Columns, pieces and posts
The Benghazi story until now has been a jumble of factoids that didn’t quite cohere, didn’t produce a story that people could absorb and hold in their minds. This week that changed. Three State Department officials testifying under oath to a House committee changed it, by adding information that gave form to a growing picture. […]
Our thoughts today are pretty largely on writers, philosophers and diplomats. Three links: The great journalist and political thinker Charles Moore had a briskly intelligent piece in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph on a new biography of Edmund Burke. Everyone who to any degree read his way to conservatism—that is, people who start with experience, with an […]
I think we’re all agreed the president is fading—failing to lead, to break through, to show he’s not at the mercy of events but, to some degree at least, in command of them. He couldn’t get a win on gun control with 90% public support. When he speaks on immigration reform you get the sense […]
Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 because he was not George W. Bush. In fact, he was elected because he was the furthest thing possible from Mr. Bush. On some level he knew this, which is why every time he got in trouble he’d say Bush’s name. It’s all his fault, you have no […]
London The funeral of Margaret Thatcher was beautiful, moving, just right. It had dignity and spirit, and in that respect was just like her. It also contained a surprise that shouldn’t have been a surprise. It was a metaphor for where she stood in the pantheon of successful leaders of the 20th century. The Right […]
The past few days I’ve looked through news reports searching in vain for one item: how did the brothers get their money? Did they ever have jobs? Who or what supported them? They had cellphones, computers, stylish clothes, sunglasses, gym equipment and gym membership, enough money to go out to dinner and have parties. They […]
Here is a link to Margaret Thatcher refusing to jump for an interviewer. it isn’t just that she didn’t jump, it’s that she used the word “puerile” and either assumed it would be understood or, even better, didn’t care if you knew it and assumed if you were interested you’d haul yourself to a dictionary, […]
I found myself engrossed this week by the calm, incisive wisdom of one of the few living statesmen in the world who can actually be called visionary. The wisdom is in a book, “Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States and the World,” a gathering of Mr. Lee’s interviews, speeches […]
In line with tradition Pope Francis this holy week washes the feet of the poor. In a departure from tradition he did it in a juvenile prison in Rome. In line with tradition he will live in the Vatican. In a departure from tradition he will live not in the apostolic palace but in a […]
We have three thoughts today, actually two because one is a question. The question: if the Supreme Court is so leery of ruling on same-sex marriage, why did they take the two cases they’re hearing? Reporters hear reluctance and ambivalence in the justice’s questions yesterday to the lawyers standing before them. I thought the high […]