Curtis Bowman

Max Boot on Going It Alone Militarily

Max Boot point outs that when it comes to military matters, the U.S. more or less has to go it alone because our allies spend so little on defense. You'll encounter some eye-opening figures in this column.

Once you've read Boot's piece, then look at this article by Alex Massie. There you'll find out why Tony Blair is reducing the number of British troops in Iraq.

Kathryn Hughes Reviews Jacintha Buddicom's "Eric & Us"

After I posted my previous entry on Gordon Bowker's review of the reissue of Jacintha Buddicom's memoir Eric & Us, I moused around a bit and found a slightly earlier review by Kathryn Hughes.

Gordon Bowker Reviews Jacintha Buddicom's "Eric & Us"

Gordon Bowker, one of George Orwell's biographers, has published a brief review of the reissue of Jacintha Buddicom's memoir Eric & Us. (For those of you who don't keep track of literary pseudonyms, when Eric Blair became a writer, he took to calling himself George Orwell.) Buddicom's book is an important source for anyone interested in Orwell's early life.

James Surowiecki on Ahmadinejad's Inflammatory Rhetoric

Here's an interesting article by James Surowiecki of The New Yorker. Mr. Surowiecki explains that the dynamics of the international oil market provide Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an incentive to engage in inflammatory rhetoric because such language drives up the price of oil. That's not to imply, however, that Ahmadinejad might not be sincerely expressing what he actually thinks.

More: I forgot to mention that Mr. Surowiecki refers to an article by Roger Stern that I blogged about six weeks ago.

Gregory Levey on the Growing Despair in the Israeli Government

Gregory Levey looks at the growing despair of some Israeli government officials.

Since Levey's article was published on Salon.com, you'll first have to view a short commercial if you aren't already a subscriber. But it doesn't take very long, and once you watch it, you can browse the entire site for free.

Theodore Dalrymple Reviews Nick Cohen's "What's Left?"

Anthony Daniels, aka Theodore Dalrymple, has written a review of Nick Cohen's What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way. Mr. Cohen has posted a response on his personal website.

Reflected Sunlight Brightens Viganella

For nearly three months out of the year the Italian village of Viganella doesn't get a single ray of sunshine. This sort of thing can happen if you're situated in an Alpine valley in just the right way.

Giacomo Bonzani came up with the idea of placing a computer-controlled mirror above the town to reflect sunlight into the town square. It took a while for his plan to come to fruition, it seems. At first the villagers were having trouble getting the necessary funding. But the money eventually become available, and so now the mirror is up and running.

Fred Kaplan on the Defence Budget

Fred Kaplan of Slate crunches some numbers and comes to the conclusion that the requests in the latest defence budget come to a total of $739 billion.

"Please, No More Big Ideas"

Martin Kramer, author of Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, has had enough of big ideas for fixing the problems of the Middle East.