OK, having been just scolded by Gideon Strauss, and duly informed by Christopher Hitchens, let me qualify my “praise” for Galloway by noting that I was praising his no-holds-bar rhetorical approach to the dullness of the Senate subcommittee. I didn’t mean to extol him as a moral saint. So, the re-cantation out of the way,…
Just returned from taking the boys to see Revenge of the Sith. Pretty much all one could hope for (if you have realistic hopes), and more. The Buddhism of the series is clearly confirmed, but for me the most interesting line of development was the transformation of the Republic into an Empire–all in the name…
I first heard of George Galloway when we were living in Cambridge: he had become quite notorious as a renegade (now ex-)Labor MP, deeply critical of Blair and the Iraq War. The Sunday Times Magazine did a feature spread on him that was fascinating, though not altogether charitable. His (voluntary) appearance before a Senate subcommittee…
Much ink has been spilt on the supposedly new emergence of imperial aims in American foreign policy, including jeremiads about how everything has changed post-9/11. In a sweeping essay in the Wilson Quarterly (“The Real World War IV“)–something of a precis to his new book, The New American Militarism–Andrew Bacevich carefully demonstrates thst American foreign…
Yale historian Donald Kagan delivered the NEH’s Jefferson Lectures last night in Washington. Undertaking a rant against postmodern “theory” and seeking to reclaim the Enlightenment dream of objectivity, Kagan argued that history was the discipline best poised for this reclamation project. As the Chronicle reports: ‘Mr. Kagan also defended his view of history as “Queen…
Jim Wallis’ book tour for God’s Politics made a stop at Calvin College last night. His presentation was disappointing (alot of slogan-mongering), but it was really his position that was disappointing. Though not surprising, I must say; I’m glad to have gone, if only to confirm my suspicions. There are a couple of areas in…