Some things to attend if you have the time

John Hopkins School of International Studies has been hosting some excellent events recently, this one coming up next Monday.

Former Director of Central Intelligence James Woolsey to Speak About Intelligence and War on Terror at JHU SAIS

R. James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence, will speak at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) on Monday, January 30 at 5:30 p.m. (a reception will precede the event at 5 p.m.)

Woolsey, currently a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton’s Global Resilience practice, will speak at the inaugural lecture of the SAIS Intelligence Forum, addressing the topic of “The Long War of the 21st Century: How We Must Fight It.” He served as director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995.

This event is being co-hosted by the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at SAIS and the U.S. Army’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Security Series.

The event, which is open to the public, will be held in the Kenney Auditorium located on the first floor of the Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., in Washington, D.C. Members of the public should RSVP to 202.663.5837 or [email protected].

Last night

I went to the forum at John Hopkins with Bernard-Henri Lévy and William Kristol.

I will write a more thorough report that will be posted on Ablogistan.com and on PBH in the next couple of days. Until then, you can read my letter at Salon.

Kanye West = Jesus

But the son of God sure is looking funny…

Kanye West appears on the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone as Jesus, complete with thorny crown and blood, but the Catholic League’s William Donohue isn’t outraged, he just feels sorry for Kanye. “It’s one thing to rip off Catholic iconography. It’s quite another to exploit a poor soul like Kanye West. Anyone who is this morally and mentally challenged deserves our sympathy not our derision.“

January 23, 2006

You sir, are dead on:

My line was that the war in Iraq was morally right and politically wrong. I said this six months before the war started, and I did not change my mind. Morally right, because it’s always right to overthrow a dictator, one of the bloodiest regimes in the world, but politically wrong because I knew it would produce more chaos, more terrorism. It would make the world even less safe than it was.

What I don’t understand is why you cannot at the same time denounce economic disparity, the anti-abortion movement, religious fundamentalism, the widespread domestic availability of firearms, and so on. An intellectual is someone who is able to count past two. And even three, sometimes. The intellectuals we’re talking about seem only to be able to able to count to one. One — finished. No, please! I want to say. Let’s count to two! I am in favor of the war in Iraq, but I am against economic disparity. I am in favor of prisons to protect the general population, but I am against the death penalty.

I far prefer the neoconservatives, like Kristol, to someone like Pat Buchanan, who is fascist. I far prefer the neoconservative idea of spreading democracy all over the world, to Buchanan, who says that people in the rest of the world don’t deserve democracy.

Political leaders are what they are. Obama and Hillary Clinton are brilliant, charismatic, but they will be exactly what the left will make them be. As long as the Democrats speak money, instead of ideas, as long as they are afraid of their own shadows, they will lose. And as brilliant a leader as Obama or Hillary is, they cannot win with such a party behind them.

It was a shame to see people on the left, in the last days of the election, trying to adopt the platform of the National Rifle Association. They should have said, No — vote against us if you want but we are against the sale of firearms. Instead of, Me too, I’m a hunter! I like weapons! The right expresses itself in America. The left does not. It is a pity.

The Anti-Anti-American (In DC!)

The Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) will host a discussion with William Kristol and Bernard-Henri Lévy on the topic of “American Vertigo” on Tuesday, January 24 at 5:30 p.m.

William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard and one of the nation’s leading political analysts and commentators. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a renowned French philosopher and best-selling author.

Francis Fukuyama, the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of the SAIS International Development Program, will moderate the discussion.

The event, which is open to the public, will be held in Kenney Auditorium located on the first floor of the school’s Nitze Building, 1740 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., in Washington, D.C. Members of the public should RSVP to [email protected] or 202.663.5650.

Check out Levy — what an interesting figure!