Monthly Archives: January 2010

January 31, 2010

ESSAY

Occasional Poems: The Rise and Fall of Nations

Some thoughts on yesterday’s discussion of Livy, Zinn and the relationship of morality and power in human history.  The author is Jones Very, a minor but interesting nineteenth-century American poet and commentator.  The poem is taken from his collect of … Continue reading →

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January 30, 2010

ESSAY

Literary Saturday: Moral Historians

Two things have me thinking about morality and historians this week.  First, I’ve been re-reading Livy’s Early History of Rome to prepare for this Monday’s class in Grand Strategy.  Second, Howard Zinn (author of A People’s History of the United … Continue reading →

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January 29, 2010

ESSAY

Cancel those dinner plans…

…or at least order in, because I’ll be (briefly) on Special Report with Bret Baier tonight, at 6 PM EST, to discuss Obama’s foreign policy challenges, stemming from my recent article in Foreign Policy on Obama’s dueling Jeffersonian and Wilsonian … Continue reading →

1 Comment
ESSAY

American Challenges: Health Care Blues

This morning I was having my morning coffee in the Impressionist Wing of the stately Mead manor in glamorous Queens, and noticed that the butler had folded the restfully pink pages of the FT over to the latest story on … Continue reading →

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January 28, 2010

ESSAY

American Challenges: The Blue Model Breaks Down

Here in the quiet precincts of the stately Mead manor in exclusive Queens, as the dew gently falls over the mist-shrouded lawns and the pigeons coo soothingly from the historic-landmarked eaves, it is sometimes hard to believe, but out there … Continue reading →

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ESSAY

British Government Says Climategate Coverup Violated UK Law

The Great Meltdown continues; the London Times reports that British government official responsible for monitoring compliance with UK freedom of information law has found that the ‘climategate‘ scientists at East Anglia University violated the law.  Although neither the scientists nor … Continue reading →

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January 26, 2010

ESSAY

NY Times Fluffs Glaciergate

John Tierney, science reporter at the New York Times, is one of the better reporters out there; in the past he’s attracted the wrath of the climate change true believers.  And he makes a lot of good points in his … Continue reading →

1 Comment
ESSAY

Radically American

Like a new car once it’s spent a few weeks ferrying the kids to school and soccer practice, 2010 no longer feels like such a fresh and shiny new year.  Our new year’s resolutions aren’t surviving that much better than … Continue reading →

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January 25, 2010

ESSAY

Cap And Trade: The New Health Care?

If the Democrats liked health care, they will love cap and trade. An expensive and divisive attempt to fix a problem that, if we trust the polls, most Americans don’t think exists, the cap and trade bill that is next … Continue reading →

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January 24, 2010

ESSAY

Glaciers Grow, Credibility Shrinks

The credibility of the IPCC, the reputation and the job security of its chairman, the consensus among key (and rather skeptical) countries that global warming is man made and needs to be fixed:  it’s all melting away, to judge from … Continue reading →

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January 23, 2010

ESSAY

IPCC Head in Glaciergate Crime?

The London Times continues to follow the glaciergate story–and it keeps getting worse. The latest disclosure: Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s (formerly) prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (known as the IPCC), may have raised millions of dollars for … Continue reading →

41 Comments
ESSAY

Matthew Yglesias and the Fate of the Left

Matthew Yglesias really, really doesn’t like me.  He’s come after me again on his blog, attacking me for being a graduate of Groton and Yale and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and yet presuming to know what … Continue reading →

7 Comments
ESSAY

Literary Saturday: W.H. Auden’s Blog

W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden was one of the great Anglo-American poets of the twentieth century.  Like T.S. Eliot, he was an Anglican who became more so with age; otherwise they went in different directions.  Eliot started out in Missouri and … Continue reading →

4 Comments

January 22, 2010

ESSAY

Global Trends for the 2010s #10: Hope and Change

The list of trends that will be driving world history during the next decade looks pretty daunting; it’s even more so if you reflect that by my logic, the 2020s will be even more challenging than the 2010s and the … Continue reading →

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January 21, 2010

ESSAY

Global Trends For The 2010s #9: The European World Order Breaks Up

The single best description of the changes in the world system I’ve ever heard came from Henry Kissinger.  When assessing the political importance of recent events, he said sometime after the fall of the Berlin Wall that “the unification of … Continue reading →

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