Great things to read while getting a haircut

At least, that's when I read them. All of these are wonderful and provocative. From The Independent UK, Neocons on a Cruise. "Of course, we need to execute some of these people. A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country," she says. "Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get." She squints at the sun and smiles. " Then things'll change." No, it's not fiction. It's an English journalist reporting from a cruise for readers of the American right wing rag, the National Review. I've written, here, before, about the Review's founder, Bill Buckley. From the New York Times, an op-ed by Sir Michael Rose, a retired British army general. "How a Revolution Saved an Empire" is one of the most original takes on the Iraq war (by analogy) I've seen. Fascinating thesis, compellingly drawn. ...King George III and his ministers were convinced that this defeat and the withdrawal of British troops from the 13 colonies would result not only in anarchy in America but also in the collapse of the entire British Empire. The piece's historical references about the US War for Independence line up precisely with one of the best histories I've read in the last couple of years, on a topic I never thought I'd find more than curious: His Excellency: George Washington, by Joseph Ellis. And, finally, though certainly fully, a fantasy shared with me by the wonderful Mo Lester. It's a piece written by JFK condifant Theodore Sorensen, whom Kennedy once famously called his "intellectual blood bank". It's title is self-defining: "The Speech I Want the Democratic Nominee To Give." Although we may be called fools and dreamers, although we will find the going uphill, in the words of the poet: “Say not the struggle naught availeth.” We will change our country’s direction, and hand to the generation that follows a nation that is safer, cleaner, less divided, and less fearful than the nation we will inherit next January. ..