Tuesday, June 07, 2005
AFTER THE UNVEILING OF DEEP THROAT...come the many attempts to discern and explain the "deeper" meaning of it all. This attempt by a veteran Washington journalist focuses on the great power held and sometimes, as in Watergate, wielded by the "bureaucracy."
STIRRINGS AGAINST CASTRO'S TYRANNY...are visible in Havana but largely unreported by the American press. Nat Hentoff wonders why as he provides a valuable account of a recent meeting seeking freedom and held under the eye of the tyrant.
DOIN' THE GITMO GROVEL: It is, says Krauthammer at the Washington Post, time to put aside this childish self-abuse and to take some pride in the comparative decency with which we have managed these supremely important interrogations.
A WAY OUT OF THE STEM CELL IMPASSE? One scientist thinks he has found it--and a few others think he just may be on to something. A Wired writer goes after the story here and makes it zing with potentiality--but the moral morass may only be gettting murkier in a new way!
HOW DO YOU "BALANCE" PBS BROADCASTING? Very, very carefully and possibly at the risk of your public career. That is what Kenneth Tomlinson is learning but, according to this report from Andrew Ferguson in the Weekly Standard, the new director is, so far, keeping his cool.
WHAT PRICE FOR INTELLECTUAL EMINENCE? Certain particular and quite nasty diseases whose likelihood is much higher for Jews than for others. The hypothesis is a striking one and the supportive research has some merit. As reported in this arresting article from The Economist, the argument has been opened and it will surely require much more research and debate.
McCULLOUGH ON 1776 AND ALL THAT: Our most esteemed "popular historian" has done another fine book on the American revolution. It is appreciatively reviewed here in the Christian Science Monitor, and McCullough will soon discuss the book on Extension 720.
THE AMERICAN LITERARY CANON...has been newly evaluated by the great Irish critic, Denis Donoghue whose book is, in turn, reviewed for the Christian Science Monitor by a rather prissy Harvard don who does not dissuade us from wanting to get the book.
LA POESIE EST L'HOMAGE QUE VILLEPIN RENDE...a les affaires politiques. A new prime minister who has written four volumes of poetry? Not to mention his admiring (indeed, apotheosising) biography of Napoleon? In this article, the London Times just begins to hint at the strange Franco-American encounters to come.
AN IMPORTANT, NON-POLITICAL BOOK FROM DAVID HOROWITZ...has just been published and it will surprise most of his constant readers, as it surprised--and deeply moved--the writer of this note. He will be our guest on Extension 720 tomorrow night. This recent essay gives you a sense of what he deals with in the new book and of what we will discuss with him on the program.
JEWS FOR THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS...is what they might have called the new organization whose perspectives and intentions are revealed here by its president as he is interviewed by the leading evangelical magazine.
FAILURE FINDS ITS PROPER PLACE...in a particularly innovative institution in our town. But before you contact the Museum of Personal Failure to offer them your unpublished novel and the twenty-seven rejection letters it garnered--do closely consider the source of the story.
LITURGICAL RUSSIAN CHORAL GLORY...is provided here in a full concert by the Kiev Chamber Choir. Among the composers to be heard are: Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Chesnokov and Balakirev.