One hundred fifty years ago today, in the midst of secession and under threat of civil war, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office as the sixteenth president of the United States. His inaugural address, a firm and passionate explanation of his policies and intentions, closed with some of the most beautiful and stirring phrases …
By a vote of 8-1, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the First Amendment protects the right of a fringe church to stage anti-gay protests at military funerals. As the Washington Post put it, the decision “writes a new chapter in the court’s findings that freedom of speech is so central to the nation that …
Stories In The New York Times How retro: 2011’s hot new trend is. . . anti-semitism! just today, in the front section alone: Yemen’s beleaguered president Ali Abdullah Saleh blames Israel and the US for uprisings in the Arab world; hotshit Dior designer John Galliano (now ex-) is going to face charges for saying that …
Two very interesting, fairly contradictory stories about young men, have recently appeared. In Slate, Mark Regnerus says that while young men are struggling in the world, especially in contrast with young women, they are still finding it fairly easy to bed young women. “We keep hearing that young men are failing to adapt to contemporary …
A couple of days after Defense Secretary Gates said in a speech that “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,” Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, another leader I respect, has been backing …
It has to be one of the most stunning statements ever uttered in public by an American Defense Secretary: last week in a speech at West Point, Robert Gates, who served as Secretary of Defense to both President Bush and President Obama, and whose service has won him widespread respect, offered this view: “”In my …
I think from the moment I saw this album cover in 1965 or 1966, without ever consciously thinking it or being able to articulate it, I wanted to be that guy, on that street, with that girl.
The website HiLowbrow.com has begun running a series called “Kirb Your Enthusiasm”, in which writers take a panel of the artwork of the great Jack Kirby and delve into its mysteries, ponder its meanings, extol its magnificence, or just diddle around in awestruck wonder. The series will continue through March 7th. I’m curious to see …
Storm-free since the Super Bowl, snowfall Number Eight finally got around to arriving this morning, distributing a powdery six inches throughout Westchester.
I am sorry to see that a couple hundred dead-enders met in Montgomery, Alabama on Saturday to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis. I am sorry not because I object to grown-ups playing dress-up or even to people admiring aspects of the bravura Confederate spirit, but I do hate to see bad …