOLL RISES IN SUDAN: WHAT IS THE UN DOING ABOUT IT? Far too little
as this article from Front Page makes clear--for the
umpteenth time. Another Rwanda is shaping up--and it is worth
remembering that the signal that set the Hutu into full genocidal
mode against the Tutsi ten years ago was the withdrawal of UN
troops ordered by Kofi Annan.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
THE
ELECTION WILL OR WONT BE CLOSE; EITHER BUSH OR KERRY WILL WIN!!
We offer this as the most "faux-profound" article of
the week. Prognosticating the presidential election, the Christian
Sciene Monitor touches every likely base. It rather reminds
one of the a mentalist's art of "cold reading" (i.e.
you are bothered by low back pain or you will be or else someone
in your family or...).
http://www.csmonitor.com/
WHAT
HATH JAYSON BLAIR AND THE OTHER JOURNALISTIC FAKERS WROUGHT? Possibly,
according to this slightly brilliant piece in yesterday's Washington
Post, a new concern for full attribution--illustrated here
by a truly "reliably sourced" rewrite of the Gettysburg
Address.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
MONEY
CAN'T BUY YOU HAPPINESS BUT...the unasked question in this research
review article is: Does happiness facilitate the making of money?
This popped up yesterday in--of all places--the Business Times.
http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/
THUS DID HE REFUTE BISHOP USHER...AND LORD KELVIN, TOO. The young
New Zealander who did all that by establishing the approximate
real age of the earth was Ernest Rutherford whose achievement
is celebrated here, on its one hundreth anniversary, by the hometown
newspaper, the New Zealand Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
BEFORE
(AND AFTER) NIETZSCHE WENT MAD. This fine interpretive/biographical
essay from the great American humanist, Paul Elmer More is as
valuable as when it was first published in 1913.
http://www.nyx.net/
WE
BID TEN THOUSAND POUNDS...for the letter to Sherlock Holmes from
Irene Adler. At any rate we would like to be at the auction at
Christie's on Wednesday. Here's the rundown from the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
PERHAPS
THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE THE ODYSSEY INSTEAD. Brit film reviewers,
on average, have had better classical education than their American
colleagues. This review from the UK Telegraph suggests
to us that the new film of the Iliad won't work for anyone who
has actually read it. But we did enjoy the ungrudging contempt
that Tim Robey bestows upon the film.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
THE
BARRY RULES FOR COURTEOUS LIVING...or, how to not be an absolute
plonk. We found these strictures and admonitions of considerable
value and promise to try to live up to them--if you will do the
same. This link requires registration.
http://www.miami.com/
SOME
FINE MARIACHI FROM A BAND WE CAN'T IDENTIFY...but they do swing
their pasa dobles, particularly: el Mariachi Loco and Mexico Lindo.
http://www.mexique-fr.com/
May 14, 2004:
ABU GHRAIB AND WACO. Krauthammer draws
an interesting comparison, in today's Washington Post
column, between Rumsfeld's and Reno's versions of "responsibility"
and goes on to a balancing commentary on the new panic that has
seized some of the war's supporters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
AS
THE SHERIFF SAID TO COOLHAND LUKE...what we have here is a failure
to communicate. If the routing of intelligence data is not significantly
improved soon we are, says this FBI veteran in today's New
York Times, open for more 9/11s or worse.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
NEW TERRORISM...stands at "the crossroads of radicalism and
technology" in the view of Matthew Morgan, an Army intelligence
officer. This recent article, which appeared recently in Parameters,
the quarterly of the Army War College, is as sharp an analysis
as we have found of the shape and persisting threat of "postmodern"
terrorism.
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/
SUDAN
AND THE SWORD OF ISLAM. How many have already been murdered by
the military hordes let loose by the government? Clearly UN and
US efforts to stop the genocide are not sufficient. Is this an
opportunity for the Arab League or the Saudi regime to remond
their colleagues in Khartoum that Islam is "a religion of
peace?"
http://www.cnn.com/
THE
GODEL REVOLUTION. What do you know about the Incompleteness Theorem?
It has consequences in all directions of intellectual life--and
provides a fair excuse for your having not rally mastered calculus
in high school. This brief essay from Science magazine
painlessly introduces "one of the most influential thinkers
of the twentieth century."
http://www.sciencemag.org/
YOU
THINK THE EXTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS WAS SOMETHING? Some 200
million years earlier, about nine tenths of all life forms were
wiped out by an asteroid that slammed into Earth off the coast
of Australia. The New Zealand Herald is entitled to some
pride of place on this one!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
THE
COLLAPSE OF THE CORE CURRICULUM...is now virtually universal across
the range of American universities. This note in today's Wall
Street Journal highlights the "smorgasbordification"
of the curriculum at Cornell and Hahvahhd. Much the same is happening--though
at a somewhat slower pace--at the proprietor's home university.
Ultimately, all roads may lead to St. John's College.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
A
GREAT LITERARY (AND CULTURAL) CRITIC...well worth a close reading
if you want to comprehend the true meaning of the "moral
vision" in the arts and ineducation. Who? Matthew Arnold,
for a certainty--and for his certainties--who is excellently limned
in this appreciation by S.N. Radhika Lakshmi.
http://www.english-literature.org/
THE
"POSTMODERN" APPROACH TO "GENDER" AND SEXUALITY...is
not merely mistaken; it is dishonest in its scholarship! So proclaims
the author of this uncompromisingly--and properly--fierce article
from Butterflies and Wheels.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/
LEGAL
FRAUD IN "HIGHER" EDUCATION. Getting a PhD in clinical
psycholgy usually takes about four years--unless you shell out
a few bucks to a diploma mill and hang up your shingle. Play it
right and you may wind up a "media psychologist." This
well-told tale of a recent cautionary instance is from the Smoking
Gun site. So how will Fox TV respond?
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
CAN
A GREAT BEAUTY BE A DULL PERSON? Of course! But apparently in
France that is unforgiveable. Thus, the big flap over the humdrum
diaries of Catherine Deneuve! Cette critique (from the UK Guardian)
nous amuse.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/
SING
MUSE, THE WRATH OF ACHILLES, PELEUS' SON...as played by Brad Pitt?
That could be enough to send Agamemnon back to cowering under
his shroud. But, then again, cinema is THE modern art...so here's
David Denby's New Yorker review of "Troy,"
i.e. The Iliad.
http://www.newyorker.com/
WHAT
DO JOHNNIE RAY, AL JOLSON, VAUGHN MONROE AND THE MILLS BROTHERS
HAVE IN COMMON? They are all heard on this evocative and pleasing
collection of music from the fifties.
http://www.greatgrannygeek.com/
May 13, 2004:
Milt's file is taking the day off, but
will return tomorrow.
May 12, 2004:
A CALL FOR "ALL OUT WAR:" DO
YOU BUY IT? Bruce Hershenson, the author of this op-ed in today's
Los Angeles Times, was communications director for a
while in the Reagan White House and almost won the governorship
of California a few years ago. Does his call for full war scare,
enthuse or confuse?
http://www.latimes.com/
H0W
TO ANSWER ZARQAWI'S MESSAGE. Of the many commentaries today on
the murder of Nick Berg, this one, by the editor of Human
Events, seems to us to say what is neccessary most simply
and most directly.
http://www.townhall.com/
ANOTHER
WAY OF TORTURING THE IRAQIS...says Richard Brookhiser in yesterday's
New York Observer, is to rob them through the oil-for-food
program. In this case, however, the culprits were some leading
figures in the UN bureaucracy.
http://www.observer.com/
SETTING
FRIEDMAN OF THE TIMES STRAIGHT. He has called for the immediate
resignation or dismissal of Don Rumsfeld. But he forgets or ignores,
says Arnold Kling at Tech Central Station, all that has
gone right on Rumsfeld's watch. And never having to meet a payroll
(or a policy deadline rather than a mere journalistic one) may
have foreshortened TF's perspective.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/
SO
WHAT DO THE PRESIDENTIAL POLLS TELL US? The director of the Pew
Center (and they, of course, do some of the polling) says that
the message is "it's too soon to say." Hhrumpfff! All
the same, he's right about the focus being on the incumbent rather
than the (putative) challenger. Actually, this brief op-ed from
today's New York Times is worth your attention. And we
would be delighted to have your further thoughts on what, if anything,
the polls are revealing.
http://www.nytimes.com/
BUT
HOW CAN BUSH AND KERRY RUN AGAINST ONE ANOTHER WHEN THEY ARE BOTH
BONESMEN??? For old Yale hands (like the present proprietor) that
is not a totally silly question. Nor is it trivial to ask: What
really happens inside that mausoleum in the middle of the campus?.
This article appeared on the CBS site last year and continues
to stir slightly paranoid thoughts about the "secret elite"
who really--pace, Richard Condon--run everything.
http://www.cbsnews.com/
DAN
PIPES MAY BE CASSANDRA...but Cassandra was right about the coming
fall of her civilization. This scary look at the Islamicised Europe-to-come
appeared yesterday in the New York Sun.
http://www.danielpipes.org/
WHAT
WAS THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE? Or is it nonsense to think that all
6000 extant languages descend from one source? The question arose
as we prepared for last Monday's program on linguistics...and,
googling around, we found this intruiging article printed in the
New York Times some four years ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
FRANKEN FLOP. We stopped listening to Air America when they lost
their Chicago outlet. Apparently they are still doing their thing
but they do not amuse (in fact they seem to disgust) the former
executive editor of the New York Daily News. Here's why.
http://www.nydailynews.com/
ONE
NOBEL LAUREATE (LITERATURE) EXAMINES THE EARLY WORK OF ANOTHER.
This illuminating essay by J.M. Coetzee, on the early novels of
Saul Bellow, has just appeared in the New York Review of Books.
Not only did both the author and his subject receive the Nobel
Prize--they have both served as members of the Committee on Social
Thought at the University of Chicago.
http://www.nybooks.com/
IN
A TIME OF EARLY SORROW AND DEATH...ponder for a while the great
tragic heroes. William Hazlitt does that in this great essay on
Hamlet whom he takes to be "the most amiable of misanthropes."
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/
WHY
NOT DOO WOP? It was a charming turn in popular music and still
weaves an illusory innocence for the listener. The Flamingos and
The Chantels, as heard in this collection, virtually define the
genre.
http://www.hhbrandy.addr.com/
May 11, 2004:
THE
UNBEARABLE STORY ON NICK BERG'S BEHEADING. With enemies like this,
we do need real friends...and perhaps the hierarchs of Old Europe
will begin to recognize that our enemy is also the enemy in their
midst.
http://news.yahoo.com/
THE
WISE STOIC OF WASHINGTON...is George Will. Tempered by his long
exposure to the radical imperfectibility of persons and their
institutions, he has come to see that in the undertakings of powerful
nations, Murphy's Law always applies. Thus, as he reflects on
Iraq in today's column, the present moral (and PR!) disaster.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/
DOES
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH EXPLAIN ABU GHRAIB? This story carried
by VOA asserts that it does. As a long-time professor of social
psychology (who was on the scene at Yale when Milgram did his
famous obedience studies) the proprietor has some doubts but thinks
the putative parallel is worth much further thought.
http://www.voanews.com/
TO
SEE OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US. The UK Economist is tracking
the presidential race over here--and this is the first of their
series on the "swing states." As usual, they seem to
see the US not through a glass darkly.
http://www.economist.com/
THE
ZOGBY PREDICTION...was that Kerry has it unless he blunders badly.
That's going into "deep extrapolation" on "slender
numbers" we thought--and here's a political operator who
agrees with us and provides a lucid analysis of where the American
electorate is and isn't as the presidential race proceeds.
http://www.townhall.com/
GUESS
WHO'S TERRORIZING SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA! Tim Priest, a retired detective,
gives us "the facts, ma'am" in this gripping and dismaying
article from Quadrant, one of the major "intellectual
journals" of the country.
http://www.quadrant.org.au/
WHEN,
IF EVER, WILL MACHINES BEGIN TO THINK? Or, are there some AI entities
now actually ratiocinating among us? An updated version of the
classic book, Machines Who Think, addresses the question
and is reviewed here in Scientific American.
http://www.sciam.com/
WHAT
HAS GONE WRONG IN FAMILY MEDICINE? The answer has everything to
do with the "fragmenting of medical care" and the required
solution is the restoration of the family doctor. This well-informed
and wisely-argued analysis by a senior physician has just appeared
in the journal of the Hoover Institution.
http://www.policyreview.org/
HE'S
NOT REALLY THE FATHER OF AMERICAN CONSERVATISM...but, all the
same, Bill Buckley was "present at the creation" and
his evaluation of some of the intellectual fathers of the movement
was worth the price of admission when he delivered these remarks
at the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Society.
http://www.townhall.com/
THE
DELUSION THAT WON'T DIE...is that the Soviet Union was, really,
a pretty good try for social justice and human improvement. Yes,
Virginia, there are American academics who still flounder in that
delusional swamp. Harvey Klehr did a fine book about them recently
(and discussed
it with us on our program). This appreciative review of that
book has recently appeared in Reason magazine.
http://www.reason.com/
PNIN,
NABAKOV AND LODGE. This finely-wrought appreciation of Vladimir
Nabakov's writings--and, especially, of his somewhat befuddled
emigre-professor, Pnin--has just appeared in the UK Guardian.
That it is put before us by the perpetrator of the greatest "academic
novels" of recent years (Trading Places and Small
