12.08.2011 - 7:15 PM
As Pete points out, Obama’s Osawatomie speech was flagrantly dishonest as to what Republicans stand for. In the president’s view, one is either a big-government liberal or Ebenezer Scrooge.
But presenting a pathetic caricature of his political opponents was not the president’s only venture into the murkier depths of mendacity in that speech. He lied about economic history with abandon, too.
12.08.2011 - 6:41 PM
The New York Times has a long history of publishing disingenuous articles and columns that whitewashed totalitarians and tyrants. It’s not easy to top Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning lies about Stalin and the terror famine in the Ukraine which took the lives of millions; Herbert Matthews’s portrayal of Fidel Castro as a democrat freedom-fighter; or, more recently, Roger Cohen’s attempt to depict the Islamist regime in Iran as unthreatening philo-Semites who were not oppressing that country’s tiny Jewish remnant. And it must be said that as bad as it was, Nicholas Kristof’s column today depicting members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as just an updated Middle Eastern version of “Ozzie and Harriet,” falls short of those epic frauds.
But we can’t say that Kristof isn’t trying hard to equal their feats of dishonesty. His column, an unabashed effort to depict the Islamist group that gave birth to Hamas as liberal, open-minded peace-loving people who just want democracy and prosperity for Egypt is very much in the Times tradition of trying to convince Americans there was no need to worry about totalitarian movements. Its lack of context and truth about the openly-stated intentions of a movement that has been the inspiration for a generation of Islamic terror is disturbing.
12.08.2011 - 6:15 PM
For those of us who have been following the interaction between presidential candidates and the pro-Israel candidates for longer than the last couple of election cycles, yesterday’s pledge by Newt Gingrich to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem was a blast from the past. Such promises were a time-honored ritual for decades until the blatant insincerity of these statements caused both the Jews and the candidates to halt the charade.
But Gingrich’s other big promise to the RJC was far more intriguing. By saying that he would appoint John Bolton as secretary of state, Gingrich was laying down a firm claim on the affections of Republicans who care about national security and the need to assert a strong foreign policy. It’s not clear that he can make good on this pledge any more than he can actually move the embassy, but by anointing Bolton as his chosen foreign affairs expert, Gingrich has at the very least ended any uncertainty about the direction he’d like his presidency to take.
12.08.2011 - 5:50 PM
Rick Perry is now the fourth candidate to turn down the invitation to Newsmax’s Donald Trump-moderated debate. Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul have also opted out, which leaves just Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich to duke it out for Trump’s endorsement:
In a statement, Perry’s campaign says the Texas governor told Trump he’ll be busy meeting Iowa voters before the caucuses Jan. 3.
12.08.2011 - 5:30 PM
After having spent decades of my life in politics, I’ve come up with a few rules of thumb. One of them is this: Any time the attorney general of the United States needs to explain to a member of Congress the difference between lying to Congress versus misleading Congress, it’s not a good thing. When your argument is essentially, “We misled you but we didn’t lie to you” – if that’s your best interpretation of events — you’re in a bad place.
Eric Holder is in a bad place. He testified before Congress today on the so-called Fast and Furious scandal, and when asked by Representative James Sensenbrenner, “Tell me what’s the difference between lying and misleading Congress, in this context?” Holder replied, “Well, if you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie.” (The issue under discussion was the Justice Department having to withdraw a misleading letter sent to Congress by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.)
12.08.2011 - 5:00 PM
Two recent stories illustrate the fascinating and complicated relationship Newt Gingrich has with the Republican party’s conservative base, and how that will play out if he wins the nomination. The first is Nate Silver’s piece in the New York Times, which convincingly demonstrates that the Gingrich revolution of 1994 solidified a move to the right by congressional Republicans that continues to this day.
That is, the average Republican in the House is more conservative than before Gingrich’s leadership, and that trend has persisted in his absence. While Gingrich may not be considered a Tea Partier per se, Silver’s data argue that Gingrich laid the foundation for the movement’s electoral success. In one sense, this would seem to make Gingrich the easy choice over Mitt Romney for conservatives. But the other story complicates the picture a bit.
12.08.2011 - 4:45 PM
Attorney General Eric Holder parsed words today while testifying before Congress, claiming that “nobody at the Department of Justice has lied” about the Fast and Furious program – at least not under the “legal” definition. According to Holder, the DOJ didn’t realize it was presenting inaccurate information to Congress last February, which means nobody in the department can be accused of perjury:
Rep. James Sensenbrenner asked Holder: “Tell me what’s the difference between lying and misleading Congress, in this context?”
Holder’s response is a bit Clintonian. “Well, if you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie,” Holder said. “The information that was provided by the February 4 letter was gleaned by the people who drafted the letter after they interacted with people who they thought were in the best position to have the information.”
12.08.2011 - 4:20 PM
Predictable people are saying predictable things about the Obama administration’s new global gay-rights push. “Historic, amazing, truly heartwarming stuff,” writes Wonkette blogger Matt Langer of Hillary Clinton’s speech on the new policy. Regarding President Obama’s memo on the initiative, ”The White House is extending a helping hand to some of the world’s most vulnerable individuals,” says Victoria Neilson, legal director for Immigration Equality. “[Tuesday]’s actions by President Obama make clear that the United States will not turn a blind eye when governments commit or allow abuses to the human rights of LGBT people,” according to Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Actually, Tuesday’s actions confirm the exact opposite. Because this historic, amazing, and truly heartwarming policy isn’t about human rights. It’s about the toxic but useful politics of identity. By redefining the universal struggle for liberty as separate fashionable identity crusades the administration trades unpopular and risky action for the cheap currency of hollow activism. Wars become memos and speeches and your thousand closest Facebook friends express their appreciation. Sure, without American action freedoms become crimes punishable by death, but you can’t have everything.
12.08.2011 - 4:00 PM
Seth Mandel’s analysis of the Russian protests and the consequence of leadership are important. The spark for the protests, as with Iran in 2009, may have been outrage at election fraud, but their genesis is deeper. As the Atlantic Council’s Anna Borshchevskaya wrote in October:
Russia may be closer to the civil unrest threshold than some diplomats acknowledge… The economic turmoil of the 1990s disillusioned Russians, who embraced Putin as he restored the order that they craved. But, like many Middle Eastern rulers, Putin failed to diversify the economy, delivering instead short-term growth due mainly to high oil prices… Unlike many Arab states, but like Iran, Russia faces a demographic problem. Low birth rates and an aging population will exacerbate budgetary problems. Putin will have trouble making pension payments as the work force declines in numbers. Compounding the problem, Russian productivity is at most 10 percent of that of the United States, according to Mikhail Prokhorov, the former leader of Russia’s increasingly pro-Putin Right Cause Party… Recent travelers to Moscow and many Russia watchers have compared Putin to the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, whose name is synonymous with zastoi, or stagnation. Brezhnev’s policies resulted in slow growth, poverty and severe shortages of food and basic goods, all of which contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. Just as the Arab world has faced a brain drain, young, talented and educated Russians are also considering leaving their homeland. A recent Levada Centre survey found that 22 percent of Russian adults would like to leave Russia permanently – the highest figure since the Soviet Union’s collapse and a more than threefold increase from four years ago.
12.08.2011 - 3:50 PM
The annual lists of the Year’s Best Books are a rite of literary journalism — a vacuous rite, if you ask me, by which critics make themselves the shills of the publishing trade. (Not that I don’t participate as eagerly as anyone else!)
’Tis the season, too, for shopping guides. COMMENTARY herewith offers a different kind of shopping guide. COMMENTARY writers and friends of the magazine were asked to recommend a novel for holiday buying or reading — their personal favorite, their personal secret. It’s an eclectic list (I’ve only read five of the titles myself), but every book on the list is something you will want to hunt down as quickly as possible. Supplies are going fast! Remember: there are only 17 shopping days left until Christmas! Here is a good place to start your wish list for that hard-to-please reader in your family or your bed!
The books are arranged alphabetically by author, with the recommender’s name in bold afterwards, followed by his or her comments.
Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008). Matthew Ackerman, Middle East Analyst for The David Project and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
Enlightening take on modern India. Great anti-hero narrator with a superb voice. Man Booker prize winner.
Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1951). Omri Ceren, author of Mere Rhetoric and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
A briskly written but sweepingly comprehensive survey of the constitutive vagaries in the human condition: the ebb and flow of empire, the ever-present specter of civilizational decline, the indeterminacy of social progress, and — despite these fundamental challenges — the ability of carefully crafted institutions, designed with careful attention to human imperfection, to preserve knowledge and transcend history. Also the series has spaceships and eventually robots, and is one of the most entertaining reads in existence.
John Bellairs, The Face in the Frost (1969). Michael Weingrad, director of the Jewish Studies program at Portland State University and author of “Why There Is No Jewish Narnia”:
I have a soft spot for this gothic-comic tale of two not-terribly-powerful wizards and the lurking menace they must face. It’s no Lord of the Rings, but it is a confection of horror and whimsy perfect for a fireside evening.
Romain Gary, The Life Before Us (1975), trans. Ralph Manheim (1978). Erika Dreifus, author of Quiet Americans:
I can’t say anything about the translations into English, but this is quite likely the funniest sad novel I’ve read, in any language. At the novel’s core: the relationship between its first-person narrator — a young boy of Arab descent called Momo — and the elderly Jewish ex-prostitute (also an Auschwitz survivor) who is responsible for his care. I’d read nothing like it before it was assigned in a class 20-plus years ago, and I’ve read nothing like it since.
William Gay, Twilight (2006). William Giraldi, author of Busy Monsters:
Gay had the title before a Mormon housewife filched it for her prudish vampires. Owing much to Faulkner, O’Connor, and McCarthy at his bloodiest, Gay’s gorgeously wrought novel is a human-horror story so depraved it will remind you why you’re afraid of the dark.
Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov (2005). Seth Mandel, Assistant Editor of COMMENTARY:
As we mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union while Russians are protesting in the streets of Moscow by the thousands to call for free and fair elections, Grushin’s first novel has a new relevance. Anatoly Pavlovich Sukhanov, the title character, gave up a life as a talented underground artist for the mindless comfort of an apparatchik’s career, the salary it comes with, and the stability of having a family with his beautiful wife. But the plot takes place as Gorbachev begins unintentionally deconstructing the rigid society Sukhanov gave up his dreams for, his family emotionally and physically abandons him, and he is haunted near to the point of madness by his past, as it comes rushing back in the form of vivid daydreams and the excruciating sense of nostalgia and regret that he can no longer hide from.
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005). Linda Chavez, author of Unlikely Conservative and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
Haunting and touching in equal measure. As in Remains of the Day, Ishiguro once again creates characters who live in a world not of their making, but who are forced by circumstance to make choices that reveal the complexity of the contemporary moral landscape. In this case, Ishiguro places his story in a not-too-distant future in which medical science has made it possible to prolong life indefinitely for some, but at the cost of devaluing it for the unfortunate others upon whom the scheme rests. The prose is sparing but packs an emotional wallop uncommon in today’s fiction.
Dave Kattenburg, Foxy Lady: Truth, Memory and the Death of Western Yachtsmen in Democratic Kampuchea (2011). Bethany Mandel, Social Media Associate for COMMENTARY:
It’s a book about nine Westerners who stumbled into Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era, and who met an untimely death alongside thousands of Cambodians in the main torture prison. The story follows the author’s journey through four continents as he uncovers the story of the men who died and watches the trial of the man who ran the prison. There’s plenty of books out there that tell the story of Cambodians in the Khmer Rouge time, but this is a relatable story of people who accidentally became part of history in a tragic way.
James Kirkwood, There Must Be a Pony! (1960). John Steele Gordon, author of An Empire of Wealth and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
Kirkwood was the son of silent movie stars Lila Lee and James Kirkwood, Sr., and the novel is a more or less thinly veiled memoir. It is often very funny and sometimes achingly sad. It isn’t easy growing up the son of famous people, who always tend to be self-absorbed, especially if their careers are on the wane. Kirkwood wrote several other novels worth reading including Good Times/Bad Times and P.S. Your Cat Is Dead. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as the co-author of the book of A Chorus Line.
A. M. Klein, The Second Scroll (1951). Ruth R. Wisse, author of The Modern Jewish Canon and Jews and Power:
In 1949 the Canadian poet A.M. Klein went on a fact-finding mission to see what was left of the Jews in Europe, Morocco, and Palestine. The Second Scroll, his only published novel, is a fictional account of such a journey, cast as a modernist epic in a high literary style to transmit the magnitude of the Jewish renewal. We were not present when Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, but Klein feels he was there during an exodus and ingathering of no less consequence. This book is spiritual-intellectual red meat for readers who may have tired of their diets of minimalism, irony, and polymorphous perversity.
György Konrád, The Case Worker (1969), trans. Paul Aston (1974). Patrick Kurp, author of Anecdotal Evidence:
I still remember Irving Howe’s review in the Times. I reread Konrád every few years, including earlier this year. I don’t know a better novel about children, disability, madness, the animal in man. Gorgeously written, even in translation.
Janet Lewis, The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941). D. G. Myers, author of The Elephants Teach and LITERARY COMMENTARY:
In the 16th-century French Pyrenees, a husband returns after an eight-year absence much changed. His wife loves him with joyful passion until she begins to suspect that he is an imposter, and turns against him. A tragedy that could not end otherwise than it does, Lewis’s novel shows that there are some human desires that are stronger than erotic passion — and among them is the desire to remain faithful. (A fuller account is here.)
Candia McWilliam, What to Look For in Winter (2010). Sam Schulman, a contributor to COMMENTARY:
A 53-year-old Scottish novelist begins to lose her sight through blepharospasm — being unable to open one’s eyelids. With three children, all with different last names, of two fathers, and a handful of novels — her presiding genius is Sybille Bedford — she has lived through writing, and reading. Now she can only read books on tape, and she dictates this memoir:
I am six foot tall and afraid of small people.
I am a Scot.
I am an alcoholic.
There is nothing wrong with my eyes.
I am blind.
I cannot lose my temper though I am being helped to. . . .
I exude marriedness and I am alone.Those are her compass bearings. Here is a typical sentence, describing the contents of her mother’s workbasket: “The pinking shears were so heavy and specific that they lived in a holster in the sewing chest with the button box, the cotton reels and the Kwik-unpik, a natty hook for the slashing open of stitches mainly to ‘let things down,’ or to ‘let things out,’ terms perhaps now unknown outwith the psychotherapeutic context.” One of the great books.
George R. R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons (2011). Jonathan S. Tobin, Senior Online Editor of COMMENTARY:
The latest installment in the brilliant fantasy series that inspired HBO’s Game of Thrones. But these novels are not what you’d expect from the genre since they’re beautifully written and filled with fascinating, complex characters.
Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (2002). Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
A Catholic priest who shares my offbeat sense of humor recommended Lamb to me a few Christmases back when we were both lecturing at an army base around the holidays. With tongue-in-cheek, Lamb explores the childhood of Jesus Christ through the eyes of childhood pal Biff. The story is wickedly funny, but also respectful. After a run-in with the Romans in Galilee, Biff and Jesus (or Joshua as he was known) set out on an epic adventure to track down the Three Magi — all adherents of Eastern religions. Their journey takes them to Afghanistan, China, and India, where their interactions not only illuminate Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism — but also answer such age-old questions such as why Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas.
Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country (1948). Peter Wehner, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
Because it’s a book of unusual power, deeply moving and at times lyrical, with vivid characters. Because a great novel emerged out of a great (and real) tragedy and injustice, apartheid in South Africa. And because it reminds us that there is enough hating already in our lands and that the dawn will come, as it has come for a thousand centuries.
Jack Pendarvis, Awesome (2008). Mark Athitakis, author of American Fiction Notes:
A book of more recent vintage, which didn’t get a fair shake since its publisher essentially collapsed when it came out. It’s a riff on tall tales that satirizes modern-day narcissism.
Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire (1998). Joseph Epstein, author of Gossip and Fabulous Small Jews:
An historical novel about the Spartans at Thermopylae that is brilliantly written, richly detailed, and, friends who are classical scholars tell me, has historical accuracy.
Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside (1972). Andrew Fox, author of The Good Humor Man:
Silverberg offers telepathy as a metaphor for any tremendous gift or personal ability which distorts all the other aspects of a person’s selfhood, or causes his full personhood to atrophy. David Selig, Silverberg’s protagonist, who is slowly losing his ability to read other people’s minds, an ability he has relied upon his entire life to the virtual exclusion of any other talent, is a science fictional Bobby Fischer, a prodigy whose extraordinary ability in one narrow realm has benighted the lives of those closest to him and helped twist David into a despicable human being. David’s slow, painful coming to terms with the approaching death of the only thing which has ever made him special stands, along with Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon, as one of science fiction’s finest achievements in the portrayal of loss and bereavement.
Honor Tracy, The Straight and Narrow Path (1956). Terry Teachout, author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
A cruelly, wildly funny tale of Irish village life told from the point of view of an innocent visitor who wants to be charmed by the comprehensive inefficiencies of the insular, alien culture into which he has thrust himself, but finally ends up longing to exterminate all the brutes. Though she is now remembered (if at all) as a “humorist,” Tracy’s wit was far sharper and more penetrating than that bland word would suggest, and The Straight and Narrow Path, her second and best novel, is one of the smartest portrayals of cross-cultural confusion ever to see print.
David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (2011). Rick Richman, author of Jewish Current Issues and a contributor to COMMENTARY:
A book about an IRS Regional Examination Center and its trainee, “David Foster Wallace,” who goes through boredom-survival training to cope with the endlessly tedious work. The Pale King is a meditation on overcoming the apparent pointlessness of life, by a person tragically unable to survive it even at the pinnacle of his success as the most extraordinary writer of his generation. (A fuller account is here.)
COMMENTARY readers are encouraged to add their own quirky and idiosyncratic recommendations by means of the comment thingamajig below.
12.08.2011 - 2:50 PM
With almost a year until the Massachusetts Senate election, this UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll is hardly a reliable predictor of the outcome. But the trend it shows is troubling for Republicans: Elizabeth Warren has gained 10 points in just the last two months. Sen. Scott Brown, a moderate, has already broken with Republicans on several occasions, and the added vulnerability could make him more likely to side with Democrats on contentious issues:
Warren leads Brown by a 49-42 percent margin, outside the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points. That number includes voters who say they are “leaning” for either candidate. But even without the “leaners,” Warren still leads by a 46-41 percent margin, barely within the margin of error.
The poll of 505 registered Massachusetts voters was conducted for UMass-Lowell by Princeton Survey Research from Dec. 1 – Dec. 6, and shows Warren with her largest lead yet in the campaign. A UMass-Lowell/Boston Herald poll taken in late September showed Brown ahead by a 41-38 percent margin, so the new poll represents a 10-point swing in Warren’s favor in less than two months.
12.08.2011 - 2:30 PM
Max Boot is, of course, correct when he highlights the intelligence advantages that derive from maintaining U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But there’s a broader point as well.
As much as Obama administration officials hint at containment of a nuclear Iran, containment is simply not possible without permanent basing in the region along all of Iran’s borders. Obama’s abandonment of Iraq not only snatches defeat from the jaws of victory in that country and perhaps Syria as well, but also ends any possibility for containment. Also, stationing U.S. troops as tripwires in America’s regional allies is the best check on Iranian subterfuge. While the Iranian regime often lets ideology color its actions, the Iranian government is also pragmatic: It understands the cost of action increases exponentially when it might involve American troops.
12.08.2011 - 2:05 PM
Yesterday, Republican presidential candidates at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s forum blasted President Obama for his policy of pressure on Israel. In particular, Mitt Romney struck a responsive chord when he said Obama was pursuing an “appeasement strategy” toward Palestinians and their supporters throughout the Arab and Muslim world by placing the onus for progress toward peace only on the Jewish state and by failing to effectively oppose Iran’s effort to obtain nuclear weapons.
The president responded today by touting one of the few foreign policy achievements of his administration: killing Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. Obama deserves credit for that, but citing the targeted killings of terrorists begs the question of his approach to Israel. While Obama has fought al- Qaeda, appeasement is the operative term to describe his approach to the Palestinians.
12.08.2011 - 1:45 PM
Newt Gingrich has become enough of a threat to Mitt Romney that the Romney campaign has no choice but to respond. Last week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blasted Newt Gingrich as a career politician who has “never run anything,” and now two more Romney surrogates – former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu and former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent – are piling on:
“If the nominee is Newt Gingrich, then the election is going to be about the Republican nominee, which is exactly what the Democrats want,” Talent said, per Reid Epstein [of Politico]. “If they can make it about the Republican nominee, then the president is going to win.”
12.08.2011 - 1:15 PM
As volatile as the Republican presidential race has proven to be, it’s fascinating how even as the names of the frontrunners keep changing, one theme seems to keep recurring: the desire for a GOP savior to swoop in from the wings and save the party from the undesirable choices facing it. That hope kept speculation brewing about the possibility of Paul Ryan or Chris Christie running all summer until the players in that fantasy league were forced to cash out. But even with voting in Iowa and New Hampshire just weeks away, the rumors are flying again. Bill Kristol claims today in the Weekly Standard that there remains a “Valentine’s Day Option” available for Republicans in which Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio will take advantage of both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney stumbling in the January races and somehow run the table as one snatches away the nomination from the candidates who have spent the last year running hard.
Kristol cites the research of Larry Sabato, who says the long, drawn-out primary calendar and the fact that states will be allocating their votes proportionately rather than in a winner-take-all fashion means it’s not impossible for some dark horse to win. But the wish here appears to be the father of the thought. With the polls showing Newt Gingrich vaulting to a huge lead in the polls, many Republicans are understandably dubious about their prospects in the fall with him as their standard-bearer. They are grasping onto any scenario, no matter how unlikely, that provides an alternative to Newt. But as unpalatable as the choices before them may be, the odds against a new candidate succeeding are still formidable.
The crash of an American RQ-170 Sentinel, a stealth drone, in Iran has gotten a fair amount of attention. What has not been reported until now is that this drone was launched from Afghanistan to conduct a surveillance mission over Iran. It has also been widely reported that American surveillance drones take off from Afghanistan to enter Pakistani air space. And not only drones: the SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden also launched from Afghanistan.
This points to one of many hidden benefits of a substantial American presence in Afghanistan: It not only keeps the Taliban and Haqqani network out of power, but it also allows us to influence events in Pakistan and Iran. We are already losing our basing rights in Iraq; if we lose them in Afghanistan, too, that would be a calamity for American interests in the region. But there is no way Hamid Karzai and the leaders of Afghanistan will allow us to operate from their soil, thus risking the wrath of powerful neighbors, if we are not committed to preserving the stability of the Afghan government. And that cannot be done unless we commit to maintaining a substantial troop presence in Afghanistan for the long term.
12.08.2011 - 12:30 PM
In his speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, President Obama took another stab at summarizing the philosophy of the Republican Party. And this is the best Obama could do: “Their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.”
This is a silly and intentionally misleading statement — silly because it’s so transparently false and intentionally misleading because the president surely cannot believe his own rhetoric. The problem for Obama is it’s becoming a pattern. Earlier this year, he charged that Republicans want the elderly, autistic children and children with Down syndrome to “fend for themselves.”
12.08.2011 - 12:04 PM
The Association of Jewish Studies has announced the two winners of the Jordan Schnitzer Book Awards.
Marina Rustow of the Johns Hopkins University was honored in the category of ancient and medieval Jewish history for Heresy and the Politics of Community: The Jews of the Fatimid Caliphate (Cornell University Press). A history of Karaism, Rustow’s book sets out to challenge the received scholarly notions of “heresy” and “mainstream.” Rustow is more interested in the social conditions that give rise to accusations of heresy than in defining the slippery concept.
Shachar M. Pinsker of the University of Michigan was honored in the category of Jewish literature and linguistics for Literary Passports: The Making of Modernist Hebrew Fiction in Europe (Stanford University Press). Two more runners-up were recognized: Gabriella Safran of Stanford University for Wandering Soul: The Dybbuk’s Creator, S. An-Sky (Harvard University Press), a book that I described on Jewish Ideas Daily as one of last year’s best, and Maeera Y. Shreiber of the University of Utah for Singing in a Strange Land: A Jewish American Poetics (Stanford University Press).
The great Jewish historian Lucy M. Dawidowicz once said that Jewish scholarship was a route to Jewish identity, and one of the richest. Scholars like Rustow, Pinsker, Safran, and Shreiber demonstrate just how right she was. They will be honored in ten days at the annual AJS convention, which is being held in Washington this year.
Some parts of the leftist blogosphere (that means you, Andrew Sullivan; you too, Michael Cohen seem to have been particularly perturbed by my recent op-ed in the L.A. Times bemoaning our failure to take the Iranian threat with the seriousness it deserves.
This causes them, as AEI fellow Marc Thiessen points out, to deny evidence gathered by no less than the Obama administration Treasury Department about links between Iran and al-Qaeda. It also causes them to ignore plentiful evidence of the devastating effect an Iranian bomb would have on the already tenuous and shaky prospects for stability in the Middle East.
12.08.2011 - 11:30 AM
Though Jon Corzine’s pronouncement–“I simply do not know where the money is”–may make his testimony today on the MF Global scandal sound anodyne and uninteresting, that seems not to be the case. In fact, the preview of Corzine’s testimony includes two statements that should get some attention.
Corzine, under whose leadership MF Global plunged into bankruptcy under a cloud of bad investments, shady deals, and missing investor cash, has decided to present himself as a mensch who is doing the country a favor by testifying. Even more revealing is his intimation that he will almost surely (unintentionally) mislead Congress today. The Washington Post reports:
