Salon writer Mark Benjamin says he would never drive an SUV because they are "unspeakably evil." He rides his bike to work and the neighborhood farmers' market, "where I buy locally grown produce." In the summer, he "cooks curry-cream squash soup in a solar-powered oven." But, somehow, this environmentalist ended up with an SUV in his driveway. Real Benjamen's tale of seduction here.Israel's incursion into Gaza is all over the Op-Ed pages. James Carol in the Boston Globe echos the well-meaning, but vapid view of most editorials, claiming the United States can end violence in the Middle East by talking. "What is needed now," Carol says, "are firm messages from Washington," Oh, sure. That'll fix it. Max Boot of the Council of Foreign Relations takes a more pragmatic look at the war in the Wall Street Journal. Writing for The Atlantic, Robert Kaplan explores the connection between Hamas and Iran, arguing that Israel is really fighting a proxy war against the "Iranian empire." Bill Safire kinda, sorta makes the same point in the New York Times.
Speaking of the Times, Paul Krugman is threatening a "Great Depression II" if Congress doesn't pass Obama's economic plan quickly. This despite the fact that no one, including Obama himself, knows exactly what the plan will be. Op-Ed contributors Michael Lewis and David Einhorn have an idea that goes beyond Kurgman's call for more government spending. Wall Street will get better, they describe in painstaking detail, when investors demand better oversight from the SEC and more accurate bond ratings from Standard & Poor.
Fareed Zakaria eulogizes his friend and mentor Samuel Huntington, who died on Christmas Eve. Zakaria calls him "the greatest political scientist of the past half-century." We take issue with that, but the piece encapsulates the best of Huntington, which is very good indeed.
