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Michael Lewis has an incredible column today on the AIG bonus scandal. The author of “Moneyball” points out that the insanity over the $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives is just that: insanity. The government has already agreed to pay out $173 billion. The bonuses make up approximately less than .1% –that is they [...]
Filed under: Economics, Politics, Uncategorized
President Barack Obama has made it clear he is willing to talk with “moderate” members of the Taliban in an attempt to gain control — and perhaps bring to an end — the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Afghan President Karzai has been reportedly negotiating with members of the Taliban for a year and according to [...]
Filed under: Foreign policy, Iraq, War
As the U.S. financial crisis broadens and deepens, wiping out the wealth and savings of tens of millions, destroying hopes and dreams, it is hard not to see in all of this history’s verdict upon this generation. We have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. For how did this befall us, save through [...]
Filed under: Economics, Uncategorized
Here’s an interesting phenomenon from Britain, reported by Jon Henley in the Guardian. Apparently, the above image–an old government poster brought out in 1939 to keep the population calm in the event of a German invasion–has, since the financial crisis began, started popping up all over the country — and even in the U.S. embassy [...]
Philip Jenkins’s article on militia panics and liberal paranoia about right-wing extremism is now on-line. Already Jenkins looks prophetic: two days after we went to press with this essay, news broke that the Missouri State Police think Ron Paul supporters and Constitution and Libertarian Party members are potential terrorists. (Says one Missouri activist, Tim Neal, [...]
Filed under: liberties
The perennial “Pope opposes condoms” fake-controversy can be so tedious that nowadays it has even become boring to say how boring it is. A difference with today’s story, though, is that, aside from the predictable outrage of the media, the French government has publicly attacked the Pope for saying that encouraging and funding condom-use among [...]
Filed under: World
“Why are we talking about this at the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” —Attorney General John Ashcroft Mark Danner’s 14,000-word scoop in the April 9 New York Review of Books will turn your coffee cold. Read it anyway. He got a copy of the Red Cross report on torture at CIA black [...]
Filed under: War
The Chas Freeman affair continues to reverberate and for good reason—a lot is at stake. The coalition of pro-Israel bloggers that started the campaign against him wished things would end there. He would go quietly and be replaced by a pliable figure who would put no roadblocks in the way of their desired war with [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
Our ex-president (or maybe his pal Andrew Roberts) is “writing” a book: “I’m going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there’s an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,” Bush said. H/t The Washington Examiner.
Filed under: Books
Slate posts David Plotz’s 2000 column about how little we know of St. Patrick. Eamon Forde’s piece in today’s Times Online is perfectly sensible: The celebration originally marked the arrival of the Catholic faith on Irish shores, but in an increasingly secular country, it now celebrates the futility of drunkenness. It says everything about what [...]
Filed under: Culture