Video of the Week

More Mode: "Enjoy the Silence" live in Cologne, 1998.

Happy Independence Day

In honor of the Fourth, here's George Washington as you've never seen him before:

Acidman, R.I.P.

Three years ago, I used to read Rob Smith's Gut Rumbles blog fairly regularly, about once a day. I had discovered it via Glenn Reynolds's blog roll and came to enjoy the fellow's biting, humorous commentary on the issues and his reflections on his life. After college, I drifted from daily reading and, since then, have checked in only a handful of times, enough to gather that he had been having some alcohol and other medical problems. I don't know what compelled me to visit Gut Rumbles the other night, but I did -- only to learn that Rob died this very week. I can't claim to have been as devoted a reader as many who are flooding the site, but I am saddened nonetheless.

"Rock's most coveted free agent"

Radiohead and Thom Yorke are profiled in the New York Times.

In the Loop

Songs that got heavy airplay this past week:

• "Love Should" - Moby
• "Sweetness Follows" - R.E.M.
• "Leave Me Alone" - New Order
• "John the Revelator" - Depeche Mode
• "Hocus Pocus" - Focus

Sunday Book Reviews

Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union by Geoffrey Hoskins. Reviewed in the New York Times by Serge Schmemann: "So are we back in the old cycle? Are the Russians once again succumbing to messianic dreams and great-power longings? That is the core question raised by Geoffrey Hosking's 'Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union.' Hosking, a professor at the University of London, takes a rather sympathetic view of a highly talented and complex nation infused with a deep conviction that it bears a special mission, whether as a spiritual 'Third Rome,' to counter the consumerism and shallowness of the West, or as master of an immense and enormously rich domain."

The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality by Nick Bryant. Reviewed in the Washington Post by Jonathan Yardley: "It is also true, as Bryant emphasizes, that 'temperamentally and ideologically, Kennedy was a gradualist.' He did not have an ounce of the zealot in him. Even with regard to the Cold War, about which he had strong feelings, he was clinical and detached. Indeed, the effect of American racism on the Cold War mattered more to him than its effect on America and its black citizens; he knew that instances of bigotry and segregation gave the Soviet Union a powerful propaganda weapon against the United States, and he wanted to neutralize it as much as possible."

Video of the Week

"But Not Tonight" by Depeche Mode. Great song and a great video. No one pulls off hot, bothered, or simultaneously hot and bothered better than Daphne Zuniga.

First Day on the Somme

Ninety years ago today, in the words of Geoffrey Wheatcroft,

almost 40,000 British soldiers were wounded and 20,000 were killed. There was a casualty for every half meter of the entire front line. It was far and away the heaviest loss the British (or possibly any) army ever suffered on one day, and we live with the memory of that "First Day on the Somme" even now.

Apart from the scale of suffering, the Somme was distinguished from the other great battles of the past century - Verdun, Stalingrad, Iwo Jima - by the fact that every British soldier who fought and died that day was a volunteer.

Harrowing, horrifying, haunting. By the end of the battle four months later in November 1916, total British, French, and German casualties numbered more than a million, including 300,000 killed. "At the deepest point of penetration," the Allies had advanced a mere five miles.

We do well to remember the death of a generation -- indeed, in a way, the death of a civilization -- on the fields of France between 1914 and 1918.

Mademoiselle Thatcher

I can't claim to know much at all about French politics, but it seems that Sabine Herold, a twenty-five-year-old French libertarian running for parliament, would be a vast improvement on the status quo. She gained prominence by protesting against striking workers and, later, had this to say about the U.S.:

I think the United States is a country of freedom. Our two countries have very strong historical ties. I don't approve of the fact that so many French people are anti-American, because we have the same culture. I like that America is a country of freedom, and a country where you can create and make yourself what you want to be.

I wouldn't say that America is a perfect country, but it's a country where you can at least try.

Plus, she's kinda cute:


Viva la France.

Bloody Fields of Courage

On this, the 143rd anniversary of the first day of the battle of Gettysburg, historian Gabor Boritt offers his top five books on the battle. Might I also recommend The Gettysburg Campaign by Edwin B. Coddington, Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg by Troy Harman, and They Met at Gettysburg by Edward J. Stackpole?

A Hundred Highways

Just a few more days until Johnny Cash's posthumous album is released. If you can't wait, check out the album's MySpace page, where you can listen to it.

Quote of the Day

Justice Antonin Scalia, Kansas v. Marsh:

Like other human institutions, courts and juries are not perfect. One cannot have a system of criminal punishment without accepting the possibility that someone will be punished mistakenly. That is a truism, not a revelation. But with regard to the punishment of death in the current American system, that possibility has been reduced to an insignificant minimum. This explains why those ideologically driven to ferret out and proclaim a mistaken modern execution have not a single verifiable case to point to, whereas it is easy as pie to identify plainly guilty murderers who have been set free. The American people have determined that the good to be derived from capital punishment -- in deterrence, and perhaps most of all in the meting out of condign justice for horrible crimes -- outweighs the risk of error. It is no proper part of the business of this Court, or of its Justices, to second-guess that judgment, much less to impugn it before the world, and less still to frustrate it by imposing judicially invented obstacles to its execution.

Sunday Book Reviews

Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman by Barbara Leaming. Reviewed in the New York Times by Geoffrey Wheatcroft: "For the best part of three years in 1961-63, during a critical phase of the cold war, the president of the United States and the British prime minister were linked by a family connection. In Barbara Leaming's view there was still more to the story of that time when John F. Kennedy was in the White House and Harold Macmillan at Downing Street. Young Jack had visited England in the late 1930's and had been introduced by his sister Kathleen (known as Kick) to her friends there. The bonds that Kennedy forged then profoundly affected him; above all, Winston Churchill's 'monumental influence' shaped Kennedy's strategy during his tragically curtailed presidency, or so Leaming contends in 'Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman.' She has written what is in part an absorbing and enjoyable book; whether her thesis really stands up is another matter."

Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction by Martin Gilbert. Reviewed in the Washington Post by Michael R. Marrus: "Unlike much of the Holocaust, Kristallnacht occurred under the noses of newspaper reporters and foreign diplomats, who painstakingly recorded what they saw. Gilbert assembles their accounts, together with those of the survivors, to immerse us in Kristallnacht and its aftermath, including Jews' frequently desperate efforts to escape Germany and find refuge elsewhere. We read of the terrorization of young and old, men and women, rich and poor, distinguished and obscure -- all of them simply because they were Jews."

Video of the Week

"Us" by Regina Spektor

"For Europe, September the 11th was a moment; for us, it was a change of thinking."

There are few things like a European press conference to rejuvenate one's support for President Bush. Reminding Bush that polls in Europe indicate folks over there believe the U.S. is a threat to peace, an Austrian reporter asked, "Why do you think that you've failed so badly to convince Europeans, to win their heads and hearts and minds?" Bush replied:

Well, yes, I thought it was absurd for people to think that we're more dangerous than Iran. It's a -- we're a transparent democracy. People know exactly what's on our mind. We debate things in the open. We've got a legislative process that's active. Look, people didn't agree with my decision on Iraq, and I understand that. For Europe, September the 11th was a moment; for us, it was a change of thinking. I vowed to the American people I would do everything to defend our people, and will. I fully understood that the longer we got away from September the 11th, more people would forget the lessons of September the 11th. But I'm not going to forget them. And, therefore, I will be steadfast and diligent and strong in defending our country.

I don't govern by polls, you know. I just do what I think is right. And I understand some of the decisions I made are controversial. But I made them in the best interest of our country, and I think in the best interest of the world. I believe when you look back at this moment, people will say, it was right to encourage democracy in the Middle East. I understand some people think that it can't work. I believe in the universality of freedom; some don't. I'm going to act on my beliefs so long as I'm the President of the United States. Some people say, it's okay to condemn people for -- to tyranny. I don't believe it's okay to condemn people to tyranny, particularly those of us who live in the free societies.

And so I understand, and I'll try to do my best to explain to the Europeans that, on the one hand, we're tough when it comes to the war on terror; on the other hand, we're providing more money than every before in the world's history for HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa. I'll say, on the one hand, we're going to be tough when it comes to terrorist regimes who harbor weapons. On the other hand, we'll help feed the hungry. I declared Darfur to be a genocide because I care deeply about those who have been afflicted by these renegade bands of people who are raping and murdering.

And so I will do my best to explain our foreign policy. On the one hand, it's tough when it needs to be; on the other hand, it's compassionate. And we'll let the polls figure out -- people can say what they want to say. But leadership requires making hard choices based upon principle and standing -- (President's mike goes out) -- and that's how I'm going to continue to lead my country.

Austrian Chancellor Schüssel's response is also worth reading:

Let me add -- let me add something. I think Austria is really a good example to show that America has something to do with freedom, democracy, prosperity, development. Don't forget I was born in '45. At that time, Vienna and half of Austria laid in ruins. And without the participation of America, what fate would have Europe? Where would be Europe today? Not the peaceful, prosperous Europe like we love it and where we live.

Nothing -- I will never forget that America fed us with food, with economic support. The Marshall Plan was an immense aid and incentive to develop industry, agriculture, tourism. And by the way, I said it to the President, the Marshall Fund is still working in Austria. It's now transformed into a kind -- in a fund for research and development -- still working.

The American people, at that time, the American government invested billions of dollars in Europe to develop the former enemy. And now we are a partner. So I think it's grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, other countries.

Of course, we -- and I thank you very much for the question on human rights and the over-flights and the secret prisons and Guantanamo. And it was quite interesting to see how the debate was going on in -- this morning. The President started, himself. He didn't wait that we raise the question. He came up and said, look, this is my problem, this is where we are. And I think we should be fair from the other side of the Atlantic. We should understand that what September 11th meant to the American people. It was a shock. For the first time, a real shock. A society values were attacked -- American values, international values, European values were attacked in the home country of the President and all Americans. And we should not be naive. We Europeans are also attacked. We had bomb attacks in Madrid. Hundreds of people were killed. We had bomb attacks in London subway, buses were blown up. We had detected some terrorists who tried to shoot down an Israeli plane. So we should not be naive.

Lieberman: "National interest above partisan interest"

From David Broder's column today:

"I think we did the right thing in overthrowing Saddam, and I think we are safer as a result," he continued. "Second, while I have been very critical of the Bush foreign policy before the war and the Rumsfeld-Bush policies in Iraq after Saddam was overthrown, I also made a judgment I would not invoke partisan politics on this war."

That was the point of a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece Lieberman wrote last November endorsing the president's announced strategy to defeat the insurgency and establish a democratic government in Iraq. That article infuriated Lamont and launched his candidacy. "It was decisive," Lamont told me in an interview. "Lieberman suggested that the critics were undermining the credibility of the president. I thought he was wrong."

"My opponent says it broke Democratic unity," Lieberman said. "Well, dammit, I wasn't thinking about Democratic unity. It was a moment to put the national interest above partisan interest."

In the Loop

Songs that got heavy airplay this past week:

• "Postcards from Italy" - Beirut
• "Brandenburg" - Beirut
• "One" - U2
• "Miss Sarajevo" - U2

Sunday Book Reviews

Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee. Reviewed in the New York Times by Adam Hochschild: "We often read about people in glamorous professions — surgeons, actors, musicians, writers — but so seldom about those who do the jobs we all depend on, those who transport raw materials on river barges, or haul the coal that generates electricity. If the human race survives another century or two, many of these jobs will vanish (they're already talking about running trains by remote control), and McPhee's work will provide an invaluable record of how those primitive people back in 2006, however heedless they were of what they were doing to their planet, treasured their bygone crafts.

Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won a War at Home and Abroad: The Story of the 100th Battalion/442d Regimental Combat Team in World War II by Robert Asahina. Reviewed in the New York Times by Jonathan Mahler: "The 100th and 442nd joined forces in the summer of 1944 and made history a few months later, when they were ordered to liberate a battalion from Texas that had been pinned down behind enemy lines in the Vosges Mountains. This unenviable assignment entailed a four-day charge up booby-trapped logging roads at a steep incline in a cold, driving rain. They accomplished their mission — 'Doughboys Break German Ring to Free 270 Trapped Eight Days' is how The New York Times headlined an Associated Press account of the rescue, which failed to mention that the "doughboys" were all Japanese-Americans — but lost numerous soldiers along the way."

AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country by Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer. Reviewed in the Washington Post by Nathaniel Fick: "In 1956, 400 of Princeton's 750 graduates served in uniform. By 2004, only nine members of the university's graduating class entered the military. Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia and many other schools do not even allow ROTC on their campuses. The gulf is growing in Congress, too. In 1971, three-quarters of our representatives had military experience. Now, fewer than a third do, and that number drops with each passing year."

Video of the Week

"No Surprises" by Radiohead

Cool Cover Art

From Beirut's Gulag Orkestar:

It's also a great album, by the way.

Overkill

Book cover designers sure seem to like Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog":

The Landscape of History by John Lewis Gaddis (Sept. 2002)













Lord Byron's Novel by John Crowley (June 2005)













A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts (May 2006)













I like the painting, but come on. Wander yourselves to something else.

Conservatism vs. Capitalism

Apparently, conservatives are supposed to think this is a bad thing: a transportation "supercorridor" linking Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Those who disagree, according to Paul Cella, "falsely understand [themselves] to be Conservative but [are] really just Capitalist." For those who followed the Crunchy Con "debate" at NRO, this is a familiar tack for those on the right who are deeply distrustful of the free market. I'm no Randian, but I'll say this: if conservatism requires that I oppose a superhighway that will boost trade and economically benefit this country, therefore limiting the economic freedom of individuals and businesses, then people like Paul Cella and Rod Dreher can have the conservative label, and I'll gladly take capitalist.

My Dangerous Idea

Over on his Crunchy Con blog, Rod Dreher asks readers what their dangerous ideas are. Mine:

That people can and should be trusted to make decisions about their own lives.

This shouldn't be a dangerous, radical idea in twenty-first-century America, but it is. Thanks mostly to the left, our government, for example, still doesn't trust us to make even the most basic financial decisions about our future and mandates that we subsidize the retirements of others while "saving" for our own. Meanwhile, many on the right believe their personal moral code should be that of the entire polity, even -- perhaps especially -- on issues on which certainty is impossible; either that, or they find their edenic visions of a past (that never really existed in the first place) threatened by allowing people to spend their time and money as they choose.

A dozen years ago, this belief in individual people and personal responsibility compelled me to join the Republican Party. Although during college I drifted from the notion in favor of something like Dreher's conservative (reactionary?) distrust of progress and the free market, I have again returned to it. And if I ever do leave the GOP, it will because the party has abandoned its fundamental belief that people should be trusted. I'm a conservative, not a libertarian, and this trust is not absolute. Limits are necessary, as well as some form of moral framework. But in a free society such as ours, we must begin with the understanding that the individual can and should be trusted.

17,327 Days

The lead of the Washington Post's article says all you need to know about Robert Byrd's recent milestone (which is laudable, whatever you think of the senator):

Robert C. Byrd, a champion of classical oratory in the Senate and pork barrel spending back home, yesterday became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

The Play That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Here's a look at the curse of "The Scottish Play," incidentally my favorite of the Bard's works.

NYT Puzzlemaster (2 wds)

I don't do crosswords much anymore, if at all, having left the activity behind in college, when I could get the New York Times for free every weekday and when I had "time" (read: class) to kill. Mondays -- the easy day -- I'd time myself. Tuesdays, I'd leisurely fill in the puzzle. Wednesday, I'd give it my best shot and finish perhaps half the time. Thursdays and Fridays, I didn't even try, except to skim the clues. That's what you did in college, too, right? Anyway, the Times crossword is -- or can be, at least -- a thing of beauty, thanks to Will Shortz. New York magazine profiles him here. He's now making a fortune on Sudoku.

Task Force 145 and the Knights of God

Nice summary of the three-year hunt for Zarqawi. Two things stick out for me. (1) When folks say the American military doesn't give up, it's no joke; it's for real. (2) Hell hath no fury like an Arab nation bombed: the Jordanians, who had three of their hotels attacked last fall, played a key role in killing the terrorist.

McCain and CA-50

A week and a half ago, John McCain cancelled a campaign appearance with Brian Bilbray, the now-victorious Republican candidate to represent California's 50th Congressional District, where immigration emerged as the major issue. Bilbray had taken a fairly hard line on immigration, openly and vocally opposing the McCain-Kennedy bill. Bloggers pounced, accusing McCain of being petty. The whole thing seemed suspicious to me because Bilbray stood to benefit more than anybody from a McCain non-appearance. Robert Novak confirms that suspicion:

Sen. John McCain canceled his scheduled appearance for Republican Brian Bilbray, who won Tuesday's special congressional election in San Diego to replace the disgraced Duke Cunningham, not out of pique but because the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) suggested it would be a good idea.

McCain canceled his visit after Bilbray repeatedly attacked the Kennedy-McCain immigration "amnesty" bill. The Bilbray campaign did not ask McCain to cancel, and the senator had planned to fulfill his commitment. However, the NRCC suggested McCain's presence would not be helpful in a campaign where Bilbray was stressing opposition to illegal immigration.

A footnote: Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman is credited with masterminding operations that retained the congressional seat.

Will those bloggers, including Hugh Hewitt, apologize? Doubtful.

In the Loop

Songs that got heavy airplay this past week:

• "Staralfur" - Sigur Ros
• "Love and War (11/11/46)" - Rilo Kiley
• "All My Little Words" - The Magnetic Fields
• "Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz

Sunday Book Reviews

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long by Richard D. White Jr. Reviewed in the Washington Post by Michael Kazin: "Although his book is a pleasure to read, White has the misfortune of having to meet a higher standard than does the typical biographer of a state politician who died fairly young and never got to campaign for national office. More than three decades ago, T. Harry Williams, another LSU professor, published a vivid, Pulitzer Prize-winning study of Long's life that included most of the same stories that White tells, usually at greater length and with the help of interviews with many of Long's cronies and enemies. Williams also took the time to explain how the corrupt political culture of Louisiana could produce a man like Long and could persuade ordinary people to overlook his thuggish flaws. If that opus wasn't competition enough, White also has to contend with the dazzling portrait-à-clef that Robert Penn Warren drew of Long, or "Willie Stark," in his novel All the King's Men. . . . Unfortunately, White adds nothing significant to these memorable works."

Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House by Godfrey Hodgson. Reviewed in the Washington Post by H. W. Brands: "The heart of Hodgson's story is the remarkable relationship between Wilson and House during the first six years of Wilson's presidency. Wilson came to Washington with few friends or allies. The lack of friends resulted from Wilson's aloof, self-righteous personality; the lack of allies reflected the Democrats' 16-year exile from the White House. House offered to be both a friend and an ally, and he asked nothing in return except the chance to further the national interest -- and that only indirectly, through Wilson. Influence, rather than power, was enough for House. 'Never before have I found both the man and the opportunity,' he wrote his brother-in-law. Now he had both."

Video of the Week

A blast from the not-too-distant past: "Your Woman" by White Town.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Well, this makes my day, my week, my month: Cormac McCarthy has a new novel coming out in September. Knopf describes the book, titled The Road, thus:

A man and his young son traverse a blasted American landscape, covered with "the ashes of the late world." The man can still remember the time before. The boy knows only this time. There is nothing for them but survival- they are "each other's world entire"- and the precious last vestiges of their own humanity. At once brutal and tender, despairing and rashly hopeful, spare of language and profoundly moving, The Road, is a fierce and haunting meditation on the tenuous divide between civilization and savagery, and the essential, sometimes terrifying power of filial love. It is a masterpiece.

Far and away my favorite living writer, McCarthy is a master chronicler of blasted landscapes and distinctly American apocalypses. I look forward to his take on what follows such violence.

(Via Dirda on Books.)

Progress!

Cloture on the Federal Marriage Amendment fell eleven votes short today, 49-48. But that's one vote better than the last time when, on July 14, 2004, cloture failed, 48-50.* I'm sure this guarantees that, unless Republicans lose the Senate, we'll see the amendment again in June-July 2008, during the long, hot summer of a presidential election. Maybe then it'll get 50 votes!


*Actually, the roll calls tell a more complicated story. Three additional yea votes came from John Thune, Mel Martinez, and Jim DeMint, all of whom replaced Democrats who voted no in 2004. Richard Burr voted yea while his predecessor, John Edwards, was absent in 2004 (but likely would have voted no). Judd Gregg and Arlen Specter voted yea in 2004 but no today. Chuck Hagel, absent today, voted yea in 2004; he opposes the amendment itself, but I haven't been able to find any indication of whether he supported cloture again. Hey, up four, down two -- progress, I tell you.

Reid Has a Point

Kathryn Lopez posts Harry Reid's entire speech regarding the Federal Marriage Amendment. She comments: "Don't want to debate the merits. Just change the subject, please." Of course, the same thing could be said of Republicans, who seem to be trying to change the subject away from things like immigration and gas prices and toward hot-button social issues. Regarding Reid, Lopez has a point. Reid should debate the merits of the FMA, if only because a discussion of its merits can only highlight the reasons to defeat it. But if she has a point, so does the minority leader.

The latest Gallup poll (May 22-24) asked respondents, "What issue do you think should be the top priority for the president and Congress to deal with?" The results:

Situation in Iraq/war 42
Fuel/oil prices/lack of energy sources/the energy crisis 29
Immigration/illegal aliens 23
Economy in general 14
Poor healthcare/hospitals; high cost of healthcare 12
Terrorism 4
Education/poor education/access to education 4
Federal budget deficit/federal debt 3
Unemployment/jobs 3
Taxes 3
Social Security 2
International issues/problems 2
National security 2
Environment/pollution 2
Medicare 2
Foreign aid/overseas focus 2
Poor leadership/corruption/dissatisfaction with government 2
Poverty/hunger/homelesseness 1
Ethics/moral/religious/family decline; dishonesty; lack of integrity 1
Natural disaster relief/funding 1
Trade deficit/foreign trade 1
High cost of living/inflation 1
Unifying the country *
Judicial system/courts/laws *
Abortion *
Lack of money *
Gap between rich and poor *
Other 1
No opinion 4

* = Less than 0.5%

That's right. A mere 1 percent thinks Bush and Congress should focus on this issue and others like it. Now that doesn't mean that people don't care about the FMA or necessarily oppose it. The point is, there are more pressing problems the government should be addressing right now. We're at war, for starters. Just the other night, I was talking to my mom -- a conservative weekly church-goer who cares about social issues -- and even she said Congress has better things to do than debate a marriage amendment. (Incidentally, the GOP better hope she's not representative of other voters, because her opinion at this point is "throw them all out.")

The FMA failed last time and will fail again, so why waste two days in the Senate debating it? Why now? Why bring the issue up only in even-numbered years? Why bring it up again so soon? Has public support shifted decisively in two years? Has the composition of the Senate changed that much?

It's legitimate for Reid to ask those questions. I, for one, would be interested to hear the answers.

Jenny Lewis Is Cute

May Reading

Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden. The author of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo has done it again, this time writing a riveting and insightful account of the Iran Hostage Crisis. The notorious 444 days began in November 1979 when Iranian students overtook the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took its employees hostage. Most of Bowden's narrative centers on life inside the compound. Some hostages were beaten and kept, at times, in solitary confinement, but given the circumstances, the Americans were treated as well as could be expected. These Iranian radicals were not the Islamist terrorists of today, but their conspiracy theories about the U.S. -- as well as their slowness in realizing they were being played by the Khomeini regime -- revealed them to be inexperienced, naive, and historically ignorant. Bowden also recounts the Desert One debacle, the longshot rescue attempt that collapsed in the Iranian desert. Nevertheless, the Jimmy Carter that emerges here is not the dithering, timid, weak-kneed president of popular memory and conservative caricature but, instead, a leader who did vacillate but who was doing the best he could in a very difficult situation. My opinion of him certainly improved after reading the book. It's a real page-turner and, with Iran hot in the headlines, required reading.

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. Brother and sister Culla and Rinthy separately roam Appalachia, Culla seeking his sister and Rinthy searching for their child, whom Culla deposited in the wilderness only to be saved by a wandering salesman. Meanwhile, a band of criminals unleash havoc on the populace. It's a complex, difficult book that, nevertheless, can be read and appreciated solely for the beauty of McCarthy's writing. There's much more here, of course, including biblical undertones and McCarthy's recurring fascination with violence and its cleansing, purgative qualities, but for me, plumbing those depths will have to await a second reading.

The Gods Were Neutral by Robert Crisp. For the United States, World War II began on December 7, 1941, but the British had been at war for more than two years by then -- in Western Europe, in the English skies, in North Africa, and in Greece. After a diplomatic dance and with the Germans menacing from its north, Greece allied with Britain, and British forces went in, including Crisp's tank unit. They waited for the German invasion and, when it came, retreated and evacuated. Crisp's narrative reflects this: roughly half the book is pre-invasion, and the second half is an anti-climactic withdrawal -- in shoddy tanks -- down the length of Greece marked by short but frightening encounters with the German war machine, primarily the Luftwaffe, which dominated the theater. Crisp writes well, though, conveying the idyllic landscape and classical history that formed the backdrop to this very modern war.

January * February * March * April

In the Loop

Songs that got heavy airplay this past week:

• "Born Secular" - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins
• "Divine" - Antony and the Johnsons
• "Seemann" - Rammstein
• "Conquest of Paradise" - Vangelis

Sunday Book Reviews

Moonlight Hotel by Scott Anderson. Reviewed in the New York Times by Alan Furst: "Anderson is a veteran war correspondent, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine who has also written for Vanity Fair and Esquire, reporting from Beirut, Northern Ireland, Chechnya, Israel, Sudan, Sarajevo and El Salvador. The fictional war in 'Moonlight Hotel' bears traces of all these conflicts. But Anderson is very careful, very disciplined, in his creation of a generic country, its politics and its war, because he is writing not about any one place he knows, but all of them, as well as the dynamics of powerful nations that involve themselves in bad wars in faraway places."

The House: The History of the House of Representatives by Robert V. Remini. Reviewed in the Washington Times by Michael P. Riccards: "There are few surprises in this history of the House of Representatives and few departures from traditional historical judgments on the controversies facing the nation. Robert Remini is a recognized mainstream historian, and had done his work well since the 1940s. His approach is probably just what this task needed. The House of Representatives and the reader now have a landmark study of the 'people's chamber.'"

Video of the Week

New Friday-Saturday feature . . . this week, "Portions for Foxes" by Rilo Kiley.

Memorial Day 2006

No one has said it better, or likely ever will, than Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in November 1863:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

In the Loop

Songs that got heavy airplay this past week:

• "Twenty-six Temptations" - DeVotchKa
• "Closedown" - The Cure
• "I Know It's Over" - The Smiths
• "Hold On Hope" - Guided by Voices
• "Levon" - Elton John

Sunday Book Review

Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood. Reviewed in the Washington Post by Robert Middlekauff: "At several points in this volume, most notably the essays on Washington and the epilogue, Wood argues that the founders contributed unwittingly to a democratic and egalitarian society that they never wanted. This is another point in favor of the history Wood provides in this splendid collection: He relates what he would have us believe, explains much of what was done and leaves us with an ironical appreciation of the founders' achievement."

In the Stacks

I miss the labyrinthine library stacks of college, where I'd often spend hours browsing and reading (while procrastinating, of course, on this or that assignment for class). Although it doesn't compare, I visit the State Library every two or three months. I go with a list in hand but usually end up coming home with books not on it. Today, only one of four was on the list:

• History of the Second World War by B. H. Liddell Hart. An overview of the war by one of the giants of twentieth-century military history. (Nod to Jim Webb.)
• The Gods Were Neutral by Robert Crisp. A firsthand account of the overlooked (by Americans, anyway) British campaign in Greece in 1941.
• Anzio by Fred Sheehan. A narrative of Operation Shingle and the Allied amphibious landings at Anzio, Italy, in early 1944.
• The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan. The second volume of the classic four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War.

Late Imperial Russia in Color

There is something otherworldly about black-and-white photography, something not quite "real." But color pictures -- like these of the Depression era -- bring home the reality of history and remind us that those who lived in the past were people not unlike ourselves. Through a complex process using original negatives, the Library of Congress has reproduced in color the photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, "offer[ing] a vivid portrait of a lost world -- the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution." The images are stunning. A taste:

Peasant Girls, 1909


A Settler's Family, ca. 1907-1915


A Zindan (prison) . . ., ca. 1907-1915


Molding of an Artistic Casting, 1910


(Via Never Yet Melted.)

War in Words

James Webb lists his favorite books on the military:

1. Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
2. Hell in a Very Small Place by Bernard Fall
3. History of the Second World War by B. H. Liddell Hart
4. The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer
5. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

I'm familiar with all five but have read only the last, Tuchman's classic on the origins of World War I. Take from it what lessons you will -- Webb suggests it has relevance to Iraq; JFK is said to have been influenced by it during the Cuban Missile Crisis -- but it's an amazingly written narrative of diplomacy and military history.

"The Ghost of You" by My Chemical Romance

Brilliant video, great song.

Baghdad Mitt

Mitt Romney visits Baghdad, attempting to burnish his foreign policy credentials, the lack of which I think will sink his 2008 aspirations. Nevertheless, and expectedly, Kathryn Lopez swoons.

American Idol Finale

I know what I hate . . . and I didn't hate that. Basically blew me away from beginning to end with the exception of the group sings, which I did not particularly enjoy -- although I disliked them far less than I usually do: I was hoping never to hear Kevin Covais again, but I hadn't planned on seeing Melissa McGhee, whom I loved before Katharine McPhee, and was pleased to lay eyes on that sultry southerner again. The guests were amazing. Live. Mary J. Blige (I take this back). Toni Braxton. Prince. Hell, I even enjoyed Meat Loaf.

And Taylor. Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. I started out in his corner after his audition, believing he'd never make it far, but he wore poorly on me. The hooting and hollering was just too much, and don't get me started on the increasingly frequently "soul patrol" refrains. Still, I couldn't abandon him entirely. He brought it almost every week and, if DialIdol is any indication, led the pack just as often; he was never in the bottom two or three. He deserved to win after the past twelve weeks and especially after last night. I might even buy his cheesy single. So say it loud and say it proud:

SOUL PATROL.

Narrow Views

I sometimes wonder which is worse: seeing our country as an oppressive place where women are kept down by men and the "patriarchal structures" they've created, as feminists do; or seeing our country as a place where women who get ahead do so only because they're women and not necessarily talented, as Kathryn Lopez does.

Some Animals . . .

Congress can't agree on anything these days. Not the war. Not immigration. Not taxes. Not Social Security. Nothing. Except, that is, that congressmen are above the law. Opposition to the raid on Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's congressional office was bipartisan and included no less than Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader John Boehner, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as former Speaker Newt Gingrich (why, Newt, why?). House leaders called the raid unconstitutional, a violation of the separation of powers.

I'm no lawyer, but I don't find the argument all that convincing. I am pretty sure, though, that this sort of thing doesn't go over well in the country at large, particularly among Republicans. James Taranto reminds us of the first plank of the Contract with America:

FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to Congress

We've come a long, long way since 1994 and drifted far from the Contract, a document that also promised "to restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves." That Republicans have deviated from their animating principles isn't so much the failure of conservatism as it is human nature. It's cliched but true: power corrupts. No group of politicians, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, can long be trusted with the reins of power. There's a solution for this, the two most feared words in Washington: term limits. Which was also part of the Contract and failed to garner the required two-thirds to amend the Constitution. Now is as good a time, or even better, to re-start that amendment.

Today is the day I check out. In the absence of a constitutional amendment, it's time for us to impose some term limits of our own -- at the ballot box on November 7.

Not Too Bad for Forty

Elizabeth Hurley in Cannes:

The Clinton Recession

Glad to hear someone -- Al Gore, no less -- admit it:

It's now clear that a fairly significant recession started in the spring of the election year [2000], and the stock market fell dramatically all through the campaign . . .

The American Dream

There are some among us, particularly, perhaps, among the educated, who regard talk of the American Dream as cliched, as "ironic," as window dressing for a society that is "oppressive" beneath the surface. But you will never convince me that, for all the shortcomings of our country, the American Dream is a mere cliche, not as long as Americans like Condoleezza Rice are in our midst. Say what you will about her politics or geopolitics, the woman embodies achievement in the face of long odds. She is a testament to the power of education, of personal will, of hard work and determination, of individual talent. Had she been born twenty years earlier, or maybe even ten, she would not be where she is today. But to our country's credit and especially that of the heroic men and women who fought for civil rights, Condoleezza Rice became one of the most influential people in the world. It is a privilege to live in such a country.

Championing Chafee

While maintaining his opposition to Lincoln Chafee, Hugh "Permanent Republican Majority" Hewitt has decided, after much Gang of 14 vituperation, to endorse Mike DeWine of Ohio:

Mike DeWine has a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 80, though his rating was only 56 in 2005.

His opponent, Congressman Sherrod Brown's lifetime ACU rating is 8, and in 2005 it was 4.

Senator DeWine voted for Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito in the Judiciary Committee and on the floor. He has also voted for ever other Bush judicial nominee who faced Leahy led-opposition.

DeWine's opponent Sherrod Brown would join the Leahy-Schumer forces and is in fact the new Howard Metzenbaum, waiting to join the radical obstructionists in the Senate.

Brown would also almost certainly vote against serious border protection, just as 16 Democratic senators did. Senator DeWine voted for the border fencing.

Lincoln Chafee is nowhere close to being as conservative -- whether you judge based on 56 or 80 -- as Mike DeWine. But compare Chafee's ACU rating of 12 in 2005 and his lifetime rating of 37 to his fellow Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, whose rating of 0 in 2005 and 7 lifetime are likely what we'd get from Sheldon Whitehouse, Chafee's Democratic challenger who would almost surely defeat Steve Laffey, Chafee's Republican primary opponent, and has a good chance of ousting Chafee should they meet in the fall. Chafee voted for John Roberts but not Sam Alito; Reed voted for neither. Even though he hasn't always voted to confirm Bush's nominees (judicial and otherwise), Chafee has consistently voted for cloture; Reed has consistently supported filibusters. Chafee voted in favor of border fencing; Reed did not. Chafee voted for the Inhofe Amendment to make English the national language; Reed did not, voting only in favor of the watered-down Salazar version (which Chafee also supported). There are few, if any, indications that Sheldon Whitehouse would be anything but the next Jack Reed.

Chafee voted against an amendment requiring aliens seeking a change of status to pay a supplemental fee to be used to pay for health and educational services for noncitizens; so did DeWine. Chafee voted to table an amendment that would have prevented illegal immigrants from receiving full Social Security benefits; so did DeWine. Chafee voted against an amendment that would have required border security provisions to be enacted before beginning to legalize or adjust the status of illegal immigrants; so did DeWine. Clearly, Chafee is at least as "serious" about border protection as Mike DeWine.

Politics is about compromise, and a sensible brand of conservative politics should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Senator Chafee is not perfect, nor is he conservative, but he is as good as Republicans are going to get from Rhode Island, a deep-blue state that voted 60-39 for John Kerry. Chafee's first responsibility is not to his party but to his constituents, who -- as is their right -- are more liberal than the country at large. It is enough for me that Chafee votes for a Republican majority leader, votes for funding a war he opposed, supports cloture for judicial nominees he opposes, and maintains his current immigration positions; I don't care for whom he voted in November 2004. He is important not because of his individual votes, which sometimes go conservatives' way and oftentimes not, but because his seat contributes to the (judicial-cloture-supporting) Republican majority in the Senate. Sheldon Whitehouse would almost never vote with conservatives and would diminish the Senate majority. Anyone who supports Republican governing majorities -- and I'm not saying I necessarily do, especially in light of recent failures -- should support Chafee. To borrow some of Hewitt's overheated rhetoric: you can't support a GOP majority and oppose Lincoln Chafee's reelection.

From January to June 2001, a newly reelected Lincoln Chafee provided the critical fiftieth vote that allowed Republicans, with Dick Cheney's tiebreaker, to retain the Senate. It would be the height of irony -- though unlikely at this point -- if Election Day 2006 left Democrats in control of the Senate 51-49 thanks to a Chafee defeat. I'd surely look forward to hearing Hewitt explain how that would be a good thing.

Jaroslav Pelikan, R.I.P.

The famed historian of religion has died. His 1983 Jefferson Lecture, The Vindication of Tradition, is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the nature of tradition.