Greetings from Zimbabwe

Matt Yglesias has always struck me as proof that if you head straight to Washington after college, you can do two things: grow the most unsightly facial vegetation and be taken seriously by pundit types even when you talk incredible balls.

For those just tuning in, Yglesias has got an ongoing feud-lette with my friend and Jewcy booster Jamie Kirchick. Jamie is Marty Peretz's research assistant and a contributor to the New Republic and other sundry publications. There are two things you learn about Jamie right away from reading his stuff: He's openly gay, and he's very informed about the criminal regime of Zimbabwe — so much so that even Robert Mugabe has apparently taken notice.

One thing you learn right away from reading Yglesias: It really doesn't matter what position his opponent takes because a petulant blog brat can simply make up one. Here's Yglesias today:

When you look at different takes on the Darfur situation, you see them divided into two main camps. On the one hand, you have people who are interested in Darfur who don't normally write about humanitarian issues or Africa, but who do frequently write in support of militarism and in derogation of the UN. In this camp you have Kirchick, The Weekly Standard, Leon Wieseltier, Marty Peretz, etc.

Don't normally write about humanitarian issues or Africa, you don't say. What a shame that in this pat little Neocon vs. McWorld dichotomy Yglesias couldn't squeeze in those crazy apocalypse-heralding Christians who've been banging on about Sudan (and not just Darfur) for longer than Nicholas Kristof has, and — yes — advocate military intervention and think the U.N. could at least use a paint job.

Of course, "Two Perspectives on Genocide" says book deal to me much more ably than "A Bunch of Different Perspectives on Genocide with Areas of Overlap and Contradiction."