Neoconservatives have variously been pigeonholed as crazed former Trotskyites, duplicitous Straussians and American Likudniks. Often, “neoconservative” seems to simply be used as shorthand (or code) for “conservative Jewish intellectual.”

Since the Iraq war, however, the term has entered popular usage. What it means now is a little difficult to put one’s finger on, as a passage from a recent article in Time Out New York demonstrates. Explaining why she doesn’t date guys of her own ethnic background, a Korean-American woman, identified only as Jane, told the magazine:

My problem with most of the Korean guys I’ve dated is that they usually want to go out with girls who are just like their mothers. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m no neocon, and I won’t be slaving over your kimchi in the kitchen.

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I wonder what Irving Kristol has to say to that?

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