It’s no secret that the Republican Party is going through an agonizing reappraisal of its policies. Well, the Elephant can stop worrying now, because Ross Douthat has it all figured out. Let’s start with domestic reform. What needs to be done? Ramesh Ponnuru, echoing though not quoting President Obama, says we have a healthcare spending…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Nothing about Bob Woodward in this issue!
Or any other. I’ve had my say about that dirtbag here.
Darkle this!
I join with Andrew Sullivan in ridiculing William Kristol’s o’erwrought take on the tragedy of Chuck Hagel’s appointment as secretary of defense. Quoth* Bill The plain is darkling. The world grows more dangerous. Yet we heedlessly slash our military preparedness. Iran hastens toward a nuclear weapon, which would pose an existential threat to Israel and…
Sequesterfuck
I don’t have much to say about the sequester, but I did have a joke, and I wanted to use it. I guess I could say I predicted this—see “Republicans who want to break something”—because I did. The Republican Party is approaching nihilism these days. They don’t believe in anything, but they do hate President…
Monk’s Tet: “Gallop’s Gallop”
https://youtu.be/xvK77RZu1ck One of Monk’s more obscure, and obscurely titled, tunes. Performed by “Monk’s Tet,” featuring Alexandre Weppe, piano; Licia Bourgeais-Boon, flute; Isaline Boutet, violin; Arlo Lardé, basse; and Agnès Bellec handling “le batterie.” Posted by Jean-Marie Bellec.
Pseudo-New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Hey, Isadora Duncan! Watch the damn scarf!” “This is the Jersey 500, girlfriend! You’re on the wrong side of the Hudson!” “Lose the leathers, honey! Show hair or be square!” “OK, we do a hundred miles and then we switch, right? I mean, I’ve got your word on that, don’t I?” “Are…
It’s Whiter than White: It’s Republican White!
Sam Tannenhaus has a very good read at the New Republic about how the Republican Party, and Sen. Barry Goldwater in particular, traveled from being the champions of racial integration to being the defenders, not of segregation, but of the “right to segregate’—“neither a segregated society nor an integrated society, but a free society,” as…
Honest Newt Gingrich and Idiot Bob Woodward
Newt Gingrich has been getting a lot of good press for his recent statements faulting Mitt Romney for staking out such an extreme position on immigration during the Republican primary, berating both Texas Gov. Rick Perry and poor Newt himself for being soft on foreigners. According to Newt, Mitt painted himself into such a far-right…
O the Times! O the Fashions!
About 20 years ago I was throwing away some trash in the trash room of my building when I saw a “special issue” of the New York Times magazine titled “Fifty Years of Fashion,” promising a review of the Times’ coverage of fashion over the past 50 years. The idea sounded promising, so I took…
Those Crazy Muslims
Mark Lynch has a column up at Foreign Affairs reviewing Atomic Kingdom, a report by Colin Kahl, Melissa Dalton, and Matt Irvine at the Center for a New American Security, which I guess should be called Non-Atomic Kingdom, even though it’s definitely less catchy, because the report argues that Saudi Arabia is not, repeat not,…