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MILT'S
FILE
December 29, 2004:
A GERIATRIC CRITIQUE OF MIDDLE-EASTERN LEADERSHIP
An Egyptian journalist of democratic proclivity argues that the
hope lies in the younger elites of the smaller Arab nations.
http://www.benadorassociates.com/
THE
SHIA OF IRAQ ARE WITH US! That's the judgment of Stephen Schwartz
who has particularly close contacts with their leaders. If you need
a boost to your flagging enthusiasm for the American involvement
in Iraq, this recent article from Tech Central Station will do the
job.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/
AS
FRANCE IS TO THE UNITED STATES, JAPAN IS TO (?) The answer is China!
The Japanese probably won't invade again as they did in the late
1930s, but the politicians and public of Japan are on an anti-China
tear. The full story is reliably presented in this article from
the Asia Times.
http://www.atimes.com/
GUESS
WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, 2008? Hillary is geared up and won't
be deflected unless (unlikely but not impossible) she loses her
Senate election in 2006. For all the inside dope this story from
the N.Y. Observer seems, to say the least, "well-informed."
http://www.observer.com/
THE
SEARCH FOR THE HISTORICAL JESUS....has been going on for slightly
more than two centuries. Exactly what has been learned? That basic
question is addressed here in a brief but sharp essay buy one of
the leading "Jesus scholars," Geza Vermes writing for the London
Times.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
ANTI-CHRISTIANISM
IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE.....is detailed and condemned in this commentary
by Don Feder who writes from the standpoint of a concerned Jew.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
AN
ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF KWANZAA: We never knew much about its origins
and its rather sudden appearance in American culture. Here, with
possibly strong animus, is what FrontPage magazine has
to say on the subject.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
WHAT'S
REALLY WRONG WITH PSYCHOANALYSIS? You mean, apart from the fact
that it doesn't work particularly well as therapy? Richard Webster
has been one of the leading revisionist historians of the Freudian
movement---and here is a portion of his book, Why Freud Was
Wrong.
http://www.richardwebster.net/
CAN
(WILL) LIFE BE CREATED IN THE LABORATORY? By certain standards it
may have already been achieved. Or, if not, the progression of present
research programs may well lead to that very "achievement." Here's
the story as conveyed by the science section at BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
THE
YMCA PR DISASTER OCCURED A FEW DAYS AGO......but John Kass's Tribune
column on the whole dismal affair will be a classic and it certainly
deserves reprinting here.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
MORE
PSEUDO-SCIENCE BUNKUM.....as revealed, detailed and critiqued by
one of the best debunkers we know, Michael Shermer of the Skeptics
Society.
http://www.sciam.com/
A
FINE AMERICAN WRITER....is appreciated and commended in this article
from the Boston Globe....and if you have not yet read Louis
Auchincloss's novels do give yourself that pleasure soon.
http://www.boston.com/
AMONG
THE MANY SUMMARIES OF THE YEAR'S NEWS.....the one by Dave Barry
is always an outstanding, if deviant, contribution. Here's Barry's
take on 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
CARL
MARIA VON WEBER'S GREAT CLARINET QUINTET....is elegantly performed
here by Antony Ray and the Nash Ensemble.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
December
23, 2004:
AN OLD FRIEND GETS PROFILED BY HARVARD MAGAZINE:
Dan Pipes is as controversial as anyone in--or on the fringes of--academic
life and, in our opinion, has rendered invaluable service in his
investigations of Islamic radicalism. Now, his alma mater presents
him "warts and all" to the alumni.
http://www.harvardmagazine.com/
RECOUNTING
YOUR WAY TO ELECTORAL "VICTORY".....is becoming an increasingly
common (ay, Madam, 'tis common!) expedient in American politics,
as witness the continuing flim-flam in Washington state.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
THINK
TWICE ABOUT GIVING SANTA A COOKIE: The warning comes from a legal
expert who has his/her tongue only halfway in cheek.
http://www.townhall.com/
THE
TINIEST SURVIVING BABY....is now three months old and doing well.
Beyond the somewhat sensationalized news stories, here is the more
detailed coverage provided at nature.com.
http://www.nature.com/
THE
NEW GALAXIES IN THE "NEIGHBORHOOD".... are both surprising and valuable;
the latter because they offer new data about galaxogenesis. So says
this enthusiastic note from New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/
WILL
THE GOOGLE DEAL CLOSE THE LIBRARIES? Certainly not says a culture-reporter
for the U.K. Times. In fact, says he, the opposite result
is to be expected. Why? Read on...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
THE
PLAGUE OF PROFESSORIAL PLAGIARISTS...is examined in a set of case
histories provided by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Depressing, but inevitably as fascinating as the Medusa!
http://chronicle.com/
WITH
A HUNDRED MORE PROFESSORS LIKE THIS ONE .....you could found a great,
new University. The proprietor, having been through too many years
of academic life in which he observed the lowering of higher education,
was fascinated by this story from the Philadelphia Inquirer.
http://www.philly.com/
MORE
ON THE GOOD PROFESSOR: The story above roused our interest and so
we Googled forward and found this heartening interview published
a few months ago in National Review Online.
https://www.nationalreview.com/
THE
ART OF THE SWINDLE.....flourishes in Washington according to this
hard-hitting account in the current issue of Insight magazine.
http://www.insightmag.com
FINGERSPITZENGEFUHLENKEIT.....is
not actually the most beautiful word in the German language. What,
then, is? A culture-affairs writer in India's leading English-language
newspaper takes that urgent question head-on and here's the answer.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/
HOW
THE HOME SECRETARY FELL....from the second or third most important
position in the British cabinet is reviewed here in a delightfully
gossipy article from the U.K. Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
THE
NEW SHERLOCKIAN BIBLE....was put together by Les Klinger who appeared
on Extension 720 last Friday. Here is a properly appreciative review
that appeared in the Toronto Mail and Globe on the same
day.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
MIFF
MOLE AND RED NICHOLS....and their friends did great classic jazz
seventy years ago....and here's a rich sampling of their high achievement
as they helped shape a great musical form.
http://redhotjazz.com/
December
20, 2004:
AS KERIK FALLS CAN GIULIANI BE FAR BEHIND? Apparently
not, acdcording to this inside-dope article that has just appeared
in the New York Observer.
http://www.observer.com/
WHAT
DOES HITCHENS THINK OF POWELL'S TENURE AS SECRETARY OF STATE? Perhaps
not quite all the world is asking that question--but we were interested,
having formed favorable impressions of both on the occasions that
they appeared on Extension 720. The answer is fulsomely provided
in this essay by the former about the latter and just published
in Foreign Policy magazine.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
CALLING
SAM HUNTINGTON...Could Fareed Zakaria be right when he argues, in
this column from Newsweek, that Islamic militancy is losing
out to "secular" political parties? If so--and we need
much more convincing--it does not follow that the terrorist threat
will diminish. To the contrary, it may grow still more desperately
homicidal.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
WHAT'S
KILLING ALL THE RUSSIANS...and what will become of them? Or, rather,
what will their nation become as all the demographic trends point
toward decline? Nicholas Eberstadt's article in the current issue
of The Public Interest raises and answers these and related
questions in a way that would motivate any self-protecting Kremlin
bureaucrat to shift quickly into the private sector.
http://www.thepublicinterest.com/
ARE
MIND AND BRAIN THE SAME THING? Or do non-physicalist theories of
mentality now require serious reconsideration? This brief note from
Philosophy Now does nicely reopen the issue.
http://www.philosophynow.org/
WHERE
IS MODERN SCIENCE GOING? The answer, if there is one, is probably
somehow coordinate with the end-of-year awards handed out by Scientific
American. Here's their group of articles that names names and
justifies kudos.
http://www.sciam.com/
THE
NEXT INFORMATION REVOLUTION...is heralded by the new announcement
from Google. When the great academic libraries are fully accessible
on the internet, then research, scholarship, student enrollments
and the universities themselves will go through transformations
we cannot yet fully anticipate.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
CAN
THE BLACK FAMILY BE RESTORED? The question is probingly asked by
Kay Hymowitz who has researched it (on the streets!) and pondered
it closely. This important article has just been published in City
Journal.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/
HOLLAND
WILL NEVER BE THE SAME...as it was before the public murder of Theo
Van Gogh. For an on-the-scene view of what is happening in the wake
of the shooting and near beheading of the filmmaker who dared to
be critical of Islam, do read on in this article from the current
Weekly Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/
ABANDON
YOUR ICONIC MYTHOLOGY...says Victor Davis Hanson to his friends
on the left. Does he have any? Well you can't live the academic
life and not encounter colleagues more "liberal" than
oneself--since they outnumber conservatives by seven or eight to
one. And it is hard to maintain political enmities in university
departments when there is so much else to be nasty about.
http://www.benadorassociates.com/
A
PRISON DOCTOR'S REFLECTIONS ON THE TREASON OF THE INTELLECTUALS...and
on the ways in which they "enable" and even foment social
pathology. Dalrymple is someone who shows up rather often in this
space...but we have just come across this striking interview that
he gave to an Australian magazine a few years back.
http://www.cis.org.au/
GEORGE
HIGGINS, PROPERLY APPRECIATED...as the fine American writer he was.
This overview of his work is by another admirable maker of the modern
American fiction canon, Ward Just, who appeared on our program a
few months ago. Higgins used to come often, until his untimely death.
http://www.boston.com/
EINSTEIN
AND GODEL ON PRINCETON PROMENADE...must have had some great discussions.
It does now appear, according to this fascinating reconstruction
published recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education,
that the Godel Universe took shape during these long walks down
the tree shaded streets in New Jersey.
http://chronicle.com/
HOW
NOT TO RAISE YOUR KIDS: This article strikes us as that rare commodity:
something from a pop-psych magazine that makes good sense and may
actually do some good.
http://cms.psychologytoday.com/
SCHUBERT'S
WINTERREISE...is especially appropriate for the season, And going
on this winter journey with him through this excellent performance
of a great song-cycle is, surely, less enervating than an actual
December 2004, airline journey.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
December 17, 2004:
Milt's File will return on Monday.
December 16, 2004:
IRAN IS CHANGING THE NEO-CONS...into post-neo-cons
says Franklin Foer in this curiously argued article in the current
New Republic. But if "realism" is the critical
standard, don't the hard facts suggest that Iran requires a different
policy than did Iraq?
http://www.tnr.com/
AND
WHAT ABOUT THE ASIAN ANCHOR OF THE "AXIS OF EVIL?" The
North Korean threat is a serious one says Selig Harrison in the
new issue of Foreign Affairs. Some worst case analysis
is called for and is here supplied in THE magazine of the foreign
policy establishment. Are they doing some work (like a warning shot
accross the bow) for their D.C. colleagues?
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/
THE
POWERFUL ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM US! Yes, Scott, they have well
chosen sites of assignation, sub-set, libidinal. It's really not
the File style, but we couldn't resist this Kerik-and-friends item
from yesterday's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/
WELL,
HAVING GONE THAT FAR...in linking to the last item, we might as
well round it out with the Regan revelations from yesterday's New
York Post. The serious question that is all-the-more amplified
now is: How did the Bush people (and who, in fact, were they) mess
up so amateurishly in making a major cabinet appointment?
http://www.nypost.com/
THE
"TOLERANCE" CRISIS IN HOLLAND...is vividly conveyed in
this 24 minute film about the murder of Theo van Gogh and its consequences.
Click on the line that says "Danish-TV-Holland."
http://66.195.17.52/
THE ISLAMIC CHARITIES THAT WEREN'T...have now received proper chastisement
and whopping super-fines which should put them out of business--for
a while, until they organize some new fronts. Dan Pipes has a right
to celebrate since he has long rendered valuable service in highlighting
the relation of these outfits to Hamas and yet other terrorist organizations.
http://www.suntimes.com/
DR. DALRYMPLE'S FAREWELL...to the British prison in whose hospital
he has labored these many years. A most uncompromising "truth-teller"
about the modern regression to social savagery, he ruminates here,
in a striking article from City Journal, about The Problem
of Evil.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/
INSULT, INTIMIDATION AND ANTI-SEMITISM AT SFSU...that's San Francisco
State University whose raving, radical students and incompetent
and/or evasive administration are here "drawn from life"
by the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/
DE
BORCHGRAVE'S HISTORY OF THE NEAR FUTURE...as offered up for the
consideration of Washington Times readers, is, to say the
least, rather "transformative" whether one follows his
optimistic or pessimistic scenario. Still...someone must be thinking
about such things in the back rooms where they develop "contingency
plans."
http://www.washtimes.com/
GOD
REAPPEARS...in the thinking of an aging athiest previously classed
as an exemplar of that faith. This late cognitive shift, as reported
by ABC News, may please God or He may well be otherwise occupied.
http://abcnews.go.com/
NAIPAUL'S
NEW NOVEL HAS BEEN GETTING MIXED REVIEWS...and here's one of them
which manages to relate the new book to the large body of distinguished
and truly "dark" writing that earned him the Nobel Prize.
http://newyorkmetro.com/
WHAT THEY ARE NOT READING IN SRINAGAR: This recent report from New
Kerala conveys a touching reverence for the canonical
English authors and a lament for the decline of functional literacy
in Kerala Pradesh as in the West.
http://athens-olympics-2004.newkerala.com/
GOOGLING
INTO THE LIBRARIES: Here's what's in store as Google accesses Haahvahd,
Stanford, Michigan and Oxford. The prospect does indeed rouse enthusiastic
anticipatory expectations for "le veille homme academique"
who is proprietor of this space. This report is from the Search
Engine Journal.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
PROKOFIEV'S
SECOND PIANO CONCERTO...was composed when he was 22, was lost for
many years and then "recomposed" when he was about ten
years older. The fine performance here is by Alexander Toradze and
the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Gergiev.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
December
14-15, 2004:
Milt's File is taking a few days off, but
will return on Thursday.
December 13, 2004:
IRAN'S MILITARY POWER AND DOCTRINE: What
do they have in conventional and mass-destruction weapons? Under
what conditions would they use what they've got? These matters are
assesed in a new report by the invaluable Anthony Cordesman of the
Center for Strategic and International Studies. Here's the Executive
Summary, just released.
http://www.csis.org/
IT
WON'T WORK BUT THEY WON'T LET GO...until the next Iranian Revolution
displaces them. Meanwhile, the mullahs have dug in for the duration.
This well-informed report has just been published by The Economist.
http://economist.com/
THE
RE-WESTERNIZATION OF TEHRAN...seems to be moving at a pace from
"moderate" to "rapid" while the mullahs are
busy elsewhere (i.e. trying to keep the student democratization
movement down). This on-the-scene report from Robin Wright of the
Washington Post reflects some tantalizing glimmers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
THE FALL OF BERNARD KERIK...is briefly documented by Newsweek
today. But now that they are digging one may well expect much more
"dirt" to be shovelled up...as witness the next item from
New York's newspaper of "low record."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
FURTHER
NOTES ON THE KERIK MELTDOWN...are provided by the New York Daily
News which must have been maintaining a detailed dossier for
years. Why didn't the White House bunch know about any of this?
http://www.nydailynews.com/
THE
INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF REAGANISM...were significantly "autogenic"
according to this particularly interesting essay that appeared recently
in The Claremont Review.
http://www.claremont.org/
CUBA
LIBRE? AFTER CASTRO? Maybe...sort of...ultimately...but nothing
much will change till the passing of the patriarch says William
Ratliff in the Hoover Digest. The chances are that Raul
will succeed and may do a Deng-shift toward disguised capitalism.
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/
OF
AMERICAN ACADEMIC LEFTISM...almost everything has been said except
whether anything should be done and, if so, what. The U.K. Economist
makes a beginning here. Curiously, when these matters are discussed
the focus is mainly upon the Humanities and Social "Sciences"
departments. When will the reality about Law Schools and Schools
of Social Work begin to be addressed?
http://www.economist.com/
THE
AMERICAN LEFT AND ISLAMIC EXTREMITY...have found common interests
and, of course, a common target--Israel! This article from the current
issue of Commentary draws directly upon David Horowitz's
new expose, Unholy Alliance.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
THE
DUBAI EDIFICE COMPLEX: The architectural phallic competition has
a new entrant according to New Scientist. In a few years
the tower in the United Arab Emirates will rank above the one in
Kuala Lumpur. And after that...? We suggest that Luzon City may
be the place to watch.
http://www.newscientist.com/
THE
JEWS OF JAPAN...have been there since 1862 and managed to keep their
synagogue in Kobe going under the eyes of visiting Nazi officers.
The story is told in interesting detail in this article from a web-site
concerned with "other Jewries."
http://xenon.stanford.edu/
THE
LATEST DISTURBING NEWS FROM WAL-MART: But, before you fire off a
letter to Arkansas or to the Wall Street Journal, stop
to consider the source of this story.
http://www.theonion.com/
AN
ECLECTIC CONCERT...with some fine jazz (don't miss Kid Ory's Savoy
Blues) and, for extra rewards, Chuck Berry followed by Sister Rosetta
Tharpe.
http://www.geocities.com/
December 10, 2004:
Milt's File will return on Monday.
December 9, 2004:
THE
MILITARIZATION OF SPACE...may be moving ahead--or so some worried
senators seemed to think as they examined the "intelligence
bill compromise" which they refused to approve. This intruiging
set of hints came earlier today from CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/
BIG
MONEY COMES EASILY...for some after they resign their public office;
and one of the most fortunate seems, according to this surprising
story from MSNBC, to have been our new Secretary of Homeland Security!!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
VOX
POPULI, VOX DEI EST...is, once again, the political reality says
Dick Morris in this curious rumination published today in The
Hill.
http://www.thehill.com/
NOTRE ENNEMI LE PLUS ANCIEN: That will be the title of the book
reviewed here if it ever gets translated into French, which is possibly
unlikely since our oldest enemy turns out to be La Belle France!
The review is from today's issue of The Hill.
http://www.hillnews.com/
ISLAMIC
CONVERTS IN EUROPEAN JAILS...are showing up as terorist recruits
once they are sprung from incarceration. So argues--with documentation--this
article from the New York Times now reprinted in the International
Herald Tribune.
http://www.iht.com/
WAHHABISM
COMES TO GREECE...in the form of a great new mosque funded by the
Saudi government. Stephen Schwartz examines the disturbing background
history and likely coming consequences in this piece published today
at Tech Central Station.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/
OUR
COUSINS, THE CHICKENS: Well, 60% of their genes are similar to ours.
New information accumulated as we map the chicken genome does further
verify that birds were once dinosaurs. The report is from Sci-Tech
Today.
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/
THE
JUNK SCIENCE AWARDS FOR 2004 ARE ANNOUNCED! And, in the health and
environmental studies section, virtually no respectable organization
escapes deserved humiliation. Read on...
http://www.junkscience.com/
CRAZY
LIKE A HORSE...was not really the meaning of the great Lakota warrior's
name. Joseph Marshall, author of the new biography, was our guest
recently on Extension 720 and here is a resonating review of his
book from the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://sfgate.com/
DO
MUSLIM WOMEN GET TO PARADISE? The question is raised at this British
Islamic website...and the answer, as supplied by a leading cleric,
is reassuring.
http://www.islam-online.net/
A
THEOLOGICAL COUNTER TO THE "LEFT BEHIND" SERIES...has
been provided by a serious biblical scholar who is interviewed here
in an important article from the Boston Globe.
http://www.boston.com/
THE
CHARLATAN BEHIND THE DAVINCI CODE...and the falsifications at Rennes-le-Chateau.
In this article from The Skeptical Inquirer, a great debunker,
Massimo Polidoro, unravels the con that led, ultimately, to the
writing of the popular novel.
http://www.csicop.org/
THE
GREAT GERMAN REQUIEM: This moving performance of Brahms' greatest
choral work was recorded live in 1999. Dohnanyi conducts the Philharmonia
Orchestra.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
December
8, 2004:
WONDERFUL,
IF TRUE...but, somehow we suspect that peace (or even truce) between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority won't be had so easily. Which
leads us to ask of the Egyptians quoted in this story from Ha'Aretz,
the standard psychriatric question: "what do they really mean
by that?"
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/
IT'S
TIME TO TAKE ON THE SUNNIS...says Krauthammer in this straight-talking
op-ed that appeared in the U.K. Guardian yesterday. This
seems to us as good an instance of useful "strategic realism"
as anything we have read recently about the bloody impasse in Iraq.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
SO NOW WE HAVE INTELLIGENCE REFORM...of a sort. Is anyone really
satisfied, gratified or a little less anxious? Brendan Miniter of
the Wall Street Journal has a good fix on the "inside
story" of how and why the compromise was reached.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/
BEINART
TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: COME HOME...and dump your anti-American
"friends." When the editor of the New Republic
offers a hit list of people and positions that should be abandoned
we may safely conclude that there is a growing division within the
recently much-defeated "second party."
http://www.tnr.com/
WHAT
DID THE SOVIET NKVD DO DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR? The once
opened--and now, again, partially shut--Soviet Archives continue
to reveal the horrors of a murderous regime. Here, a new book based
upon recently uncovered archival secrets is reviewed by a member
of the CIA history staff.
http://www.cia.gov/
THE
"AIR-ATTACK" UPON IRAN...is carried out by expatriate
amateur broadcasters who manage on a technologically advanced shoestring.
This account from the Columbia Journalism Review reveals
that they are really "getting through."
http://www.cjr.org/
EXPLAINING
STRING THEORY...to non-physicists is not quite the easiest assignment;
but this fellow at the New York Times has made a valiant
effort and manages to create, for us, the illusion of comprehension--but
then, we had Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman doing the same for us
on the program last week.
http://www.nytimes.com/
THE
RIGHT TO CRITICIZE ANYONE'S RELIGION...is, at least in the U.K.,
now being defended by comics. And why not? Other persons strong
belief-systems are the second most common target of wit. The first
is either their appearance or their stupidity. This account from
the Telegraph is, however, no laughing matter.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
ARE
AMERICA'S UNIVERSITIES LEFTIST? Of course they are, if judged by
their humanities and social science faculty. How has this come to
be? Would a concerted effort to recruit (and actually hire) conservative
professors be a prime desideratum? Read on...in this sharp essay
from The Economist.
http://www.economist.com/
AND
SPEAKING OF THE LEFT-TILT IN FACULTY HIRING...have you heard about
"Professor" Rosenberg? That's not the present proprietor
but another who does not particularly grace the name she bears.
All is reported here by our friend and frequent program guest, Roger
Kimball, writing in the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/
FAULKNER
AS POSTMAN, PROFESSOR AND RESEARCH TOPIC: The "Ole Miss"
connection was complicated and long-lasting and is here illuminated
in a fine article by W.F.'s most recent biographer.
http://chronicle.com/
THE
KING OF THE GYPSIES...is a title claimed by many. Here is the one
who "rules" in Transylvania but claims to be monarch "of
the Roma everywhere." This is one in a fine series of articles
about Romania that appeared in Slate last week.
http://politics.slate.msn.com/
MORE
DJANGO! Last week we did a memorable program on the life, times
and music of "the greatest jazz guitarist, ever," namely
Django Reinhardt. Here he is with the Quintette of the Hot Club
of France in some of their best known--and much beloved--recordings,
mostly from the '30s.
http://redhotjazz.com/
December 7, 2004:
Milt's
File will return tomorrow.
December 6, 2004:
YES, FAREED, BUT IS IT WORTH SAVING? The
U.N. could go under, says Zakaria in the current issue of Newsweek,
unless the U.S. exerts some strong effort to save it. The analysis
is, as usual with F.Z., sharp and well-focused--except for the question
of whether a stronger and more respected and less corrupt U.N. might
be more injurious to American (and western!!) interests.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
SOME
THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BERNARD KERIK...are detailed in this
short and to-the-point column by Zev Chafets of the New York
Daily News. The new head of the Department of Homeland Security
is, obviously, going to make "good copy" whether he does
or doesn't make good policy.
http://www.nydailynews.com/
WHY
HASN'T THE NEXT TERRORIST ATTACK HAPPENED? No question is more important
and more elusive. But here we have a cool-headed and apparently
well researched set of answers provided in the current issue of
New York magazine.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/
COLIN
POWELL GETS A B- (OR IS IT A C+?) FROM HITCHENS...in this evaluation
just published in Foreign Policy. As always, Hitch's iconoclasm
and bravura prose make for engaging reading. Could he, as well,
be right about the possibly over-appreciated outgoing Secretary
of State?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
WILL
EUROPE BE ISLAMICIZED--OR WILL ISLAM BE EUROPEANISED? The great
demographic shift in western Europe and recent evidence of Islamic
militancy in all of the host countries force the question...and
it is strongly addressed in this fine essay by David Pryce-Jones
that has just appeared in Commentary magazine.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
THE
NEW DUTCH AWARENESS OF MILITANT ISLAMISM...is reflected in this
interview with a Dutch journalist, just published in The American
Prospect. When the semi-official general magazine of the Democratic
Party conveys a concern about European Islamicization, one knows
that an important shift is underway.
http://www.prospect.org/
AUSTRALIA...WIE
ES EIGENTLICH GEWESEN WAR! Getting the leftist distortions out of
the national history is the task that Keith Winschuttle has set
for himself and--if the proper measure is how many historians you
anger--he seems to be succeeding. The coverage is supplied by the
Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/
AN
EGYPTIAN EGYPTOLOGIST AT CHAMPOLLION'S DESK: This charming note
about a visit to the home of the man who deciphered the Rosetta
Stone and thus found the key to heiroglyphic writing is from the
culture section of Al Ahram of Cairo.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/
GRAIL,
GRAIL...WHO'S GOT THE HOLY GRAIL? No one, says this responsible
and wonderfully informative article from the BBC. Why not? Because
it never existed! It was all dreamed up by Chretien de Troyes (not
Dan Brown!) a very long time ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
IS
THIS HOW ONE CAN DETECT A WARHOL FORGERY? Or did he himself forge
his "paintings"? Such questions probably fall beyond the
interest of the forgery-detectives whose new technique is revealed
here in the current issue of The Economist.
http://www.economist.com/
THOMSON
ON SCORSESE ON HOWARD HUGHES: The film bio is out and our greatest
commentator on American film (The English David Thomson) has seen
it; and, in consequence, we now have this splendid review/essay
which appeared yesterday in the New York Observer.
http://www.observer.com/
A
NEW APRECIATION OF THE FATHER OF SCIENCE FICTION...That's H. G.
Wells, of course, whose classic, The Invisible Man, was
re-read and is here commended by Bryan Appleyard in a recent column
from The New Statesman.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
POLLSTER
DISINGENUOUSNESS ON A RAMPAGE! The folks who did this poll for Newsweek
really know that it overestimates by far the number of people who
"literally believe" the Christmas narrative. What the
magazine doesn't tell you is that respondents usually try to give
the interviewer what they think he wants or expects to hear. To
say this in socio-psychologese, the processes of "interviewer
expectancy,"demand characteristics" and "evaluation
apprehension" are all operative--especially in an interview
about religious beliefs conducted as Christmas approaches!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
A
BRITISH SEX SCANDAL THAT DOESN'T QUITE MATCH PROFUMO...but still
gets lots of press attention, has one distinctive feature according
to this article in Sunday's Scotsmen: the scandalee, a
cabinet minister, is the one who sought all the press coverage.
Why in the world? Read on...
http://news.scotsman.com/
A
GREAT SONG CYCLE: Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (in the Schoenberg
arrangement) ends with a remarkable rendering of Der Abschied (the
farewell) by Stephen Roberts. The Mainly Mozart Orchestra is conducted
by David Atherton.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
December 3, 2004:
Milt's
File will return on Monday.
December 1, 2004:
SOME INSIDE DOPE (AND REQUIRED WISDOM)
ON THE IRAQI ELECTION...is provided in the New York Times
today by Bill Safire, proving once again that his presence as a
calm columnar voice will be much missed.
http://www.nytimes.com/
IS
THE UKRAINIAN UPRISING CONTROLLED BY THE CIA? The question is not
merely nonsense. The fact that it is being seriously asked, says
Anne Applebaum in today's Washington Post, is strong evidence
of how the anti-American left is now ready to endorse the east European
anti-democratic right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
PLUS
CA CHANGE: The Economist meets its highest reportorial
standards in this excellent examination of what is now stirring
in French politics. The haunting question on the horizon is: Apres
Chirac, qui?
http://www.economist.com/
THE
AWAKENING OF THE NETHERLANDS...is documented here in a strongly-written
article that has just appeared in Front Page Magazine.
The author, Michael Radu, is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy
Research Institute who has been studying the works and ways of Islamic
radicalism for some years.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
CANADA
ANYONE? As some of the Bush-haters migrate (or threaten to migrate)
northwards, this op-ed from the Seattle Times by a migrant
from the north might be recommended to them as urgent reading.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
THE
RISING ANTI-AMERICAN (AND ANTI-JEWISH) TIDE IN EUROPE: Gerard Baker,
the London Times' man in the U.S, spotlights some of the
ugliness in western Europe and lays out a corrective itinerary for
the forthcoming Bush visit. This guy tells it like it is!!
http://theweeklystandard.com/
HOW
DID THE UNIVERSE HAPPEN? Last night on Extension 720 we put that
question to Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman. This morning, when we
put it to Google, this came up as one of the more intelligible answers.
http://interactions.org/
A
PRIMER IN BIOETHICS...is laid out in this important and incisively
argued mini-essay published originally in the London Times.
The hypothetical sequence in which embryonic stem-cell research
leads to a world in which we "make enemies of the weak"
deserves serious consideration.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
IF
YOU CARE ABOUT POLITICAL POLLS...and are bemused or amused by their
considerable failings, the blog of the Mystery Pollster should be
on your favorites list. Here is today's edition.
http://www.mysterypollster.com/
GENERAL
PATTON: MAD OR BRILLIANT OR BOTH? Sir Max Hastings, who appeared
on our program last Monday night referes to the two-gunned general
as a "madman." Here, from Australia, is a more admiring--and
yet, quite informative--biography of the man in question.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/
A
"BACKWARD PILGRIMAGE" TO OUR ANCESTORS...is the way Richard
Dawkin's latest work is characterized in this review from the New
York Times. Brief, but to the point, this overview of the book
whets our appetite for it.
http://query.nytimes.com/
BY
THEIR READING SHALL YE KNOW THEM: A possible key to the public performance
of political leaders may be to investigate what they habitually
read...and re-read. Remember Harold MacMillan? Peter Catterall,
writing in the scholarly journal Cercles, does and in this
truly engaging, if lengthy, essay he relates the Prime Minister's
statesmanship to his literary indulgences.
http://www.cercles.com/
YOU
CAN'T TELL THE PROFESSORS WITHOUT A SCORECARD...is the rationale
for published student evaluations of their college teachers. As
a veteran academic--who got good reviews!--the proprietor thinks
this sort of thing is deeply injurious to the maintenance of academic
quality. (Why? Because the untenured and many of the tenured court
popularity by engaging in "crowd-pleasing" rather than
in diligent representation of their subject matter.) Here, from
Columbia University, is the student rundown on all of the professors
in the Psychology Department.
http://culpa.info/
WHEN
BENJAMIN BRITTEN ENCOUNTERED RIMBAUD...the result was this enticing
song cycle which is beautifully performed here by Amanda Roocroft
backed by the Hong Kong Symphony.
http://classicalplus.gmn.com/
Archive of Milt's File:
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