2008 July «

They May Take Our Lives But They’ll Never Take Our Sideburns!

July 31, 2008 at 10:43 am | In Middle East | Leave a Comment

In a recent conversation with a Middle East expert, I learned more about the symbolic importance that facial hair has in Palestinian society. If you just have a moustache, you’re secular or Christian. If you have a beard, you’re Muslim.

Now I see that warring Palestinian factions are shaving off each other’s facial hair as punishment. In fact, one report about this mentions all the rampant shaving going on, and then as an afterthought says that there is also torture – though that seems to be a given. The real horror is the shaving.

What Are You Trying To Say About Me?

July 30, 2008 at 10:34 am | In American Politics, Culture | 2 Comments

I am less interested in the fact that former vice president Dan Quayle is being courted to appear on next season’s Dancing with the Stars in order to “raise Republic morale” — a can’t-fail strategy, if I’ve ever heard one — than in the fact that someone emailed me this information this morning and began her email with the line “Greg, I thought you might be interested in this…”

Why? Why on earth did you think I might be interested in this? What have I become???

DVD Extra Features

July 29, 2008 at 4:33 pm | In Books, International Relations, Middle East | Leave a Comment

I didn’t blog yesterday or this morning, because not only did I not have computer access — I was in a secret location having secret meetings with secretive people — but my Blackberry was stolen.

As a result of that unfortunate incident, until a couple of hours ago I didn’t even realize that The New Republic had run a new piece by me. Think of it as a sort of “deleted scene” from the “director’s cut” of my book.

Take a look.

People You Should Hate

July 25, 2008 at 2:57 pm | In Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment

Jerk.

And Other Ways to Waste My Time

July 24, 2008 at 1:55 pm | In Books, Culture | 1 Comment

Today I am sitting at my desk struggling to finish a book proposal for what may end up being my second book. There are two paragraphs that are sort of crucial, but they are proving very difficult to craft.

I’m obviously not going to go into what the proposal is about, but I will say that, thematically, it has some vague connections to this new music video for the Dildonics‘ song ”Baby Fever”: