Tonight on Extension 720, Milt commemorates the 60th anniversary of D-Day with Flint Whitlock and Colonel John Votaw of the First Division Museum at Cantigny. More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Milt's File now enables comments from all visitors. We welcome--indeed, we urge--that you chime in with your commentary whenever one or more of our items stirs some responsive thought or mere spasm of emotion.
ON THE DEPARTURE OF TENET. Isakoff and Hosenball in Newsweek offer, as usual, more than mere opinion. These guys have sources and get "scoops" but are not sensationalists. A valuable contribution!
REMEMBERING TIANANMEN...BUT QUIETLY! This story from Beijing comes on the 15th anniversary of the slaughter of the innocents by a brutal, dictatorial regime. It is, we think, important to remember that the current regime descends from those who ordered the cold killing of hundreds while the world watched.
KRAUTHAMMER ON THE FOG OF PEACE. He is impressed by that same fine article by John Keegan that we linked a few days ago. Wars don't end with clean and abrupt simplicity. Despite the continuing and messy complications, something heartening and valuable has already been achieved in Iraq and more is to come. So says Krauthammer and, as usual, he says it most persuasively.
REFLECTIONS ON D-DAY, THE NATURE OF WAR AND IRAQ NOW. This fine op-ed by the eminent British popular historian and controversialist, Paul Johnson appeared yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.
AS VENUS PASSES BY...you can get a good look through the telescopes at Aberystwyth. The scientific significance of the transit is considerable and is well explained in this feature from News Wales.
THE "DAY AFTER" THE BIG BANG. They have done great and brilliant explorations through time as well as space at the Hubble Telescope Center. This account provided by BBC conveys the basic facts about their "deep field" study--and reproduces some of the great images they have made available.
WAS DARWIN A DEATH-BED CONVERT? Probably not, but the answer remains less than unambiguous according to this from the valuable (and usually amusing) Truth or Fiction site.
THE SAGA OF VICTOR KLEMPERER...is retold in this vividly-written blog that we came upon yesterday.
JAPAN AND THE CONTINUED HOUNDING OF THE SURVIVORS OF TIANANMEN. This article from a new on-line historical journal tells a disturbing story and deserves your close attention.
ENGLISH LIT AT CORNELL...is not quite a many-splendored thing. But sex and gender and--uhhh, like that, is plentifully available according to the "faculty interests" list. Mike Adams read their catalog for Front Page magazine.
THE POST OFFICE MURALS OF TEXAS...are a wonderful sight to behold and they are on view in this fine article from RALPH magazine which tells, as well, how they got there with a strong assist from the team of Roosevelt and Biddle.
MORE GREAT MUSIC FROM THE ANDES. Try it--you'll love it!
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Tonight on Extension 720, Milt talks about the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars with Peter Fritzsche and David Jordan. More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the program from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.
Milt's File now enables comments from all visitors. We welcome--indeed, we urge--that you chime in with your commentary whenever one or more of our items stirs some responsive thought or mere spasm of emotion.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Tonight on Extension 720, Milt celebrates WGN Radio's 80th anniversary with Roy Leonard and Ward Quaal. More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the program from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.
Milt's File now enables comments from all visitors. We welcome--indeed, we urge--that you chime in with your commentary whenever one or more of our items stirs some responsive thought or mere spasm of emotion.
WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE ALKOHBAR MASSACRE? According to Arab News, the semi-official English language newspaper of Saudi Arabia, the Al-Qaeda terrorists killed the wrong people. After all, the victims were not hostile to the Palestinian cause! Now, if they had found some critics of Arafat, well that would have been, sort of, O.K., ya know?
CHECKING OUT McCASLIN OF THE TIMES (WASHINGTON, THAT IS). He's always interesting and he "knows things" that those outside the beltway mostly don't. Here he is,as of yesterday, with four items, three of which are new to us. The Pew study, of course, was not--but he does add a provocative fillup.
A CALL TO COMPLETE THE THATCHER REVOLUTION. Though he's a Canadian living in the U.S., Mark Steyn has an abiding interest in England and a lasting respect for Margaret Thatcher. De-nationalization, he contends, should continue over there and over here--in both of his countries. As usual, interesting thoughts, pungently conveyed...this time in a column in the Telegraph.
CHEZ LE PREMIERE MINISTRE. This article in the current Spectator presents the French Prime Minister, Raffarin,as "un chic type" and really as a welcome relief from the high pretensions of Chirac and de Villepin. You could think of buying this guy "un pression" at the zinc bar of La Flore.
THE TIMES OF THESE AND THOSE TIMES. Go back sixty years to the New York Times of D-Day; then take a look at the Times of today. The difference is deeply instructive says David Lewis Schaeffer in this piece from yesterday's National Review.
IS THERE AN END TO SMALLNESS? Or: How far into the miniscule can nanotechnology go? And what are the payoffs when they get there? This fascinating piece--half report and half projection--has just appeared in Physics Today.
EXPLORING THE MAYAN CENOTES. The reconstruction of Mayan culture proceeds well-a-pace, particularly since the effective decoding of the ancient glyph script. This research note from Archaeology magazine shows how the investigators do really have to dig deep.
THE FALLING OUT OF THE AIRLORDS. So Karmazin resigned from Viacom and they may sell their radio properties...and then what? Is there any reason to hope that they might try to upgrade the quality and responsibility of the programming they inflict upon an audience reduced to blankness by the stuff they get from these guys? Just asking...
AND SPEAKING OF EXCESS IN BROADCASTING...John Fund, a not-infrequent guest on our program, comments in a recent Wall Street Journal piece on the need to be careful and limited in FCC policing. The danger always is, as he correctly points out, that political utterance might also be "chilled."
WHO OR WHAT IS TO BLAME FOR LOW EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF BLACK AND HISPANIC STUDENTS? That's the best way to put the question--straight and without persiflage. And the truest answer seems to be that a real portion of the blame lies with the anti-educational standards that are normative in the most disadvantaged sectors of the minority communities. So said the "conservative" professors assembled at the NAS meeting last week, as Cathy Young reports in Reason magazine. Your opinion?
IF WE EVER GET BACK TO ROME...we would hire this guy in a Neopolitan minuto. With a tour guide like this one might actually enjoy seeing the standard sights..as did this correspondent for the Boston Globe.
DOES THE SWEET NAIVETE OF THE FIFTIES PERSIST IN DELHI...or are they pulling our collective leg? Either way, this feature offering you various candidates (all pictured, of course) for the title of "most beautiful woman of the world" makes us feel, once again, like the sixteen year old reader of the New York Daily News that we were a hundred years ago.
AFTER THE BEATLES. Here's a good sample of the sepaerate recordings by Lennon, Starr and Harrison. Not to be missed: Imagine; Oh My My; My Sweet Lord.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Milt's File now enables comments from all visitors. We welcome--indeed, we urge--that you chime in with your commentary whenever one or more of our items stirs some responsive thought or mere spasm of emotion.
THE BAGHDAD LINEUP. The list of new ministers looks pretty impressive to us and seems notable for the western education that is featured in most of the brief bios.
A WISE ARTICLE FROM A VERY WISE MAN. John Keegan is properly ranked as the foremost military historian of the western world. He has appeared rather often on our radio program and has always uncovered insights about the sources, nature and consequences of war--particular wars and warfare in general. Today we have from him, in this article from the U.K. Telegraph, these complelling thoughts about how the real nature of war is reflected in the Iraq situation and why the "doomsayers" are not only hysterical but wrong.
CAN A "ROGUE STATE" CHANGE ITS SPOTS? Yoram Schweitzer of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies examines the shift toward "normality" in the international operations of Libya and finds that public shaming of their guilt turned the trick. We wonder if the trick is fully turned and how much it depended--and depends--upon the whims of the (ahem) eccentric Maximo of Tripoli. At any rate, this article from Strategic Assessment is rich with relevant information and well worth a close reading.
THE MAKING OF AMERICAN AL-QAEDISTS. The case of Adam Yahiye Gadahn of California prompts this important article in today's Front Page magazine. Robert Spencer seems to be about as well plugged-in on Islamic terrorism and its "attractions" as any ostensible "expert" we have yet encountered.
THE USES, MISUSES AND UTILITY OF FUNDAMENTALISM. This important essay by the truly "distinguished" British political scientist, Kenneth Minogue, has just appeared in the New Criterion.
LITTLE DOG WHO MADE THEE, DOST THOU KNOW WHO MADE THEE? When humans step in to assist (or screw up) evolution they produce many sub-species and lots of genetic disaster. This fascinating article from the Economist asks: "What have the dog breeders wrought?"
THE LAST ROUNDUP....OF NAZI CRIMINALS. Though Simon Wiesenthal stopped hunting Nazis a few years ago, others have activated his Vienna Center for a last effort to find the doddering but still living veterans of the SS and Einsatzkommando units, according to this report from JTA.
BY THE WATERS OF MENDOTA DID THEY WEEP. The Israel-PLO struggle is now tearing apart (if ever so lightly) the bucolic and classically radicalized college town of Madison, Wisconsin. The account is from today's New York Times.
HOW FARES THE AMERICAN (AND CANADIAN) FAMILY? The Howard Center is a great resource for research and advocacy serving the maintenance of child welfare through the maintenance and/or restoration of effective family life. (Personal note: the proprietor serves on their board of directors.) Their monthly review of important research findings has just appeared.
LARKIN THE POET OF NOWHERE. A new edition of Philip Larkin's Collected Poems has just appeared. That sent us scurrying for an article we dimly remembered which examined this fiercely modern poet for his dislocated sense of place. We found it by some quick googling...and here it is.
WILL THE REAL PHILIP ROTH PLEASE STAND UP? We have always thought him one of the most amiably provacative of major American writers. Between his Counterlife and The Facts, there lies either the truth about him or a demonstration that he thinks all lives to be factitious "constructions." Either way, this essay that we recently came upon examines--with some obvious delectation--the autobiographical game he has played over the years.
DOM DELILLO IMAGINED A "DEPARTMENT OF HITLER STUDIES"...and now, slouching toward Sussex to be born: LORD OF THE RING studies. As the guy on the old Steve Allen show used to ask: "Whhhyy Naahhht?" The report is just in from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
A MEDITATION ON GRADUATION CEREMONIES...from Susan Cheever who has been to many of them and apparently nurtures a protracted but obsessive ambivalence. One wonders, reading this recent op-ed from Newsday, if anyone here or anywhere has ever been totally engrossed in what a graduation orator had to say. If so, do tell...
WHAT DO WE SAY WHEN WE "DRESS DOWN?" An appreciative nod to a colleague in the talk-show realm for this fine column. An addendum we would add from our experience teaching college in recent years: If the kids show up in class wearing reversed baseball caps simply say: unless you are an orthodox Jew, take your hat off!!
ANOTHER FINE RECITAL FROM LUGANO. This Argerich Festival concert features the moving Beethoven Violin Sonata #8 in G major. Also available for listening: Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances and Kreisler's Liebeslied.
Monday, May 31, 2004
Tonight on Extension 720, Milt talks with Sam Huntington about his new book, Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity. More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.
Milt's File now enables comments from all visitors. We welcome--indeed, we urge--that you chime in with your commentary whenever one or more of our items stirs some responsive thought or mere spasm of emotion.
SAFIRE IS CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC...and has some useful "inside dope" in today's column about the rise of Alawi and the fall of Chalabi.
IS THIS GUY ANOTHER "AMERICAN TALIBAN?" Newsweek's issue out today features a number of interesting articles about the new terrorist threats in the U.S. and, in this story, some good background material about the latest rogues gallery and the one American in the bunch.
IN WHAT WAY ARE PERICLES AND BUSH ALIKE? Victor Davis Hanson, in the current National Review, points out the eternal regularities in the fortunes of war and of political leaders.
BROOKHISER TAKES THE LONG VIEW...on the war, as only someone steeped in history can do. He is one of our favorite program guests and we found this article by him in the current New York Observer as wise and as informative as he has long proved himself to be.
SOMETHING ELSE IS HAPPENING IN THE ARAB WORLD. It is not all regression to Wahabist terrorism. Rather, there were signs at its recent meeting in Tunis that some members of the Arab League are grudgingly yielding to the American display of power and the call for "democratization." This informative note is from the current issue of the Economist.
THE HUNTINGTON CONTROVERSY. The article we mentioned last Friday, "The Hispanic Challenge" stirred a great deal of critical and commendatory respoonse in Foreign Policy magazine. Here is some of that commentary and Huntington's response to it from the new issue of FP. As noted above, Huntington will be expounding upon his analysis of the "Mexican cultural threat" on our program tonight. If you listen, do give us your reactive thoughts on our "comments" feature.This link requires a free registration.
AND A TALK-SHOW HOST (OR THREE) SHALL LEAD THEM! The struggle to retain--or restore--democracy in Hong Kong seems to centrally involve a few members of our odd profession according to this lead story in today's New York Times.
THE SEARCH FOR EXCELLENCE...ACROSS ALL HISTORY. Charles Murray discussed that with us on our program shortly after his latest book was published. Now he chats about the same in a fine interview just published in Reason magazine.
HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE GYPSIES...turns out to be a puzzle for western sociologists. Or so this review, in the American Journal of Sociology, of two recent scholarly works wouls seem to suggest. The Roma and Sinti remain, apparently, not only a rather exotic presence but a challenge to the social scientoids.
LIFE BEFORE AND AFTER TENURE...in the intimidated American academy is the subject of a new book whose author is interviewed here by the editor of Front Page magazine.
A STRANGE PRESENCE. That's Christopher Walken, one of the very few actors whose participation in a film makes us want to see it. His strange, eccentric and always commanding presence is explained (sort of) in this profile from yesterday's New York Times Magazine.
THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND...BUT WHO CARES? Not the quasi-geniuses at The Onion.
THE EMPEROR CONCERTO. The last of Beethoven's five piano concertos in a vigorous but nuanced performance by John Lill and the Birmingham Symphony conducted by Walter Weller.
