November 9th, 2009
BERLIN — For some time now, I’ve been trying to put my finger on what has been bothering me about the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is nothing wrong with holding dozens of conferences, after all, and I’m all in favor of the many new books. Read on »
November 2nd, 2009
Did you know that there were German elections in late September? Were you aware that the German socialists were soundly defeated? Had you realized that there was now a new government in Germany? No? Read on »
October 20th, 2009
“This is a solemn moment for this House and our country,” Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, said while addressing the House of Commons last week. A hush fell over the room and, according to a parliamentary sketch writer, the members “ceased to fidget, a truly rare thing in the Commons.” Read on »
October 13th, 2009
Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of bribery, tax evasion, corruption and subversion of the press. His wife has left him on the grounds that he consorts with prostitutes and holds orgies at his villa in Sardinia. He makes embarrassing jokes (and then repeats them, as he did with the one about President Obama’s “suntan”) and periodically disappears to undergo more plastic surgery. Read on »
October 6th, 2009
“I’m here because I have a vote and, basically, I’ve been told what to do with it,” one Irishman told a London reporter. “Thank God they will all shut up now,” a Dublin pensioner told a German newspaper. Read on »
September 29th, 2009
It’s an odd thing, but sometimes I could swear that there are two Irans. Read on »
September 22nd, 2009
Let’s be brutally frank: The 60th anniversary of the NATO alliance, celebrated in April, was a bore. Read on »
September 15th, 2009
Item One: When it comes out in print soon, look carefully through Yale University Press’s book “The Cartoons That Shook the World.” Read on »
September 8th, 2009
Perhaps this summer’s record bloodshed did it, or perhaps it was the disappointment of the election, with its low turnout, accompanying violence and allegations of fraud. Whatever the reason, the Afghan war is suddenly at the center of political debate in several Western countries. Read on »
August 30th, 2009
Seventy years ago next week — at 4:45 a.m. Sept. 1, 1939, to be precise — the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein began to shell the Polish military base near Gdansk. For Germans, for Poles, and for the British and French, who immediately declared war on Germany, that was the beginning of World War II. Read on »