1.31 On The Problem With Jon Stewart podcast, Stewart and journalist Gabriel Gatehouse  attempt to understand why so many people bought into the QAnon conspiracy theory.  The Financial Times: ““”They ended up in some unexpected places. If you take the main conspiracy theory points literally — Hillary Clinton and other global elites are in a cabal of blood-drinking pedophiles — then obviously it’s nonsense. But …

JANUARY 2022: “WHEN THINGS ARE GRIM, BE THE GRIM REAPER” Read More »

My friend and colleague from Spy days, John Connolly, died on Saturday at age 78. John was a great guy and great investigative reporter. He was energetic, enthusiastic, incredibly fun, and highly skeptical. John spent the first part of his career as an NYPD detective, and I think that turned him into a connoisseur of …

JOHN CONNOLLY (1943-2022) Read More »

1.17 Ben Affleck in EW: “Judge me for how good my good ideas are and not how bad my bad ideas are.”  1.15 The Bills beat the Patriots 47-17. All seven of the Bills’ possessions (except two kneel-downs as timme expired) ended in a touchdown–no field goals, punts or turnovers. This had never happened in …

JANUARY 2022: “THE TRUTH MATTERS” Read More »

12.31 Betty White dies at 99. 12.31 Becky Hammon named head coach of the Las Vegas Aces 12.31 “”You should be ashamed.” 12.30 Francis Collins, quoted in the Washington Post: “Maybe we underinvested in research on human behavior. . . I never imagined a year ago, when those vaccines were just proving to be fantastically …

DECEMBER 2021: “`”IT’S ALMOST ENTIRELY THEIR OWN DARN FAULT” Read More »

11.29 Lara Logan on Dr. Fauci on Fox New: “He represents Josef Mengele … the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews during the Second World War in the concentration camps. And I am talking about people all across the world are saying this! Because the response from COVID. What it has done to countries everywhere. What …

NOVEMBER 2021: “YEAH, I HAVE TO LAUGH AT THAT” Read More »

10.31 The Pumpkin Princess 10.30 Tom Verducci in SI: [T]he true threat to baseball is the aesthetics of the game—pace of play, including the enormous influence of pitching changes on declining offense and length of games. It is the climate change issue of baseball. 10.28 PETA advocates the banishment of the term “bullpen,” suggests “arm barn” as …

OCTOBER 2021: “TRUTH, JUSTICE AND A BETTER TOMORROW” Read More »

9.30 Stephanie Miner in Politico: “The reality of politics is it’s a forum for ambitious people who believe that they are correct, And we are going into an election cycle. But it doesn’t have to be an authoritarian, dictatorial model. My experience is that women are more collaborative,” she added. But that’s because of how few get …

SEPTEMBER 2021: “I WANT MY FREEDOM TO LIVE” Read More »

8.31 Matt Bai in the Washington Post: Will voters a year from now focus on the economy? Yes. The state of the pandemic? Sure. Government spending? Entirely possible. Bungling the end of a 20-year war in Afghanistan — a withdrawal that most people supported? Very, very unlikely. 8.30 After 2,461 U.S. service members killed, 20,000 …

AUGUST 2021: “I WILL DROP THEM LIKE A BAG OF DIRT” Read More »

7.28 Dinner with Cathy and Tim at Water’s Edge Lighthouse restaurant in Glenville. 7.28 Kevin McCarthy: “Make no mistake — the threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.” Nancy Pelosi: …

JULY 2021: “WHAT WOULD MY MOTHER THINK OF IT?” Read More »