AFTER WEEKS OF TAKING SNARKY SHOTS at Stephen Carter’s novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park, Tim Noah has finally read it. And he says it’s good.

Noah’s still after Carter over his non-attendance at some meetings of the Kass Council on bioethics, though. Maybe I’m prejudiced because Carter’s one of my old law profs (though I suppose that could cut both ways. . .) but I think this is, and has been, a bum rap. Carter’s non-attendance, I think, just shows that he’s a smart guy: Smart enough, at least, to figure out that the whole thing was a sham that wasn’t going to affect Administration policy anyway.