From Armenia
I report on the illustriously fraudulent parliamentary election in Armenia — and what it means for the country’s future — in the Weekly Standard.
Corruption seems like small potatoes in a climate like this. Which is one reason so few in the outside world have bothered to notice how Armenia’s political culture is reversing the triumph of its independence, guiding the nation steadily deeper into the lap of Grandmother Russia.
Seriously Flawed
The following is my review in the Weekly Standard of “Are You Serious?” by Lee Seigel.
Judging from old people I know, the question of seriousness used to be far more important than it is today. Those of us in the perpetual age of pre-old are more likely to divide our friends and relations into categories of “racist” or “black,” “sexist” or “good-looking,” fun or boring, (politically) dumb or okay, than to think of them as either serious or unserious. I suspect the urge to make something lasting of life meets the same number of us it always has—but not as early, and so not with the same effect. You can observe its presence now in the 50-year-old man who decides it’s finally time to move in with the woman he’s been sleeping with off and on for a few decades, get married, settle down, and have an abortion….
Interview with a Writer
For Liberty Magazine, the first home of our scribbles, I interview Garin K. Hovannisian about his book Family of Shadows — which, as Stephen Cox writes in his preface to the interview, is “causing a stir on several continents.” It is also causing a stir in several thousand readers. You can buy it here.
Review of Paul Johnson’s “Humorists”
I review “Humorists” by Paul Johnson in the February issue of The New Criterion.
Mencken’s Afterlife
I have a piece on H.L. Mencken — “saving the Sage of Baltimore from conventional wisdom” — in the current (December 27) issue of the Weekly Standard. Pick it up on newsstands or read it here if you have a subscription.
