Monthly Archives: February 2003

Applying dynamite

Posted on February 27, 2003 by acb

to feet of clay: John Leonard (Andrew’s dad) takes down Norman Mailer in the New York Review of Books: But his footwork is fanciest when he gets to style. Why Are We in Vietnam? does not seem to have been … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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overheard

Posted on February 26, 2003 by acb

On a train to Manchester well, the chief executive thinks were being a bit too generous with this chap, so I thought, why not ignore the first fifty million? Nothing odd about that, you may think: but the middle-aged stockbroker … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Random

Posted on February 26, 2003 by acb

This morning I dreamed that Neal Ascherson and I were hunting a childhood neighbour of mine through some woods with submachineguns; I got bored and confident left Neal to kill him. The bursts of fire moved further off into the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Pax Americana

Posted on February 25, 2003 by acb

Barlow makes the best case for a strategy behind the war that I have ever read. I hear you laughing already. But it’s time that someone put the serious argument in favour of imperialism explicitly. Continue reading →

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A modest proposal

Posted on February 25, 2003 by acb

Ben Hammersley cuts through an enormous amount of the crap that has been written even by sensible people like John Naughton about how blogging democratises journalism: Want to be a journalist? Write something good. Continue reading →

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unpatriotic

Posted on February 24, 2003 by acb

I’ve always thought this was a myth; but apparently it really happened. I don’t doubt he believes it. Just odd to find he would say it. Update. It turns out it was his father. Still, a pretty remarkable thing to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Alden Pyle comes clean

Posted on February 20, 2003 by acb

Thomas Friedman is one of the rare American journalists who understands that foreign affairs involves dealing with foreigners. He walked with Robert Fisk thorugh the steaming remains of Sabra and Chatila after the massacre. He doesn’t believe most of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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smug

Posted on February 20, 2003 by acb

The Conquest profile just got linked from Arts & Letters. Continue reading →

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Two documents

Posted on February 16, 2003 by acb

Douglas Feith is now a very senior Pentagon official: the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Here is what he had to say in favour of invading Iraq in 1996. Note all the weird mystical stuff about “national exhaustion”; the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in War | Comments Off on Two documents

An interesting explanation

Posted on February 16, 2003 by acb

for the triumph of American conservatism comes from this interview with Eric Alterman There are some good liberal funders, but it’s a very complicated question. The genius of what Scaife and Coors and those people did is, they just threw … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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