Kristol Ball

Sitting high in the Alps watching American news channels can be a gruesome experience. For example, after four hours of wonderful powder-snow skiing, it is a shock to the system to see a red Indian-faced Bill Kristol (he should make up his fat and rather nonexistent neck, too, because the ...

Bhutto’s Son to Edit “Commentary” Magazine

Okay, not really. But this is a column about the joys of nepotism. The Left-wing dictator I hated the least was Juan Peron, the Argentine strongman whose sartorial sense was as impeccable as his will to rule. Peron preened in front of the mirror for hours, and he looked as good in his waisted ...

A Black New Year for the Good Conrad

I went to Palm Beach about one month ago to visit Conrad and Barbara Black with other friends of theirs but was advised not to write about it until after the sentencing. As Andrew Roberts wrote in the Notebook, “It was a masterclass in displaying dignity, good humour and charm under ...

Olmert Drops the Mask

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently rejected overtures by Hamas for discussions about a temporary cease-fire. So what else is new? Israel’s ruling coalition wants peace as much as the neocons want it back in Washington. What I find surprising is that the Likudniks no longer care to even make ...

George Will Kissing Up

George Will is a terrific old fraud, a pompous windbag as ludicrous as that other fraud, James Reston (thank God now boring people in that sauna-like place below) a man who genuflects to the rich and powerful such as Lally (medusa-face) Weymouth, but also an expert in kicking those unable to ...

60 Cents on the Dollar

Some of you nice folk out there may remember that three weeks ago I wrote about a giant corporation screwing old ladies and retired people who have worked all their lives just to see their life savings go up in smoke. I will not bore you with details. Suffice to say that a giant corporation did ...

The Gadfly and the Pervert

My distant ancestor Aesop (just kidding, folks) was fond of fables, so let me follow in his footsteps. This is the story of the Gadfly and the Pervert. Norman Finklestein was a Maoist revolutionary when young, which he claims bedeviled his academic career. It took him 13 years to get his doctorate ...

Black Injustice

So there you have it. Conrad Black gets six and one half years in the pokey for—as far as I’m concerned—absolutely nothing, except for the fact he saved a moribund group of British newspapers, enriched his investors and stockholders, as well as himself, and refused to bow down to ...

Our Pug’s Blackballs

The most common rule of thumb for the ideal club is the one where all one’s friends are members. This can present a problem for those with no friends at all, only acquaintances. I know a few people like that, but what is amazing is that they do belong to clubs. One such fellow is among the ...

Please Don’t Feed the Mini-Con

This must feel like a leg-deadening thwack on poor old Poddy. Norman Podhoretz, first in line of warmongers—as long as none of his kith or kin have to do the fighting—must feel in a tizzy these days. A new National Intelligence on Iran concludes that the Islamic Republic’s ...