MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES OF POST-9/11 AMERICA. Surely one of the most tiresome, transparently ridiculous neoconservative charges against liberals who oppose George W. Bush‘s cunning plan to create Arab democracy by bombing Arabs is that liberals do so out of a belief in the innate incapacity of Arabs for democracy. It’s fitting, then, that Marty Peretz not […]
Matthew Duss
Matthew Duss is president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a contributing writer for the Prospect. You can follow him on Twitter @mattduss.
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WHERE DID I COME FROM? WHERE AM I GOING? WHY DOESN’T SHORT ROUND CALL?
WHERE DID I COME FROM? WHERE AM I GOING? WHY DOESN’T SHORT ROUND CALL? I read today that the leaked title of the new Indiana Jones movie is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I can only suspect that the plot of the movie involves the getting of said skull. I must […]
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OSAMA’S STEALING MY RIFFS!
OSAMA’S STEALING MY RIFFS! Apparently, in the Sheikh’s latest joint, Osama bin Laden quotes from Richard Perle and David Frum‘s book, An End to Evil. Frum complains that he was misquoted. Let’s compare. Osama: “And among the most important items contained in Bush’s speeches since the events of the 11th is that the Americans have […]
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STRATEGIC VISION.
STRATEGIC VISION. White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend, commenting on Osama bin Laden‘s latest video yesterday: “This is a man on the run in a cave who is virtually impotent other than his ability to get these messages out,” Townsend said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “It is propaganda.” Well, yeah, that’s what bin Laden […]
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464 PAGES OF OLD MEN PLEASURING THEMSELVES.
464 PAGES OF OLD MEN PLEASURING THEMSELVES. That would have been a more appropriate title for Peter Beinart’s entirely too-kind review of the new cri de wars by Norman Podhoretz and Michael Ledeen. While Beinart capably dismantles the two mens’ war-porn, the review is shot through with his desire to maintain his reputation as a […]
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THE TRANSMITTER.
THE TRANSMITTER. William F. Buckley praises Norman Podhoretz‘s World War IV, in which Rudy Giulani‘s foreign policy brain essentially argues that we should give bin Laden exactly what he wants, which is a war between Islam and the West. At one point in the article, in what I can only describe as a Russian nested […]
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The Rise and Stall of Van Halen
A new biography of the band that made metal marketable doesn’t disappoint the fans, but leaves the serious guitar geeks wanting more.
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BAD SCIENCE, GOOD POLITICS.
BAD SCIENCE, GOOD POLITICS. Ezra’s posts on supply-side crackpottery reminded me of its similarity to another brand of crackpottery, intelligent design, specifically the way that supply-side theory and ID are both essentially cultural/political arguments dressed up as science. Just as supply-siders offer various economic rationales for what is, at root, a belief that rich people […]
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MARTY’S WORLD.
MARTY’S WORLD. Displaying the self-regarding presumption that is, after anti-Arab sentiment, his defining trait, Marty Peretz undertakes to instruct the Episcopal Church how to be more Christian: “The Episcopal Church is in decline, and I believe that it is so because it really doesn’t tend to the spiritual and transcendent needs of believers. (Of course, […]
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IN WHICH I SHARE MY THOUGHTS ON LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE, MALE FASHION, AND A NEW DRINKING GAME.
IN WHICH I SHARE MY THOUGHTS ON LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE, MALE FASHION, AND A NEW DRINKING GAME. The word for the night was Anbar. Anbar! Anbar! So much Anbar! I lost count. John McCain excepted, I suspect there’s an inverse relationship between the frequency with which a candidate refers to “the success in Anbar province” […]