at the end of bill kristol's column today, the nyt blandly remarks that it is his last. one wonders what happened. i greeted it as a good appointment (here  and here); i thought we'd get a lively and actually-right voice. but i have been disappointed. the columns were unaccountably bland, much more so than much of bk's writing in other contexts; perhaps he was too aware of defusing a hostile audience. and it's hard not to see that his style of neo-conservativism, characterized by triumphalist militarism is, at least for moment, well over.