Sarah Palin’s son Track, who’s a veteran, has been arrested for allegedly punching his girlfriend. The former vice presidential candidate had this to say: “My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different, they come back hardened,” she said. “They come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airman and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country,” she added. “And that starts from the top.” “That comes from our own president,” she elaborated, “where they have to look at him and wonder, ‘Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America?’” “So when […]

Greg Grandin called me on Friday. Greg: What are you doing? Me: Working on my Salon column. Greg: What’s it on? Me: George Packer. Greg: Low-hanging fruit. Me: Did you see that article he wrote in The New Yorker, where he says he’s bored of American politics? Greg: Uh oh. Bombs away. Me: That’s the first line of my column! “When George Packer gets bored, I get worried. It means he’s in the mood for war.” So here is said column, just out this morning. Packer did say he was getting bored of American politics, so I examine how his political ennui so often gives him an itch for heroism, sacrifice, and war. Packer belongs to a special tribe of ideologically ambidextrous […]