David Broder, Obama, and War With Iran

David Broder’s recent observations about our Peace Prize President have created a stir. In his controversial October 31 Washington Post op-ed “How Obama might recover”, Broder postulates that Obama could choose the Iran war option. Actually, Obama has been doing a variation of ...

Germany Makes its Final WWI Reparations Payment

Taki’s praise of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the The Great Gatsby is much deserved. If Gatsby is not quite the best American novel, its opening chapter should be regarded as the most perfect first chapter ever written. Gatsby falls off in its latter stages. In addition to James Gatz's improbable ...

On Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative

Something called the Clinton Global Initiative has been brought to my attention by an AP dispatch dated September 21st entitled “Bill Clinton: Economy, disasters imperil millions.” At first, I suspected it was a leg-pull, but then I realized, no, this is for real. The impeached 42nd ...

Arrigo Cipriani

With Love From Harry’s Bar

It is quite possible that my favorite restaurant in the world is Harry’s Bar in Venice. For one thing, it is the home of the best club sandwich in the world. At this point in time, it is one of the few things on the menu I can still afford. (Believe me, it’s not your normal club ...

The Frank Rich Syndrome

Thank God for air conditioning. A scorching Labor Day weekend found me home-bound, doing research on New York Times columnist Mr. Frank Rich. Unlike most of my conservative acquaintances, I love The New York Times. Just stay off the op-ed pages. The newspaper is full of informative articles and ...

Playing the China Card

Recently, China overtook Germany as the world’s largest exporter. And just the other day, China was calculated to have overtaken Japan as the second largest economy in the world. China is on a roll, or even on a tear, if you prefer. It is unlikely that Dick Nixon and Hank Kissinger foresaw ...

Cracking Croquet

Judging by the hijinks and makeup on display at the recently-concluded World Cup, soccer, of all sports, certainly has the most crazed fans. Good for them. But I find it almost as boring as baseball. At the other extreme, the game of croquet is one that comprises few fans and only a handful of ...

McChrystal’s Firing Not Worth a Footnote

Patrick Buchanan commented on Friday about the cashiering of General Stanley McChrystal. Buchanan focused upon the dissimilarities between Obama’s firing of McChrystal and President Harry Truman’s firing of General Douglas MacArthur in 1951. McChrystal is a special forces General, a ...

Helen Thomas”€™ Overblown Israel Affair

Last Thursday, somebody stuck a video camera into the mug of legendary White House reporter and commentator Helen Thomas. She was taking a walk on the White House lawn, apparently with a friend. Thomas was asked to comment about Israel. Somewhere else on the White House grounds, a get-together was ...

50 Years Later, Breathless Still Resonates and Exasperates

Is Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless the most overrated movie of all time? Of course not. At least, I don’t think so. However, eleven months ago I was watching the Criterion Collection DVD of it at home, and thinking to myself “This could be the worst movie I have ever seen!” ...