Today TAC celebrates its roster of the best columnists in print, with brand new columns from Bill Kauffman and Philip Giraldi, as well as Stuart Reid’s piece from the current issue. Kauffman explores the writer as public performer in “The Loneliness of the Long Dissonant Reader.” (And if you’re in the vicinity of Brockport, NY, don’t miss Bill’s appearance at Lift Bridge Books tomorrow.) Giraldi meanwhile provides the inside scoop on Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri — a defector and U.S. intelligence asset who decided to return to Tehran. Check out this exclusive “Deep Background” column for why he did so, and what his decision means for the CIA.

And, if you missed it on Monday, be sure to read Eamonn Fingleton’s essay on the lessons we can learn from the decline of the Ottomans — “How to Lose an Empire.”

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