Paul Krugman is unhappy. “After the Democratic “shellacking” in the midterm elections,” he writes in today’s Times, “everyone wondered how President Obama would respond. Would he show what he was made of? Would he stand firm for the values he believes in, even in the face of political adversity? On Monday, we got the answer: …
It’s rare to get a phone call from a fan; it’s totally unprecedented when the caller is Mort Kunstler, one of the premier artists of Civil War themes, and one of the premier illustrators of his era. Kunstler has been reading the Disunion series in the Times, and much to my delight, offered me a …
Sunday on The Chris Matthews Show, during the “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” segment, Reihan Salam of National Review said “Conservative backlash against the TSA is just part of a huge revival of civl liberties talk on the right. We’re going to see more of it in the next couple of years.” First, all …
Most of my liberal friends (yes, true, that’s practically the only people I know) are mystified by the success of Sarah Palin. They don’t like her positions, they are condescending about her background and preparation, and they are disdainful of her intellect. For what it’s worth, the more I think about politics, the more I’ve …
Yesterday morning, driving in the midst of an drenching rainstorm, I heard “Christmas Rapping” by the Waitresses on the radio, and with that, my holidays had officially begun. (For more than 20 years, I mark the start of the season by the first appearance of that irresistible piece of pop perfection. In 2008, I never …
. . .check out the The Beloit College Mindset List. You might be way ahead of me on this, but every year since 1998, when it was started by Professor Tom McBride and then-Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, folks at Beloit College in Wisconsin have been looking at emerging and fading cultural touchstones. This year’s …
On a visit to National Geographic‘s website, I found this incredible photograph of volcanic lightning taken by Italian photographer and scientist Marco Fulle as flew over Iceland’s erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano last April. Who could imagine such terrible beauty?
I came upon a portfolio of collages by Fred Tomaselli in the December issue of Harper’s yesterday, and man, they blew me away! He has a whole series of these headline-based paintings, and I think they are just fab. He is my new favorite artist.
Many airline passengers are rebelling at the alternatives that have been presented to them by the Transport Safety Administration. Either they have to undergo a full body scan which yields an image oddly detailed, or submit to body search (similar to the one being undergone by actress Kate Beckinscale, left.). Certainly each has its icky …
Here, as reported in The New York Times, is a reason to be thankful: `Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful and divisive Republican lawmakers ever to come out of Texas, was convicted Wednesday of money-laundering charges in a state trial, five years after his indictment here forced him to resign as majority leader in …