Just finished Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown, by the cultural critic David Yaffe. Very stimulating! Yaffe is a close, attentive, erudite listener and student, and a wise interpreter of the great Dylan. The book makes me wish I had paid closer attention to Dylan as an artist over the years, instead of just “liking” …
In The Baseline Scenario today, James Kwak runs a chart from Rep. Paul Ryan‘s proposal to diminish Medicare: “Here’s how to read that chart,” writes Kwak. “In 2030, under current law, a 65-year-old Medicare beneficiary’s health care will cost $60. (Obviously, this is using an index, not real dollars.) Medicare will pay $35 and the …
I had a great Civil War Centennial. I was eight years old in 1961, and my parents took our family on trips to Gettysburg and Antietam and Manassas. I had blue and gray toy soldiers, and Civil War trading cards, and I watched Johnny Shiloh and Johnny Yuma. From this, a life-long interest was born. …
Sidney Lumet, the great film director, died on Saturday. He made some of the greatest movies of all time–dramatic, entertaining, thought-provoking, Here are scenes from three of the best: Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict and the peerless Network.
Words of wisdom show up in the oddest places. Watching the Yankee game Friday, announcer Michael Kay was talking about a conversation he had with the manager of the Red Sox, Terry Francona, whose team has started the season a lamentable 0 and 6. According to Kay, Francona was saying that no, the team wan’t …
Essential reading from the excellent Joseph Stiglitz in Vanity Fair: “It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control …
In my interview with Robert Redford for Parade, the noted environmental activist had some pointed words about the current state of the environment: On how America is dealing with environmental issues. “Sadly, not well. The attempts of the previous administration to do away with all the laws and regulations that were put into place over …
Thanks to good luck and good connections, I got to write not one but two articles about The Conspirator, the new firm opening this week about the trial before a military tribunal of Mary Surratt, one of the alleged conspirators who joined with John Wilkes Booth to kill Abraham Lincoln and attack other high government …
When ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ exciting new Budget Action Hero, “What do you say to nervous Republicans who say that this is a political Kamizake mission?”, Ryan replied, “They didn’t come here for a political career. They came for a cause.” Having just completed a new installment of the …