The New Republic’s Notebook contains this mind-boggling nugget: Madison Avenue guru Charlotte Beers was tapped to sharpen up the [pro-U.S.] message to Muslims. The first fruits of Beers’s labors appear on the State Department’s agitprop site, www.usinfo.state.gov, “created strictly for … key international audiences.” Unfortunately, the site does a better job promoting the critics of American policy than American policy itself. On a page called “Muslim Life in America,” Beers

The New Republic’s Notebook contains this mind-boggling nugget: Madison Avenue guru Charlotte Beers was tapped to sharpen up the [pro-U.S.] message to Muslims. The first fruits of Beers’s labors appear on the State Department’s agitprop site, www.usinfo.state.gov, “created strictly for … key international audiences.” Unfortunately, the site does a better job promoting the critics of American policy than American policy itself. On a page called “Muslim Life in America,” Beers

In today’s National Review Online “Guest Comment” column, James D. Miller explains why the American academy tends to tilt leftward, and why academics tend to eschew overt expressions of patriotism: The large number of non-U.S. citizens in American colleges necessarily makes these schools less patriotic. You wouldn’t expect an American-based professor who is of Chinese citizenship to be as pro-U.S. as the average American is. As long as U.S. high

Andrew Hofer on the wonderful More Than Zero questions the intellectual importance (and indeed the motivation) of deconstructing Martha Stewart. A sample: Incredible how a home and garden show that helps people (who choose to watch) achieve a commonly desired aesthetic end is, in truth, an instrument of racism and colonial imperialism. What a tour de force of criticism! Oh- but I don’t mean to be “too hard on Martha

Today’s WSJ Opinion Journal editorial, “Afghan Lessons,” quotes Turkey’s Defense Minister on the prospect of a U.S. push into Iraq: “‘We don’t wish an operation in Iraq, but new conditions would bring new evaluations to our agenda.’” The “indispensable new condition,” the Journal wryly notes, “would be an American President serious about the job.” Even the Saudis have changed their tune on the Iraq question. “[A]t least now they’d support

San Fran defense lawyer (and for what it’s worth, Democratic fundraiser extraordinaire) Jim Brosnahan, along with the Marin County Tali-boy’s folks and friends, are launching an all out P.R. campaign to soften the blow civilization is fixin’ to clap on Johnny bin Walker’s dirt-encrusted ass. Now, I’m not one to judge (ohmmmm… tolerance …. ohmmm …. permissiveness … ohmmmm the Berkeley City Council), but I would think that — rather

San Fran defense lawyer (and for what it’s worth, Democratic fundraiser extraordinaire) Jim Brosnahan, along with the Marin County Tali-boy’s folks and friends, are launching an all out P.R. campaign to soften the blow civilization is fixin’ to clap on Johnny bin Walker’s dirt-encrusted ass. Now, I’m not one to judge (ohmmmm… tolerance …. ohmmm …. permissiveness … ohmmmm the Berkeley City Council), but I would think that — rather

Poor Geraldo…Not a whole lot happening near Tora Bora these days (comparatively, that is), so Commander Rivera has taken to interspersing his Fox News “Live” reports with video highlights of his recent dramatic exploits — y’know, a kind of “greatist hits” compilation — him geraldo-ing over rocks, geraldo-ing through caves and tunnels, geraldo-ing donkeys and horses with admirable aplomb… Meanwhile the “Live” Geraldo, his voice tinged with the stoic’s resolve,

Poor Geraldo…Not a whole lot happening near Tora Bora these days (comparatively, that is), so Commander Rivera has taken to interspersing his Fox News “Live” reports with video highlights of his recent dramatic exploits — y’know, a kind of “greatist hits” compilation — him geraldo-ing over rocks, geraldo-ing through caves and tunnels, geraldo-ing donkeys and horses with admirable aplomb… Meanwhile the “Live” Geraldo, his voice tinged with the stoic’s resolve,

Using this cool li’l site, I ran some of Big Noam’s argot salad through a rigorous conversion process, yielding this homoglossial booty — the voice of a traditionally marginalized group (Jazz musicians?) holding forth on the topic of “Silent Genocide”: Looks likes whut