Anne Applebaum’s bosom buddy, Nikita, is getting kicked out of his Moscow digs: the state-subsidized housing he lives in is being sold to private developers. You’d think that this would please the Americans, who have been lecturing the Russkis for ages about the virtues of privatization, but not in this case. Ms. Applembaum, you see, is a columnist for the Washington … [Read More]

A united Europe has long been an aspiration spanning the political spectrum. The leader of the pre-Second World War Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley, called for “Europe a Nation,” while, only slightly later, the British Independent Labor Party worked toward a “United Socialist States of Europe.” Again, in 1945 Prime Minister Winston Churchill called for a “United States of Europe,”  though he … [Read More]

A Fourth of July Washington Post-syndicated column by W’s former speechwriter and the author of his Second Inaugural, Michael Gerson, struck so many Republican, neoconservative, and not least of all Evangelical themes that his words should be archived as illustrating self-induced illusion. The column is decorated (or at least it was in the New York Post) with a picture of Martin … [Read More]

In a city scarred forever by terror, New Yorkers could be forgiven for fearing the worst. I am referring to last Thursday’s Lexington Avenue explosion which had everyone experiencing 9/11 deja vu. Shoppers ran for cover, dodging flying rubble, while a truck was swallowed when the tarmac opened up into a giant crater. But not to worry. As everyone knows,  it … [Read More]

July 21 marks the 146th anniversary of the beginning of the First Manassas (or First Bull Run, in Yankese). On that day, Washington citizens went out to the battlefield a-picnicking, to watch the onslaught of the Confederates under General Beauregard. While it was a victory for the South, a number of considerations (including the exhaustion of his men, and the early … [Read More]

Zimbabwe is a disaster area, ruled by a Marxist dictator whose murderous tendencies make Saddam Hussein look like a saint.  The massacres of the early years of Robert Mugabe’s rule may soon look like a mere warm-up compared with the mass starvation descending on the former Rhodesia.  If ever there were an argument for the justice of a preemptive war, surely … [Read More]

On Board S/Y Bushido—Last Friday the 13th was not a good news day. I was in Ibiza, sailing around when the papers were brought in and I read about the death of my old and very good friend Nigel Dempster. Actually it was a blessing. He had been suffering for years and every time I spoke with him – to him … [Read More]

Neocon blogger-GOP “insider” Patrick Ruffini —described by the New York Times as a former “e-director for the Republican National Committee”— who previously tried to downplay Ron Paul’s astounding fundraising success, is now predicting that the Texas troublemaker will come in second in the Iowa straw poll. Yes, the times they are a changin’. It’s early in the campaign. Most normal people … [Read More]

Dumbest “spin” of year award goes to ABC News, for this: “His presidential campaign may not have as much cash on hand as Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, but McCain is getting more money than any other candidate from telephone utility companies—almost $150,000.” No wonder people are hanging up on the “mainstream” media and taking to the internet.  [Read More]

The news that Crisis magazine will cease print publication September 1, to be replaced by a free online version, is sad—perhaps not in itself, but for what it represents. I never thought much of Crisis as a whole (its Catholicism was always tainted with neoconservative politics), and it’s been a few years now since I’ve even seen a copy—and then only … [Read More]