Lost in Transliteration

TheAtlantic.com is running my explanation of our Arabic transliteration policy.

Libre Mente Tuya

The inimitable Benjamín Fernández Bogado interviewed me this morning about Iraq, American politics, and the history of The Atlantic Monthly on Radio Libre, 1200AM in Asunción, Paraguay.

A letter

That was quick. The London Review of Books published a letter I wrote just last week about Nicholas Guyatt's piece on the Christian right.

In the letter I did not mention one other minor error. Following the lead of a number of Web sites and T-shirt manufacturers, Guyatt attributes this cute line to Sinclair Lewis:

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

I cannot be sure, but I don't think Lewis ever wrote this. It's not in It Can't Happen Here, which is where most place it.

There are two similar-sounding quotes from the same era. In the Teachers College Record, J. A. Gengerelli wrote in 1939:

When fascism comes to America it will wear the knee-breeches of the Spirit of 1776.

And no later than 1940, Time magazine was attributing to Huey Long:

When fascism comes to America, it will be called anti-fascism.

(Long, incidentally, is a venerated figure here in Paraguay. Another local hero: Rutherford B. Hayes, who has a whole province named after him.)

Of these three versions, the faux-Lewis is most boring, the Gengerelli most vivid, and the Long not only smartest but also most pertinent.

Whole Hog

Spotted at Reagan Airport: the current issue of Mental Floss is running my spread about parts of pigs humans can get installed in their bodies.

More on the Kurds

Last month I had an Atlantic Online piece about my trip to visit the PKK guerillas in Qandil, Iraq. This month's Jane's Intelligence Review features an analysis (subscription req.) of the upcoming vote in Kirkuk.

Sunny Abkhazia

The Smart Set just published a dispatch from Abkhazia.

Review of Amy Chua's latest

I reviewed Amy Chua's Day of Empire for the New York Sun.

The Bob Grant Show

Bob Grant of WABC had me on last Thursday to talk about hurricane modification. As the owner of property in Florida, he's all in favor of it.

What Happens Here

I'll post occasionally to record where my writing has appeared. Another site will keep archived articles.