Somehow this profoundly depressing posting by Instapundit back in January about the state of eduction in wealthy America stuck in my mind: Many of my students—entirely too many—come into my 9th grade classroom woefully unprepared for even the most basic rigors of high school science. They do not study. They do […]
This is a perceptive argument that B Obama has brought together the techniques of 1960s’ New Left/Marxist ‘community mobilisation’ with networked Internet cleverness. But allowing the masses to ‘own the campaign’ has been accomplished in part by letting all sorts of extremists (anti-semitic, communist, Jihadist and others) rant away prolifically – on Obama’s own community website! […]
Zimbabwe as expected falls ever more steeply to total disaster. The gang of military/security leaders previously dependent on Mugabe now look to be running the shop, desperate as they are to cling on to power and privileges at the cost of ruining their own country. A text-book case. Yet the UN still […]
James Rogers’ website Global Power Europe is an elegant and eloquent example of the far opposite of British Euro-Scepticism – Euro-Uberzeal. If it’s European, he wants More. Much More. In his latest entry James urges Ireland to vote Yes to the Treaty, lest Europeans turn into minnows. He cites IMF statistics […]
Prompted by my previous post on (not) talking to Al Qaida, a reader comments: [T]ell me again why you thought invading Iraq was such a great idea? Fair enough. My very basic view on Iraq is to be found in the Blogoir FAQs. More generally, what constitutes a Great Idea […]
Gerard Baker in the Times today makes a weighty case against Hillary and why Democratic voters have rejected her. So she should be put out of her misery: It would not be sexism or chauvinism but the clear-headed decision of a wise statesman, if Senator Obama brought this particular woman’s […]
Let’s hear it for the rock band which extols the virtues of: (a) Soviet Comunism; and (b) B Obama Doesn’t post-modern irony sometimes go … just a bit too far?
Here is Pat Buchanan rambling on about the utility of talking to dictators. He somehow contrives to say that Poland brought Hitlerian disaster on itself by being a bit too "proud, defiant and heroic", albeit egged on by "insane" British guarantees. All this and more is meant to cast in […]
The Cuban authorities are accusing US diplomat Mike Parmly of passing money from Cuban terrorists living in the USA to Cuban mercenaries living in Cuba. I knew Mike in Sarajevo. Tough operator. As with diplomats in Zimbabwe trying to operate during that country’s madness, Western diplomats in Cuba have to […]
We started with junk food. Then we had junk sport. Now we have Junk Diplomacy. This takes numerous exotic forms. But in its mainstream version it consists of high-level expensive and expansive Dialogue, the more vacuous the better. Thus European Voice reports poor prospects for this week’s EU/Latin America Summit […]
