Yokels

Safire nailed it today. Also poems of blood and anger....the first two, by soldiers, are a must read...I admittedly don't read Kristof all that much, but his blog has some interesting tidbits. Regarding an article about the lessons of Troy:

for all the greatness and glory of Athens, its arrogance after the Persian Wars systematically alienated its allies and led to its defeat by Sparta within the span of three-quarters of a century. He wrote: "One cannot but identify with the Athenians, their values and their culture, which after all formed the single most important contribution to Western civilization. However, they did miss (to their detriment) a historic opportunity to maintain a 'gentle' leadership of the Greek world....I am afraid the U.S. may be missing a similar opportunity. And I am scared that if this continues for a couple of generations,” he writes, “the equivalent of the Spartan fleet may be sailing up New York harbor by the turn of the century.