I can't get enough of these neocons.

Martin Peretz is a favorite. Who is he? He's former owner of the New Republic (his wife purchased it for him in the 1960's). He took the best liberal magazine in the country and turned it into a vanity rag dedicated solely to promoting the Likud line on Israel. The magazine lost much of its circulation (the readership switched to The Nation) and eventually Peretz was bought out but kept on as TNR blogger. His day job as teaching assistant at Harvard also ended after many decades.

Since Peretz left, TNR has gotten much better. It is no longer only about defending the occupation. But Peretz still is. Every column he writes is about his passion. His good guys (even artists, scientists, and movie stars) are invariably advocates of the Mideast status quo. His bad guys are always "anti-semites" like Jimmy Carter, critics of Israel, or, the worst, self-hating Jews!

In this column, he pummels columnist Nick Kristof for having called Iraqi refugees "the new Palestinians." Peretz is troubled by Kristof's compassion. He even ridicules the Times' columnist's role in bringing Darfur to the world's attention. But he says he's most angry that Kristof called Iraqi refugees "the new Palestinians."

Peretz hates Palestinians -- although he isn't sure they exist. (He suspects they are just random Arabs who invented the P term to get sympathy from the likes of Kristof).

Peretz hates all humanitarians. (He probably has nightmares about Eleanor Roosevelt!) He suspects that anyone with compassion for the underdog is bound to end up opposing West Bank settlements. Even a random vegan attracts his ire. If they have compassion for cows....

Peretz is not significant anymore. He's old. Nobody reads his magazine. He's supporting Obama (because he HATES the Clintons. Oslo!) but suspects that Obama too might have compassion for the underdog. There are few heroes left for him.

But he's not irrelevant because his younger acolytes, the neocons, are still out there. And, unlike him, they have power.

So it's worth checking out his blog THE SPINE named after the part of the human body possessed by those who have to fight the wars that Peretz champions from afar but which he sorely lacks. No spine. Just fear. It's sad really. Imagine being terrified 24-7.
I can't.