This afternoon, I came across George Orwell’s “Revenge is Sour” in a collection of his essays. Originally published in the Tribune in November 1945, it speaks to the emptiness of revenge and — more topically for today — to the disconnect between civilians and soldiers in war. Below is the final paragraph: The Belgian averted … Read more
James Taranto at the WSJ writes Best of the Web Today and occasionally adds a ruthlessly mocking section titled “Everything is Spinning Out of Control” (itself a snide poke at a dumb AP article, “Is Everything Seemingly Spinning Out of Control?”). Regardless, I’ve finally found evidence that everything is actually spinning out of control. Deepwater … Read more
I reviewed Scott Patterson’s book The Quants for our summer issue, and I’d like to expand upon my conclusion. I wrote: The professors are the new barons of Wall Street, and they appear poised to accrue even more power. They are like “civil engineers … after a bridge collapse,” Patterson writes: they’re to blame, but … Read more
Just before its Memorial Day recess, the House passed a bill that, according to The New York Times, would raise the taxes that investment managers pay on carried interest, just at the moment new long-term investment is most needed. General executive partners of long-term investment partnerships, including investments in real estate, venture capital, private equity, … Read more
Protest of ROTC's policies toward homosexuals (at UW-Madison, 1990) At Harvard’s Reserve Officer Training Corps commissioning ceremony this Wednesday, Drew Faust urged Harvard’s class of 2010 future officers to: Help reinforce the long tradition of ties between Harvard and the military, as we share hopes that changing circumstances will soon enable us to further strengthen … Read more
Apart from being an excellent excuse to boost web traffic with pictures of bikini-clad women (cf. The Huffington Post), you may not have seen Lebanese journalist Hanin Ghaddar’s very interesting article last week in Foreign Policy comparing American and Lebanese reactions to the Rima Fakih story. In America: Not many people — let along beauty pageant … Read more
The New York Times Magazine has a fantastic article about the puzzle of the paucity of valor awards-those medals given for high acts of courage. Only six Medals of Honor have been awarded in Iraq or Afghanistan: a fraction of previous wars either absolute or percentage terms. In the Pentagon’s defense, the article quotes one … Read more
Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent … Read more
In his recent essay “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart laments the disconnect young liberal American Jews feel from Israel and the American organizations that support it (i.e. AIPAC). He argues that Zionist organizations have moved rightward with the Israeli government and have largely shut out liberal dissent: “…by defending virtually anything … Read more
As I said yesterday, the Kentucky Senate race between Rand Paul and Jack Conway should be a real battle. Paul is probably not helping himself by insisting, as many libertarian ideologues but few Senate hopefuls do, that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was wrong to ban racial discrimination in private establishments like restaurants and movie … Read more