Today ont theamericanconservative.com, Rod Dreher went to Versailles, Samuel Goldman checked in from the Sandy-addled Upper East Side, and Scott Galupo defended Nate Silver. Robert Murphy reminded us that hurricanes aren’t actually good for the economy, and Ron Unz lamented how L.A. public schools’ insistence on racial quotas derailed plans for an elite high school.

Phil Giraldi warned of the growing CIA presence in Africa, and Daniel Larison noted that Romney failing to foreswear a diplomatic solution to a nuclear Iran is not evidence of realism. Alan Jacobs pondered long defeats and final victories, and Dreher parsed what’s true and false about French stereotypes.