Must-Reads of the Week: Pete King, Manzi’s Thesis, Obama’s WoT, Literary Sex, and American Jeremiads

Post author By Joe Campbell
Post date January 8, 2010
45 Comments on Must-Reads of the Week: Pete King, Manzi’s Thesis, Obama’s WoT, Literary Sex, and American Jeremiads

1. Pete King: Terrorist Sympathizer.

2. Manzi’s Provocative (& Conservative) Thesis. Jim Manzi wrote a really great piece that I was trying to figure out how to respond to for the National Interest – and it has gotten quite a lot of play in the opinionsphere. I found his piece rather compelling actually – as the description of a problem – although some commenators have pointed out some flaws in the statistics he used to back up his piece.

Read the responses by Jonathan Chait, Ross Douthat, Democracy in America, with Andrew Sullivan following it all closely and aggregating other responses (here, here, here, here…)

My sense now – without having fully delved into the back and forth and figured out who is right and wrong about the issues – is that Manzi confused his arguments a bit, massaging some data to back up one thesis when his real point was another. But he offers the first coherent conservative response to the world that Niall Ferguson described in an essay some months ago. (Ferguson had been bemoaning the fact that liberals had the only credible response to our globalizing world – but he tried to give the outlines of a conservative response.)

I’ll be writing more about this as time goes on – and in fact, it follows closely from the conclusions to my pieces on America’s fiscal crisis. (Introduction, Republicans, Democrats.)

3. Obama’s War on Terror. When Pete King told George Stephanopoulos that Obama’s mistakes in the War on Terrorism had lead to the attempted Christmas bombing, Stephanopoulos followed up and asked what specific steps King wanted Obama to take. King’s response was priceless: “I think one main thing would be to — just himself to use the word terrorism more often…” Thank you, Rep. King!

Peter Baker in an upcoming piece for the New York Times Magazine meanwhile reports on some of the many aspects of the Obama administration’s War on Terror – and how the administration sees Obama’s Cairo speech, its position on Israeli settlements, its outreach to Iran, its increased use of Predators and other military interventions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and its gradual shift to a more Rule of Law oriented approach at home are all part of a comprehensive strategy. One interesting tidbit from the piece comes as the incoming Obama administration and outgoing Bush administration coordinated their response to what were seen as credible reports of Somali terrorists traveling to Washington to attack Obama’s inauguration. The threat was serious enough – and the desire to maintain some continuity of government important enough that they took measures to ensure an orderly transition even if Obama, Bush, and all of the Cabinet members were taken out:

[E]veryone eventually agreed that Gates should stay away from the inauguration in a secret location. With no other member of Obama’s cabinet confirmed by the Senate, Gates — an incumbent cabinet officer who also had the imprimatur of the newly elected commander in chief — was the most logical person in the line of succession to take over the presidency should the worst happen.

4. Literary Sex. Katie Roiphe wrote a provocative column for the New York Times on how safe literary writing about sex has been since the much criticized Roth, Updike, et al. Ross Douthat followed up with some wry comment. And it all reminded me of this excellent blog post from Womanist Musings.

5. American Jeremiad. James Fallows writes an interesting piece from a more internationalist perspective that offers in its own way an informal counter to Manzi’s article above.

45 replies on “Must-Reads of the Week: Pete King, Manzi’s Thesis, Obama’s WoT, Literary Sex, and American Jeremiads”

Nunca quise un trabajo en una compañía grande así que las ferias de la carrera generalmente no me han interesado mucho. Pero, ahora en el otro lado, veo lo útil que realmente son.NegroPollon

Sobre la única manera de contratar es a través de recomendaciones.NegroPollon

Así que al final es ganar-ganar. Las empresas obtienen los empleados que buscan (y saben que es mucho más probable que el solicitante sea un empleado que buscan si están solicitando en cusec) y los delegados obtienen las oportunidades que han estado buscando.NegroPollon

Es la mejor manera absoluta de encontrar personas que no sólo quieren trabajar para usted, sino que desea también! La mayoría de los candidatos que obtiene de la publicación de trabajos en lugares como monstruo o workopolis son absolutamente terribles.Venganza

Y eso fue CUSEC viene pulg Se adapta perfectamente a grandes candidatos que quieren trabajar para una empresa (las otras grandes personas que no están interesados no se molestan en aplicar) con las empresas que buscan contratarlos.Explotadordeinformaticos

Sobre la única manera de contratar es a través de recomendaciones.NegroPollon

Nunca quise un trabajo en una compañía grande así que las ferias de la carrera generalmente no me han interesado mucho. Pero, ahora en el otro lado, veo lo útil que realmente son.NegroPollon

Creo que las ferias de carrera son una buena cosa. No sólo reducen los costos, sino que dan mucha credibilidad a la conferencia. Por primera vez estuve al otro lado de la feria de la carrera.Disiarte

Nunca quise un trabajo en una compañía grande así que las ferias de la carrera generalmente no me han interesado mucho. Pero, ahora en el otro lado, veo lo útil que realmente son.NegroPollon

Sobre la única manera de contratar es a través de recomendaciones.NegroPollon

Estoy buscando el azul, tres arrinconado profesional viagra, 100mg, que havea ugr estampado en la parte posterior, gracias Disiarte

Nunca quise un trabajo en una compañía grande así que las ferias de la carrera generalmente no me han interesado mucho. Pero, ahora en el otro lado, veo lo útil que realmente son.NegroPollon

Estoy buscando el azul, tres arrinconado profesional viagra, 100mg, que havea ugr estampado en la parte posterior, gracias Disiarte

Nunca quise un trabajo en una compañía grande así que las ferias de la carrera generalmente no me han interesado mucho. Pero, ahora en el otro lado, veo lo útil que realmente son.NegroPollon