MILT'S
FILE
June
30, 2004:
Milt's
File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.
June
29, 2004:
THE TRANSFER OF POWER IN IRAQ...came two days early.
Here is Fareed Zakaria's advice for the new government in today's
Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
MORE
ON THE IRAQI TRANSFER. Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate,
makes a compelling case that scheduling the handover two days
early is a step in the right direction for the Bush administration
in Iraq. Perhaps after the past few months' mishaps, things will
now get back on track.
http://slate.msn.com/
AND
NOW THEY HAVE HUSSEIN. Along with having sovereignty, the new
Iraqi government will also take control of the imprisoned Saddam
Hussein. Here is the complete story from today's New York
Times, along with some useful links about the ongoing situation
in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/
AND
SPEAKING OF SADDAM...his various romance novels are fodder for
comedy writers everywhere. This article from Prospect
asserts that his books are not only laughable, but the first entries
in a new genre: dictator-lit!
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/
WHILE
WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT...of dictators and their idiosyncracies,
this article from the Los Angeles Times details how Kim
Jong Il satisfies his discerning palate while the rest of his
country starves.
http://www.latimes.com/
THE
WISDOM OF THE MASSES. In this fascinating article from the latest
issue of the New Republic, Cass Sunstein of the University
of Chicago reviews a book that examines the intelligence of mass
behavior and reflects on what the majority can and cannot teach
us.
http://www.tnr.com/
THE
ACADEMIC AS CELEBRITY. As university culture is increasingly driven
by money and celebrity, more and more professors find themselves
driven to television and radio appearances by their own deans.
This article in the Christian Science Monitor outlines
the life of the new academic celebrity, and includes quotes from
Loyola University Chicago's Jay Williams, a frequent guest on
Extension 720.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
ANOTHER
GREAT CONCERT FROM LUGANO. This performance from the Argerich
festival 2004 features works by Mozart, Frank, Gluck and includes
the hauntingly beautiful Meditation from Thais and some
robust Hungarian Dances by Brahms.
http://www.rtsi.ch/
June 28, 2004:
MAKING THE "BEST CASE" ON IRAQ.
No one we regularly read does better than Victor Davis Hanson
(a sometime guest on our radio program--see here)
at extracting encouraging developments out of the often discouraging
stream of news from and about Iraq. This column from the National
Review should be closely considered.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
THE
INVALUABLE MARK STEYN ON THE POSSIBLY EXPENDABLE 9/11 COMMISSION.
While most journalists and opinionists have misinterprteted the
9/11 report, Steyn has read it and, in this column from yesterday's
Chicago Sun-Times, pulls some tasty plums out of the
pudding.
http://www.suntimes.com/
COUNTER-SPIN
FROM PITTSBURGH. Jack Kelly, writing in the Post-Gazette,
puts in a few basic corrections on the "news" conveyed
in some recent anti-war, anti-Bush stories.
http://www.post-gazette.com/
FURTHER
RYAN REVERBERATIONS. The resignation from candidacy of our Illinois
Republican aspirant does raise the question of why some candidates
can get away with scandal while others can't. This thoughtful
analysis by Amanda Paulson is from this morning's Christian
Science Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
KERRY
SLIPS! ACCORDING TO JOHN McINTYRE...who reads and interprets ALL
the polls more wisely than anyone we know in the punditry business.
From Real Clear Politics, the great site that he and his partner
maintain came this deft analysis last Friday.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
REMEMEBER
WHAT WE LET (HELPED) HAPPEN IN RWANDA! Our complicity--through
inaction--may well facilitate an equal genocidal disaster in this
most ill-ruled state in Africa. The Washington Post provides
this disturbing up-date.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
WHAT
PEGGY SAW AT THE FUNERAL...when the off-course airplane caused
an emergency evacuatiuon of the Capitol. Yes, she is a sentimentalist,
but an authentic one with heart, style and a sense of history.
And all of these are on view in this wonderful column from last
Thursday's Wall Street Journal.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
WHEN
GOD CREATED THE HUMAN MIND DID HE HAVE THE COMPUTER AS HIS MODEL?
Well, that's one way to tease out the implications of this important
new development in brain research. Read on...in this exciting,
but rather too short, account from BBC.
http://www.nature.com/
WHAT
HATH THE MASSACHUSSETTS SUPREME COURT WROUGHT? Past and present
governors of the state are getting into the act--but where it
will all end knows Maggie Gallegher writing, here, in this week's
National Review.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
WHAT
HAPPENS WHEN A "NEW-AGEIST" ENCOUNTERS THE SKEPTICS?
This one, writing in the Skeptical Inquirer, has been
shaken out from under her aura and now doubts (but in pain) the
precepts on which her "culture" has long sustained itself.
A curious and, inevitably, fascinating article.
http://www.csicop.org/
NAPOLEON
AS A NON-FREAK. David Bell takes an interesting tack in this essay/review
of a new political biography of Le Petit Caporal. Apparently,
the conqueror and wrecker of virtually all Europe was just like
us "except more so."
http://www.tnr.com/
A
REVIEW THAT MAKES YOU DECIDE TO GET THE BOOK. That is a fairly
rare category for us--since we get an over-abundance of books
sent by publishers who have our radio program in mind. But, every
so often a review makes us eager to get the volume in our hands.
This one from yesterday's New York Times is certainly
in that category--just as Berlin has, for us, long been one of
the most interesting of contemporary essayists and memoirists.
http://www.nytimes.com/
IS
IT MORE THAN MERE SCHADENFREUDE...that accounts for the pleasure
one gets from devastating book reviews? Yes, says the author of
this article from the Canadian magazine, Walrus. There
are times when it is essential, he says, to tell the absolute
truth so as to protect literature from those who, by intention
or inadvertance, would despoil it.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/
B.B.
KING! Nothing else has to be said...except that in this generous
collection of great duets, the singles are also not to be missed.
http://www.hhtabby.addr.com/
June 25, 2004:
OUR
OWN LITTLE ILLINOIS SCANDAL. Just in time to demonstrate that
our home state is up-to-date in its politics, the "Jack Ryan
for Senate" operation folded today. Here's the story as it
broke a few hours ago in the Chicago Sun-Times.
http://www.suntimes.com/
THE
TIMES CONCEDES...SORT OF...that there were, in fact, early contacts
between the Saddam regime and Osama bin Laden. But, they say,
the documentary evidence of those contacts doesn't really matter
because that was before Osama found his true vocation. This story
from today's paper could be on the reading list for a seminar
in spinning.
http://www.nytimes.com/
HOW
TO RESCUE THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES FROM MOROBUNDITY. These views
on what is now needed from the CIA and related services comes
FROM the CIA. In fact, its author is a conceivable candidate for
the directorship!
http://www.cia.gov/
THE
THREAT OF THE "CHINA THREAT"...and the looming presence
of India must, says the editor of Foreign Affairs, be
"factored-in" by the G-7 powers. That means not only
changes in attitude and strategy, but also changes in representation
on international bodies. A valuable "tour of the eastern
horizon" by an old friend who was once the editor/publisher
of the Chicago Sun-Times and for some years has been
in command at the official journal of the New York Council on
Foreign Relations.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/
THORSTEN
VEBLEN WOULD BE PLEASED...to learn, as this article from The
Economist reports, that the Chinese are providing further
confirmation of his "conspicuous consumption" hypothesis:
i.e. that the rich demonstrate their preferred status by buying
things that they don't need and by spending far more than they
have to.
http://www.economist.com/
IN
A WASHINGTON LONG AGO...in the 1990s. Richard Brookhiser, fairly
often a guest on our program, ponders how "other worldly"
Monica, triangulation, Francis Fukuyama and Newt Gingrich now
seem. And how unworldly the recent statements from the 9/11 commission
have been.
http://www.observer.com/
THE
GUY WHO LABELLED HIM "SLICK WILLIE"...is still writng
good stuff for the Little Rock Democrat-Gazette. And,
since 42's confession has appeared, Paul Goldberg has been getting
a lot of calls from other journalists. Today, he muses upon Clinton
then and Clinton now...and finds: It's the same guy!
http://www.townhall.com/
MEXICAN-AMERICANS
AND MEXICAN AMERICA. We don't usually borrow from Human Events--but
with our recent conversations about the ever-growing Mexican immigration
issue, this story seemed...aahhhh...pertinent.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/
THE
MAKING OF THE "FINAL SOLUTION." Christopher Browning,
one of the major historians of the Holocaust, has been struggling
for years with the question of whether the destruction of the
European Jews was or was not foreseen in the original Nazi plan.
His new book, reviewed for the UK Guardian by Neal Ascherson,
offers a clear--but not simple--answer.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/
ET
TU MISSOURI? We don't get particularly angry anymore about reflexively
leftist professors. They are, simply, the garden variety of homo
academicus americanensis. But the silly stuff gets serious when
they misuse their students and turn their courses into recruiting
operations. Consider, for example, what seems now to be rather
routine at the main campus of the University of Missouri. The
report is from Front Page magazine.
http://frontpagemag.com/
ANOTHER
TAKE ON MOORE'S FAHRENHEIT. Less scabrous than Chris Hitchens,
but still on the "thumbs down" side of the critical
ledger, is this "on-target" review by the American editor
of the Times Literary Supplement.
http://www.jamesbowman.net/
FROM
THE "FATHER OF THE SYMPHONY." Haydn's 102nd in a particularly
graceful performance recorded at the Haydn Festival of 1999.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
June 24, 2004:
Milt's
File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.
June 23, 2004:
A NEO-CON IRAQ WAR HAWK...(whose recent
discussion with us can be heard here)
urges the NATO countries to accept their responsibilities and
to get into Iraq right now. This article first appeared in the
Washington Post.
http://www.ceip.org/
WHY
DOESN'T THE PRESS GET IT RIGHT...when attempting to summarize
the report of the 9/11 Commission? That question is raised and
answered here by the deputy Director of the Project for the New
American Century. (Full disclosure: that is the "think tank"
oprganized by and for some of the leading "neo-cons"
who urged the removal of the Saddam Hussein regime.)
http://www.newamericancentury.org/
THE
LOOK AND FEEL OF BAGHDAD NOW...is vividly conveyed in this brief
article (and the accompanying photos) from Metropolis
magazine. Might be a nice place to visit...once they stop the
random killing of those who traverse the streets or work to restore
the place.
http://www.metropolismag.com/
KEEGAN ON IRANIAN AMBITIONS. John Keegan is one of the best of
the military historians. In this article in toady's UK Telegraph,
he assesses Iranian ambition and finds reason to worry and warn
about their rush toward nuclearization.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
WHO'S
SAYING WHAT ABOUT WHATSISNAME? In the wake of the publication
(and massive publicization) of Bill Clinton's new apologia
pro vita sua, Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post tunes
in on some of the partisan reaction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
LINDBERGH
AS PRESIDENT. Philip Roth has completed a counter-factual historical
novel in which the aviator-hero defeats Roosevelt in 1940. The
consequences for Hitler, the Jews, Henry Ford and everyone else
are feverishly examined here in a brilliant (and highly personal)
article by Ron Rosenbaum of the New York Observer. Two
of his discussions on Extension 720 can be heard here
and here.
http://www.observer.com/
WHAT
BILL COSBY REALLY SAID...and how John McWhorter (listen to him
here
on our program) judges Cosby's message for African-Americans and
the truth-evading tactics of those who attacked him for this speech
to the NAACP convention.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/
THE
LAST WORK OF A FINE AMERICAN WRITER. John Gregory Dunne completed
this novel in the last year of his life and this review in the
New York Review of Books suggests that he was reaching
out beyond his former range and that, except for a somewhat too-large
cast of characters, he succeeded impressively and left us a fine
fictional representation of the dark side of American life and
of the violence of our time.
http://www.nybooks.com/
WHO
CAN COMPREHEND THE MYSTERY OF THE SEMI-COLON? Henry James did
and, after we talked with her recently, we thought that Lynne
Truss did as well. But now, this devastating--but funny--review,
in the New Yorker, of her recent best-selling book on
punctuation seems to have punctured her balloon.
http://newyorker.com/
HITCHENS
FINDS MOORE TO BE "FLAT-OUT PHONY"...and that is the
least of it in this classically contemptuous review of the latter's
new film, Fahrenheit 9/11. This burned the screen a few
days ago at Slate--and one wonders if Moore will attempt
to contest the more-than-persuasive demonstration that he is veracity-challenged.
http://slate.msn.com/
AND THEN THERE'S THE CASE OF SIGMUND F. This review of an important
book about psychoanalysis and it pretentions appeared a few years
ago, but if you haven't read it--or the book it reviews you might
still be saved from spending $50,000 that might better be invested
otherwise.
http://articles.findarticles.com/
GETTING
INTO JEOPARDY...the TV program, that is, requires endurance, frustration-tolerance
and lots of "useless knowledge." One learns a great
deal, in fact, from this New Republic article by a program-embedded
journalist.
http://www.tnr.com/
LISZT
AT THE PIANO. He wrote and played a lot of stormy, romantic stuff
for piano and orchestra...and here are three such works performed
last Friday at the 2004 Argerich Festival in Lugano, Switzerland.
http://www.rtsi.ch/
June 22, 2004:
THE WAR ON TERRORISTS...is what it should
be called rather than the war on "terror." Either way,
how is it really going and is it terminable or interminable? This
important discussion was posted a few days ago at Front Page
magazine.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
RADICAL
ISLAM IS WHERE YOU LOOK FOR IT...and can, in fact, be found anyplace
and everyplace in the Islamic world. In this scholarly (but quite
readable!) paper from Orbis, its provenance in the Maghreb
of North Africa is expertly examined and its threat realistically
analyzed.
http://www.fpri.org/
THE
MESS AT THE 9/11 COMMISSION. It has all been sounding rather out
of control and we suspected that there was a story behind the
story. Safire of the New York Times seems to have an
inside line and, in yesterday's column, he verifies our worst
suspicions.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
WAY WE FIGHT WARS NOW...includes "information war" as
a major "battlefield." How that battle is being presently
waged and how war is changing evermore in that direction is examined
here in a valuable article from Reason magazine.
http://reason.com/
ON
THE CLINTON MEMOIRS. Everyone has, by now, read Kakutani's first
page review in the New York Times. Here's another from
a source we usually find wise, straight and earnest (in both the
direct and the Hemingway senses): namely, Fred Barnes in the National
Review.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
RUSSIAN
ORTHODOXY AND THE ATHIEST ARTISTS. The struggle over religion
is renewed in the successor state to the USSR. But, this time,
the government is on the side of the church. And an anti-religious
art exhibit is at the center, evoking in our memory "Piss
Christ" and other such works. This account is from the Moscow
Times.
http://www.context.themoscowtimes.com/
DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE AGAINST MALE VETERANS! Is this a real issue? Apparently
the writer and his sponsors at iFeminists
think it is and that the issue intersects with the question of
women in the military. Too complicated to review here--but read
this piece.
http://www.ifeminists.net/
GERMAINE
GREER IS HECTORING AGAIN...but this time her corrective instruction
is directed at her countrymen (countrywomen? countrypersons?)
If only they would all identify with the Aboriginals, it might
become a place that she would be willing to return to--for a visit,
that is. Unintended comic extremity, thy name is Greer!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
THE
PLAGUE OF PUBLIC PSYCHLOGY...is, these days, represented by Dr.
Phil, Oprah's boy. Yecchh! The harm done by such givers of advice
to the multitude is incalculable. But their earnings are not.
Here, then, a report on the millions this charlatan is raking
in. We remind you that the proprietor has spent a full university
career as a psychologist (social, not clinical) and he has seen
that of which one cannot speak without tears or rage or both.
http://businessweek.com/
A
"CONSERVATIVE" FATHER AT THE HARVARD COMMENCEMENT. And
Oh, tis true, tis true. Not only at Hahvahhd, but at most of the
"great American universities." This wistful/mournful
report from yesterday's Wall Street Journal does make
one wonder where else he might have sent his daughter for her
graduate education. Or--since he probably didn't "send"
her, where else she might have chosen to go.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
ANYTHING
BY CYNTHIA OZICK IS WORTH READING TWICE...and that surely applies
to this deep-delving essay, from the New Republic, in
which she savors the Cossacks of Tolstoy and of Babel.
http://www.tnr.com/
A
DEFENSE OF GIBSON'S "PASSION OF THE CHRIST." We couldn't
disagree more with this article from the current issue of First
Things.
http://www.firstthings.com/
TOO
MANY NOTES, MOZART...said the Emperor Joseph II. As for Don Giovanni,
many found it too dark and immoral as, indeed, it was; and that
is one reason why it remains so popular to this day says Jan Swafford
in this article from the U.K. Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
SPEAKING
OF DON GIOVANNI...here are two of the show-stopper arias. In the
first Leporello recounts the conquests of the Don. In the second
the Don is getting launched on a new seduction.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
June 21, 2004:
HOW 9/11 WAS CONCEIVED, PLANNED AND EXECUTED.
The staff of the 9/11 Commission reported to their employers in
public session last Wednesday. Here is the full--and riveting--transcript
of their testimony.
http://wid.ap.org/
LET'S
SPEAK TRUTH TO SAUDI POWER...says Stephen Schwartz in this strong
op-ed from the New York Post. Written after the beheading
of Paul Johnson but before the putative beheaders were killed,
this article lays much of the ultimate blame for Wahabbist terrorism
upon the Saudis themselves.
http://www.nypost.com/
THE
LOT OF WOMEN IN THE SAUDI KINGDOM. According to this article in
the UK Economist it is getting better--sort of. Well,
it clearly couldn't get much worse. As the old blues has it, "been
down so long it seems like up to me."
http://www.economist.com/
A
WARNING TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZED FEMINIST MOVEMENT...is
here issued by Phyllis Chesler: Speak favorably of Israel and
critically of the jihadists at your own risk! Her sad and infuriating
encounters with her former Movement Sisters are recounted here
in this article from Front Page.
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/
THE
TIMES, IT IS A'CHANGING. Somehow we have the suspicion that only
after the Howell Raines reign was ended could the paper allow
its leading book reviewer to give Clinton's memoir so disgusted
a review. Note: we said "disgusted" not "disgusting."
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
TIMES STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO...if it wants, once again, to
be considered a true "newspaper of record" according
to this editorial commentary from the always pertinent Real Clear
Politics site. On Saddam and Al Qaida, Zarqawi may well be the
crucial link and, according to this account, the CIA never said--as
the New York Times says it said--otherwise.
http://realclearpolitics.com/
SOME
PROSPECTIVE GLIMPSES OF THE PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY OF THE NEAR FUTURE.
PC Magazine does this sort of thing wonderfully well.
And here's their current go round with various technology-informed
speculations about how our lives will continue to be reorganized
by our "machines."
http://www.pcmag.com/
THE
SINS COMMITTED IN THE NAME OF PSYCHOTHERAPY...are many, and sometimes
deadly. In this article from Scientific American, Michael
Shermer examines the irresponsiblity verging upon madness of so-called
"attachment therapy."
http://www.sciam.com/
THE
"DIVERSITY TRAINING" RACKET AT ITS WORST...may well
be the blue eyes-brown eyes caper. A columnist for the Rocky
Mountain News zeroes in on how it hurts children. She might
have added that it can also hurt those who are urged by the "trainer"
to treat the "inferiors" with contempt. A real psychological
truth is that, to some extent, WE BECOME WHAT WE DO!
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
AN
ENCONIUM FOR TROTSKY...and a curious one at that. The ideationally
and ideologically versatile Christopher Hitchens revives the "old
man" and his biographer, Isaac Deutcher, with considerable
appreciation of both. But would it be totally inappropriate to
remember the hundreds of sailors that Trotsky dispatched to death
at Kronstadt?
http://www.theatlantic.com/
LO-CARBING,
MIAMI BEACH STYLE...is far more a fad than a scientifically-grounded
regimen. As most diets go, says this article from the Health
and Nutrition Letter, so will this one as it is found, by
its practitioners, to be big on promises and small in value.
http://healthletter.tufts.edu/
"A
GOOD MARK HAS TO HAVE A WELL DEVELOPED SENSE OF LARCENY."
That's a maxim widely employed by con men talking about how to
find the next victim (i.e. "mark"). The applicability
of that bit of wisdom is well illustrated in this chronicle of
the great western scam of 1872.
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/
THE
SMOOTH FOLK SINGERS...of the fifties and sixties were, in the
main, trained musicians who brought out much of the beauty--even
as they diminished the vigor--of the largely anglo-saxon folk
tradition. Here are some of the best. Our particular favorites:
Richard Dyer Bennett and the Everly Brothers.
http://www.usm.maine.edu/
June 18, 2004:
FROM KANDEHAR TO MANHATTAN. The best
account we have seen of the reconstruction by the 9/11 commission
of the Al Qaeda plot and its execution is this one by two reporters
for the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
LOOMING THREAT OF IRAN. We think that Jim Hoagland is right on
target as he points up the intransigent march toward aggressive
nuclearization by the government of the Ayatollahs. And he is
still on target in suggesting that NEITHER presidential candidate
has yet properly addressed that threat.
http://www.chron.com/
THE
POLITICIAN WITH THE TIN EAR...is the president that almost was,
Al Gore. Acoording to this columnist at the Seattle Times,
the coolness between him and the man he used to report to
has persisted down to the occasion, a few days ago, when everyone
but he came to see the paintings unveiled at the White House.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
THE
REFLECTIONS AND CONFESSIONS OF ONE OF THE COUNTY'S MORE SURPRISING
PRESIDENTS! Though Nixon and Johnson were, in that connection,
pretty hard acts to follow--Mr. Clinton's memoir will surely certify
his considerable achievement in "letting it all hang out."
The UK Independent's man in New York has obviously had
a peek at the book.
http://news.independent.co.uk/
GAD,
SIR, THE PEW RESEARCHERS ARE RIGHT...when they find most media
people to be, gulp, "liberal." It shows in their works
and ways and publications and programs says this op-ed columnist
(and he has examples!) in the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/
O.J.
IN THE BRONCO. Ten years ago, yesterday. Remember? Here, from
U.S. News, is the transcript of his phone conversation
with the detective who was keeping pace with the white Bronco
on the Freeway.
http://www.cnn.com/
MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM...and, apparently it does make
a real difference. (Pace, the Mss. at NOW.) So says Steven Rhoads
in a new book reviewed here with some enthusiasm in the American
Spectator. Rhoads, in point of fact, will be a guest on our
radio program on Wednesday, June 30th.
http://www.spectator.org/
THE
SEMPER FIDELIS VOLES MAY PROVIDE A REMEDY FOR HUMAN SEXUAL PROMISCUITY!
Well, at least for human males, that is. This story based on "vasopressin"
reseach at Emory University and now reported in The Australian
has to be read and carefully contemplated even as one ponders
"Oh What a Work Is Man."
http://www.theaustralian.com/
DO
HANDSOME AND/OR PRETTY TEACHERS GET BETTER RATINGS? An unusual
question for academic economists to investigate--as these two
have, nevertheless, done. Get beyond the lumbering research report
style and you will find much that amuses and perhaps something
that surprises.
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/
THE
FLEETING ILLUSION OF TENURE AT HAHVAHD, YALE AND THE LESSER IVIES.
This accurately reported survey of the fate of assistant professors
at the "great universities" of the northeast does hit
home. At least for the proprietor who started his academic career
professing very assistantly in New Haven.
http://chronicle.com/
MUCH
DEPENDS UPON THE TRANSLATION! A fine writer, Richard Selzer, offers
up his appreciation of a great translator's best effort--a forceful
yet graceful renedering of the Iliad. The quoted passages are
more than worth the price of admission.
http://www.samizdat.com/
YOU
CAN TELL A REVIEW BY ITS TITLE...even when it deals with a book
whose cover conveys little. Here's a fascinating bit of research
into the reviewer's (and editor's!) art which we stumbled upon
while looking for something else.
http://www.complete-review.com/
THE
GREAT SINATRA RECORDINGS...are in generous supply in this collection.
"That's Life" still delights--as do "It Was a Very
Good Year" and "The Lady Is a Tramp."
http://www.hhdarma.addr.com/
June 17, 2004:
Milt's File is taking the day off, but
will return tomorrow.
June 16, 2004:
FROM THE 9/11 COMMISSION...come some
first revelations of their findings about the plot and the plotters.
As reported today in the Christian Science Monitor, this
is fascinating stuff! Clearly, the interrogators have learned
a great deal--after the fact--about the planning and execution
of the 9/11 assault.
http://www.csmonitor.com/
REAGAN
AS THE "HERO" IN RECENT AMERICAN HISTORY. Irving Kristol,
as a former Marxist, eschews the idea that history unfolds along
"inevitable" lines. Without Reagan, he says in this
essay from the current Weekly Standard, the Cold War
might not have been so decisively ended. And the American economy
might well have been headed in a different direction.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
SAM
HUNTINGTON UNDER GOD. As we said when we chatted with him on air
a few weeks ago--Huntington is among the top three in the "political
science" heirarchy. His projective scenarios for civilizational
conflict and, more recently, for immigrant-induced diffusion of
American identity are, to say the least, worrisome. In this important
op-ed from today's Wall Street Journal he elaborates
upon his oft-stated conviction that Christianity is essential
to the maintenance of American social and cultural solidarity.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
LET'S
HEAR IT FOR NEO-CONSERVATISM. If you have a better plan for handling
the threat (to western civilization!) of Islamic terrorism you
had better present it right now. The author of this article in
today's Tech Central Station demonstrates, to our satisfaction,
that the neo-cons approach is the worst there is, except for all
the others.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/
JUST
GIVE THEM A JEWISH NAME...and it is amazing to see what mid-east
media types can do with it. As witness what Arab News,
Al Jazeera and the Teheran Times have made of the murder
of Nicholas Berg. Steven Stalinsky lays it out in this piece from
the National Review.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
HUMAN CLONING: IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE, YET...but apparently it can
and will happen in the U.K. The plans are drawn and the "scientists"
are ready to go right after they get the expected approval. Here's
the story as reported today in Tech News World.
http://www.technewsworld.com/
IS
THERE A WAY OUT...of the trap into which American prisons have
fallen? Perhaps it begins with knowing and telling the truth about
life in "maximum security." This article from the Chronicle
of Higher Education makes a valuable contribution in that
direction as do the books it reviews.
http://chronicle.com/
THE
EPISCOPALIAN FRACTURE. The American portion of the Anglican Communion
is, to say the least, deeply divided and probably can't be put
back together again. For evidence, see this interesting blog presided
over by an impressively artriculate and embittered conservative
Anglican priest from Missouri.
http://mcj.bloghorn.com/
DON'T
JUST SIT THERE: ARGUE! John Leo finds that adversaries don't engage
in challenged advocacy anymore. Rather, they just clam up or they
stride out in high dudgeon, slamming doors behind them.
http://www.townhall.com/
TODAY
IS BLOOMSDAY! And that is the occasion for this somewhat left-handed
appreciation of Joyce's novel about Leopold Bloom's Iliadic perigrination
around Dublin and of the various lasting cults it has inspired.
http://www.reason.com/
HE
MAY HAVE RECIEVED THE PALME D'OR AT CANNES...but Michael Moore
doesn't get quite the same endorsement from many who have now
seen his "campaign film." Here's what Walter Shapiro
of USA Today has to say about " 9/11" and the
Democratic party-pushers who attended the N.Y. preview screening.
http://www.usatoday.com/
SO
WHO WAS BEETHOVEN'S "FERNE GELIEBTE?" The famous letter
addressed to his "immortal beloved" raised a question
that has yet to be answered. All the candidates for the Master's
passionate preoccupations are reviewed in this engaging summary
published recently in the UK Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
WAS
THIS HER MUSIC? Some have suggested--with no truly supportive
evidence--that Beethoven wrote the Moonlight Sonata as a "portrait"
of the "ferne geliebte." Probably not--but here are
two seperate and equally moving performances of his most famous
composition for solo piano.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
June 15, 2004:
IRAN IS TWO YEARS AWAY FROM MOUNTING
NUCLEAR MISSILES...and we, according to some senior figures in
Washington, might as well "get used to it?" What is
not covered in this otherwise excellent piece from the Wall
Street Journal is the possibility that Israel will knock
out these nuclear facilities as they did years ago to the Iraqi
nuclear program.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
AND
HERE'S HOW ISRAEL DID IT THE LAST TIME. The author of a new book
about the Osirak raid that destroyed Iraq's nuclear weapons program
tells the story to the managing editor of Front Page.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
EUROPEANS
VOTE (APATHETICALLY) AGAINST EUROPE!! The strange outcome of the
election for the European Parliament raises serious questions
as to whether "integration" is what the Slovenes, Poles,
French and Luxembourgers really want. This BBC review story conveys
the confusion--and probably cheers conservative nationalists in
the UK and elsewhere.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
THE
FORMER PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER SPEAKS...but not to Yasser Arafat!
Abu Mazen doesn't say much in this interview with a Newsweek
reporter...but what he does say speaks chapters if not volumes.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
DO YOU WANT YOUR KID TO AVOID ALZHEIMER'S? Take him, at a tender
age, to live for a few years in France, Bulgaria or Finland. The
relevant "scientific" discovery is that true bilinguals
show less senile cognitive decline than mere monolinguals...or
so says this report from Science Daily.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
THE
FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM ON THE LEFT THESE DAYS...is the rejectionist
disdain for "fundamentalism." This searchingly brilliant
dissection of prevailing confusions is by Kenneth Minogue of the
London School of Economics and has just appeared in the New
Criterion.
http://www.newcriterion.com/
SO,
DO THE MEDIA LEAN LEFT OR RIGHT? You can't persuade Don Feder
that the former is not decisively the case. And we think he makes
a good case for that being the case...in this broadside from Front
Page magazine.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
WHEN
BILLY MET MONICA. With this satirical version of THAT CHAPTER
in the forthcoming memoirs of the former president, Tony Hendra
delights and amuses. But the possibly unanswerable question is:
How did this get into the American Prospect, the semi-official
journal of the Democratic Party?
http://www.prospect.org/
I
READ HAMLET--AND IT'S JUST A COLLECTION OF CLICHES...said the
naive student. Great writers mold phrases that become items of
general "cultural literacy." The trick, according to
this amusing but pertinent essay from the Boston Globe,
is to know when and how to use them and when to "stiffle
yourself."
http://www.boston.com/
ON
THE GOOD, BAD, MERETRICIOUS AND OVER-PRICED IN ART. Robert Hughes,
a great and properly curmudgeonly critic, does his "j'accuse"
in a London lecture reprinted here by the UK Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
THE
ANATOMY OF FLOPS. Whether in film, on TV or in print a true "flop"
is not simply an offering condemned by the critics. To understand
the essence of flopping you need to read this title-naming analysis
from the current New Republic.
http://www.tnr.com/
REMEMBERING--AND
APPRECIATING--THE GREAT RAY CHARLES. Of various obits and celebrations
we have seen, this one from the Washington Post seems
"just right" in what it says about his splendid musical
presence and his strong response to adversity.
http://www.dailycamera.com/
"WHAT'D
I SAY" ONE MORE TIME. This is probably the song that will
remain emblematic of Ray Charles though, of course, there were
hundreds of great recordings. Scroll down for this one and then
listen to some of his "rocker" contemporaries.
http://www.usm.maine.edu/
June 14, 2004:
DE MORTUIS NIHIL NISI BONUM. The liberal
press has "spoken only good" of President Reagan now
that he is dead. But, as Krauthammer so effectively asserts in
yesterday's column, they celebrate only his smile and his optimism
and say nothing about the wisdom and positive consequences of
his boldly executed policies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
THE
ECONOMIST'S TAKE ON REAGAN. While not as fulsomely laudatory as
Krauthammer, above, the writers for the Economist (though
the piece is not by-lined it is almost certainly by the team of
Micklethwaite and Woolridge) provide a richly detailed and analytical
encomium on Reagan. And, as well, they provide a quite perceptive
explaination of the shift toward conservatism by the Amererican
electorate.
http://economist.com/
AS
THEY CONTINUE TO MURDER WESTERNERS IN SAUDIA ARABIA...this recently
published article by a just-returned British resident of the Kingdom
makes for fascinating reading. It was published in the Telegraph
just before the latest round of killings and abductions.
http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/
THE "UNDECIDEDS" IN THE COMING ELECTION...may well (when
they finally dedide!) determine the outcome. Kathleen Hall Jamieson
of the Annenberg Center has some relevant facts and wise words
on the subject as reported here in the Boston Globe.
http://www.boston.com/
TWO
CHEERS FOR "AMERICAN IMPERIALISM." Niall Ferguson, in
a recent book, has found our hegemonic extension to be inevitable
and, in the main, benign. He elaborates his views in this straight-talking
interview recently published in the Atlantic magazine.
http://www.theatlantic.com/
WHAT'S
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PUTIN AND DEMOCRACY? William Fleming pursues
that question in a review, for the Moscow Times, of two
new biographies of the Russian president. One of the biographers
thinks Putin is working to bring democracy; the other thinks quite
otherwise. Which one does the reviewer favor? Read on...
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/
FATHERHOOD
AND THE FATE AND FORTUNE OF AMERICAN CHILDREN. Divorced fathers
have been under attack by government for many years. The results
have not only been unjustly injurious for them but, still more
important, have slighted the needs of children. So argues Stephan
Baskerville in this challenging article from the Independent
Review.
http://www.independent.org/
WHAT
IS MULTI-CULTURALISM DOING TO AMERICA? Roger Kimball who has been
a rather frequent guest on our program, adresses that question
in this important--and elegantly written--essay just published
in New Criterion magazine.
http://www.newcriterion.com/
THE
MAN WHO LOVED TO HATE...and who conveyed his condescension and
disdain in superb modern novels, did a lot of travelling. The
travel writings of Evelyn Waugh have now been brought together
in a single volume and this review, from First Things,
has led us, this very day, to ordering the book!
http://www.firstthings.com/
THE
MOST FAMOUS IRISH JEW...was not Bobby Briscoe, the mayor of Dublin.
Rather it was, of course, Leopold Bloom and major celebratory
events commemorating "Bloomsday" are filling the week
in Dublin. But what of the real Irish Jews? This fine article
from yesterday's New York Times Magazine examines how
Irish they are and how Irish their compatriots think they are.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
JEWS IN AMERICA...are, of course, far more numerous than those
in Ireland and, over three centuries they have "Americanized"
their religion. So asserts Jonathan Sarna in a major new history
which we discussed with him a few weeks ago on Extension 720.
This appreciative and interesting review of American Judaism:
A History has just appeared in First Things.
http://www.firstthings.com/
THE
GREAT AMERICAN MUSICALS ARE GONE...but still performed in revival.
Whereas the new ones, according to Terry Teachout in Commentary
magazine, are post-mod in the most acidulous (almost anti-American)
mode. This well-pointed essay makes you want to dig out the old
albums of "Kiss Me Kate," "Carousel," etc.
and truly, etc.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
HAVE
BLUES, WILL TRAVEL. Eric Clapton made the blues his own...in a
British, gentle-rocker way. This generous cdollection includes
"San Francisco Bay Blues," "Nobody Knows You,"
and "Layla." Not to mention the great reggae, "I
Shot the Sheriff."
http://www.hhtabby.addr.com/
June 11, 2004:
REMEMBERING REAGAN. On this national
day of mourning, USA Today's special section dedicated
to our 40th president covers all aspects of his presidency and
state funeral.
http://www.usatoday.com/
FRIEDMAN'S
ROAD TO SUCCESS IN IRAQ. In this column from yesterday's New
York Times, Thomas Friedman highlights the good news in Iraq
and details the hard work that still needs to be done by the United
States.
http://www.nytimes.com/
HOWEVER,
PUBLIC SUPPORT OF THE WAR IS DECLINING...according to the latest
poll from the Los Angeles Times, detailed here. Though
most Americans now appear to think the war was a mistake, they
also do not believe that U.S. troops should be withdrawn anytime
soon. Is that contradictory or just pragmatic?
http://www.latimes.com/
EVEN
WITHOUT OSAMA, AL QAEDA WILL LIVE ON...or so says this article
from Foreign Policy. Jason Burke makes the persuasive
argument that the ideology is more important than the man, and
that the "Qaedist" philosophy has become more endemic
than we care to understand.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
HUBBLE
IN TROUBLE. This article from the BBC details the robotic rescue
of the Hubble telescope. Be sure to explore all the fascinating
links.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
PERHAPS
WE SHOULD GIVE FIDO MORE CREDIT. According to this article from
today's Washington Post, researchers are reconsidering
the long-held belief that dogs are simply not very smart. If they
can grasp our language, how long before they understand sarcasm?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
THE
OBESITY EPIDEMIC CONTINUES...and the latest news is that the average
American's diet is now 30% junk food, while essential fruits and
vegetables now account for a mere ten. Read on and weep for the
future.
http://www.thenewmexicochannel.com/
WHAT
WILL THE FRENCH THINK OF NEXT?? A song without music? But for
now, they've settled for a novel without verbs. Amazing. And what's
even more amazing is that this article, in the Chronicle of
Higher Education, pulls off the same feat with tongue firmly
in cheek.
http://chronicle.com/
THE ULTIMATE IN SCHADENFREUDE. All writers agonize over a bad
review and often wish only ill on those who write them. In this
article from the UK Guardian, John Sutherland relates
the ecstasy of seeing the critic become the criticized.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/
TO
WORK OR NOT TO WORK? A full generation after the second wave of
feminism, women still agonize over whether to abandon their careers
for their children. This excellent article from Reason
summarzies the recent controversy that has been raging in the
pages of the magazines and newspapers everywhere and the statistics
behind it.
http://www.reason.com/
AND SPEAKING OF FEMINISM...Ira Levin's book The Stepford Wives
and the 1975 film that it inspired provided a horrific
vision of an extreme reaction to the feminist movement. Frank
Oz (yes -- the voice of Miss Piggy!) has seen fit to remake it
as an over-the-top farce, and here is David Edelstein's review
from Slate.
http://slate.msn.com/
SAYING
FAREWELL TO A MUSICAL LEGEND. Ray Charles' soulful and bluesy
piano influenced generations of musicians. Here is an excellent
obituary from the New York Times that pays special attention
to an interview with Charles from earlier this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/
SOME
OF RAY'S BEST. This excellent collection of songs from the sixties
contains several of Ray Charles' greatest hits, including "Hit
the Road, Jack."
http://www.hhdarma.addr.com/
June 10, 2004:
Milt's
File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.
June 9, 2004:
BY THEIR LETTERS SHALL YE KNOW THEM.
A far more complex--and more canny and energetic--Ronald Reagan
emerges from his vast correspondence. Only recently, a few months
before his death, was a collection of trhese letters published.
This thoughtful and appreciative review/essay appeared in the
Claremont Review last month.
http://www.claremont.org/
REAGAN
AS FOXY GRANDPA....with the right values and the right plans.
Of the many commentaries in the last few days this one, by John
O'Sullivan in the Chicago Sun-Times, seems to us particularly
perceptive and on target.
http://www.suntimes.com/
THE
NEW ABOLITIONISTS ARE BASED IN BOSTON AND FOCUSED ON SUDAN. This
website will introduce the American Anti-Slavery Group who are
concerned not only with slavery and genocide in the Darfur region
of Sudan but with many other persisting barbarities. Their links
are of great value; their exhortative message is of crucial import.
http://www.iabolish.com/
WAS
TROTSKY REALLY BETTER THAN STALIN? Christopher Hitchens (and Isaac
Deutscher whom he reviews here for the Atlantic) thinks
he was. Both forget the slaughter at Kronstadt done under the
"old man's" orders. The three-volume Deutscher work
has just been reissued and, of course, deserves close reading
and critical evaluation.
http://www.theatlantic.com/
THE
SOVIET UNION THAT TROTSKY LEFT BEHIND HIM...when he was exiled
(and ultimately murdered) by Stalin. Simon Montefiore's biography
of Stalin is here reviewed for the Atlantic by Robert
Conquest, the leading historian of the wreckage and moral barbarism
inflicted upon the Soviets by the Georgian "monster-with-a-pipe."
http://www.theatlantic.com/
COSBY
RESPONDS TO TIME'S COMPLAINT ABOUT HIS NAACP SPEECH. No punning
or allusive headline on this one. What Bill Cosby said--and what
he says here in response to a critic who urges "not in front
of the white folks"--bears repeating again and again...until
black kids stop wrecking themselves and ravaging their communities.
http://biz.yahoo.com/
IN
REACTION TO COSBY...another black (but non-establishment) voice
is heard. Star Parker of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education,
affirms and welcomes his analysis.
http://www.townhall.com/
BURUMA
FINDS TWO BERNARD LEWISES! We have read him and talked with him
and find only one. But a rich and complex observer will seem to
some to be self-contradictory when he is merely "nuanced."
Read this article from the New Yorker and listen to our
recent
conversation with Lewis--then judge for yourself.
http://www.newyorker.com/
THE
MOST UNDESERVEDLY OVER-REWARDED AMERICAN ACADEMIC...gets a letter
from another professor who has a few important questions. We would
love to read Cornell West's answer to this letter from Mike Adams--now
made public in Front Page magazine. But, we are not holding
our breath!
http://frontpagemag.com/
WHEN
WAS THE CIVIL WAR? When the proprietor has asked this of his college
students only one in ten has been able to locate it in the right
decade. Three or four guess that it happened "in the early
nineteen hundreds!!" Thus, this article from the Chronicle
of Higher Education is as welcome as it is devastatingly
too, too true.
http://chronicle.com/
L'AFFAIRE
MICHELIN. Do their restaurant inspectors really inspect? Are some
of the three-star resaurants of France "untouchable?"
Can the loss of a star drive a chef to suicide? These--rather
than Iraq, uncontrolled Muslim immigration and the deterioration
of "les grandes ecoles"--are the questions that really
preoccupy the French aujourdui. The story is from the International
Herald Tribune.
http://www.iht.com/
AND
SPEAKING OF FRENCH RESAURANTS...here are the ten best located
outside of France. This great site with links to reviews and other
articles can occupy you for days. To begin with, try the rundown
on Chez Daniel in New York. We have been there and, in fact, it
is rather good.
http://www.dininginfrance.com/
A
TRUMPET, A PIANO AND VARIOUS STRINGS...et voila, the Saint-Saens
Septet in E-Flat major which delights in every bar. Try it. You'll
like it!
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
June 8, 2004:
WILL ANYONE SAY SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT
AHMAD CHALABI? How about the great countertextual, Christopher
Hitchens? Here he is, doing just that in Slate a few
days ago.
http://slate.msn.com/
CAN
ISLAM BE TAKEN BACK FROM THE FANATICS? Some Muslims in Phoenix
think it can be done and have launched a not-yet-impressive effort
which is described in this recent article from National Review.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
THE
WAY WE ELECT NOW. Opposition research is the name of the game
in this--as in other recent--presidential elections. Joshua Green
reveals all in this sharp article from Atlantic magazine.
http://www.theatlantic.com/
WHAT DOES GEORGE SOROS REALLY WANT...apart from the crushing defeat
of George W? This article from the "paleo-conservative"
journal, Chronicles, discovers him to be something close
the Anti-Christ--but with very big bucks. Can anyone here put
forward a better explantion of the rampaging funder from Budapest--and
was there ever a ruder pest?
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/
RADIOLOGICAL
SMUGGLING HAS INCREASED ALMOST EXPONENTIALLY IN THE LAST FIVE
YEARS!! And that's the stuff that would be used to fabricate "dirty
bombs." Now there's something to really worry about--and
that is just what they are doing, according to this article from
New Scientist, at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
http://www.newscientist.com/
WHAT
THE WORLD NEEDS NOW...is proper allocation of resources to the
needy nations. That depends on finding what problems should have
priority. The Copenhagen Consensus Project--as led, more or less,
by Bjorn Lomborg--has come up with a plan worthy of close examination.
Here is a first overview as supplied by the Economist
magazine.
http://www.economist.com/
THE
ABOMINABLE DEAN-MAN. As strange academic job titles continue to
proliferate, the bearer of one of them has come up with an explanation
of what's really happening on the disordered American campuses.
(Could you actually force yourself to say "campi" or
"campae?") This article appeared the other day in the
Chronicle of Higher Education.
http://chronicle.com/
THE
"ARDUOUS FOOLISHNESS" OF W.B. YEATS. A great new biography
of the Irish master poet has now been completed. We have been
reading it with fascination and fully agree with Brian Phillips
who argues in this review that it is a masterwork almost in spite
of itself. This review/essay is, in itself, a fine elaboration
of the ambivalence that Yeats properly arouses.
http://www.hudsonreview.com/
ON
THE DEATHS OF ROMAN EMPERORS...British Prime Mnisters and mere
press lords: This curious memento mori was published yesterday
in the London Review of Books. The point does seem to
be that "ya gotta know when to fold 'em."
http://www.lrb.co.uk/
STALIN
AT THE MOVIES. Having watched and enjoyed a number of John Wayne
movies, the "Drojd" decided to have him killed. Joe
Djugashvili really seems to have got caught up in some of the
movies he had shown at the Kremlin--and Simon Montefiore has dug
up the dismaying (but risable) facts. Our interview with him about
his recent biography of Stalin can be heard here.
http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/
WRAPPING
UP THE SOPRANOS...FOR NOW. Tom Shales, at the Washington Post,
continues to appreciate the hoodlum epic as significant narrative
art. Here he offers his empathic evaluation of the season that
closed out last Sunday night.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
WELL,
SATIRE OFTEN ANTICIPATES REALITY. So we had better not assume
that the Lady in New York Harbor has come to stay. This thought-provoking
article comes from the e-journal called The Spoof. Who
are they kidding? We do remember that David Copperfield (the magus
not Dickens' schlemiel) made it disappear years ago.
http://www.thespoof.com/
GREAT
GOSPEL. A very generous collection. Of particular worth: Patsy
Cline-Just a Closer Walk With Thee; Judy Collins-Amazing Grace;
Roy Acuff-The Great Speckled Bird.
http://www.hhdarma.addr.com/
June 7, 2004:
OF THE MANY COMMENTARIES ON REAGAN....this
one from today's Newsweek--and by our old friend and
frequent program guest Michael Beschloss--comes closest to being
something more than mere adulatory throat-clearing.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
AND
ONE MORE ON REAGAN....this time by Bill Buckley and delivered
over five years ago but of great value today as we search for
a realistically appreciative (rather than inflated-for-the-occasion)
panegyric for the recently deceased.
http://www.nationalreview.com/
TWENTY
YEARS AGO, YESTERDAY AT POINTE DU HOC: President Reagan gave these
remarks on that occasion. They do still ring with the man's deep
feeling and do still evoke the thrill of the right simple words
spoken at the right time and place.
http://www.nypost.com/
THE
GRAND ALLIANCE SIXTY YEARS AFTER D-DAY.....is a little frayed
but, as well voiced by the Economist, must be restored.
And here, in their view, is how to do it.
http://www.economist.com/
WHAT
THEY ARE NOT TELLING US ABOUT IRAQ: Mort Kondrake, in today's
Roll Call, notes just how silent most of the press remains
on the good news (of which there apparently is plenty) from Iraq
and from its new government in waiting.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
THE
GREAT HISTORICAL MONSTERS....and their biographers: Simon Montefiore
was on our program recently discussing his biography of Stalin.
(Click
here to listen to an excerpt from the program.) In
this article from the Houston Chronicle he argues for
the necessity to "see whole" the Masters of Political Murder.
http://www.chron.com/
A
MAN AND HIS PUBLISHER....and musings by the former after the death
of the latter. We met the latter--Roger Strauss of Farrar, Strauss
and Giroux--once but would probably be as fascinated by this article
if we had never encountered him. A vivid portrait, to say the
least!
http://www.observer.com/
THE
THREAT OF MEXICAN IMMIGRATION....is great says Sam Huntington
in his new book which we discussed with him on the program last
week. Francis Fukayama sees it otherwise and gave this critique
of the Huntington thesis recently in Slate.
http://politics.slate.msn.com/
THE
WORST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD....except for all the others! That
seems to be the burden of this expatriate American's musings about
his native land after a long European sojourn. The article is
from the new issue of the Hudson Review.
http://www.hudsonreview.com/
DO
YOU KNOW HOW "HOOKER" BECAME A SYNONYM FOR PROSTITUTE? It has
to do with Civil War General Hooker, right? Well, actually, NO!
Etymological tale tales are set right in a new book by an English
author. Here, from the Guardian, is a sampling of great--but
totally false--stories of derivation.
http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/
WHO
SAYS ONE MAN CAN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE? This one guy virtually destroyed
a whole town with a bulldozer! The strange tale from Granby, Colorado
is here given in full detail (with many linked stories) in the
Denver Post.
http://www.denverpost.com/
WHO'S
ON THE MONTANA AWARDS SHORT LIST? And what, exactly, are the Montana
Awards? Read on--and improve your literary sophistication, sub-category,
New Zealand.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/
THE
SHAME OF NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO....may not be its unrelenting "liberalism"
but rather its abandonment and rejection of classical music. Andrew
Ferguson tells the dismaying story in this article from the current
Weekly Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
BEETHOVEN,
MOZART, DVORAK AND BARTOK: This superb chamber music concert was
performed at
