Andrew Lee Fielding

A nice article about Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/16/my-take-an-evangelical-remembers-his-friend-hitchens/?hpt=hp_c2

The Tenth Anniversary

2011-09-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

(Photo, circa 1978, courtesy of artist Jenny Lynn)

From The Huffington Post: "Jon Bruning, Nebraska Senate Candidate, Compares Welfare Recipients To Raccoons"

2011-08-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/jon-bruning-nebraska-welfare-raccoons_n_922312.html

Betty Ford (1918-2011)

2011-07-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

I always thought she was a remarkable, courageous, genuine (and wonderfully forthright) individual.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/08/betty.ford.dies/index.html

A very belated posting of a Bin Laden-related piece, from The New Republic

2011-05-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

The essay, which was published on May 2nd, is by Leon Wieseltier, the magazine's literary editor.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/87771/osama-bin-laden-white-house-obama-celebration

Maureen Dowd, on the death of Bin Laden: "Morally and operationally, this was counterterrorism at its finest."

2011-05-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/opinion/08dowd.html

Osama Bin Laden

2011-05-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

Osama Bin Laden was a profoundly evil individual. He was driven by ruthlessness, hate, and cruelty; he clearly took great pleasure in committing (and promoting) mass murder.

As President Obama said, on Monday: “Our country has kept its commitment to see that justice is done. The world is safer, it is a better place, because of the death of Osama bin Laden.”

Columnist Gail Collins on Donald Trump

2011-04-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

Gail Collins, of The New York Times, regularly writes enjoyable columns. Her April 1st piece was titled: "Donald Trump Gets Weirder."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/opinion/02collins.html?src=twrhp

An essay about Newt Gingrich, and the issue of seriousness, from the conservative Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby

2011-03-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

Jacoby writes, of Gingrich: "For someone who holds himself out as a public intellectual, Gingrich comes across all too often as more glib than thoughtful — more interested in joining the fray than in expressing carefully worked-out ideas."

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/03/27/gingrich_vs_gingrich/

And Ralph Nader shows, as he has shown for quite a while, that he is a frenetic thinker, as opposed to being a serious one

2011-03-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Ralph Nader attacks the Obama administration 's policies, including those concerning the war in Afghanistan:

"Ralph Nader: Obama ‘Should Be Impeached’ For ‘Committing War Crimes’ "

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ralph-nader-obama-should-be-impeached-for-committing-war-crimes/

Dennis Kucinich, showing why he is not someone to take seriously

2011-03-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

Politico.com headline, about Congressman Dennis Kucinich's response to the U.S. military engagement in Libya:

"Kucinich: Libya action 'impeachable' "

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51668.html

A nice story by Steve Hartman, on the "CBS Evening News"

2011-03-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

The story, one of Hartman's "Assignment America" reports, takes place in Los Angeles.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358041n&tag=related;photovideo

Essay by Israel's Tzipi Livni, Washington Post

2011-02-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

A good essay, about the continuing dramatic developments in the Middle East, from the 2/23/11 Washington Post. Tzipi Livni is the leader of Israel's Kadima party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/23/AR2011022305364.html

A follow-up, concerning Lara Logan

2011-02-22T20:39:00.000-08:00

On February 16th, The New York Post reported the following, concerning the February 11th attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan in Egypt's Tahrir Square, as she covered the resignation of Hosni Mubarak:

"60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, "Jew! Jew!" as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's main square Friday, CBS and sources said yesterday.

Logan, for the record, is not Jewish.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/cbs_reporter_cairo_nightmare_pXiUVvhwIDdCrbD95ybD5N

Wishing the best, to Lara Logan

2011-02-15T22:22:00.000-08:00

Lara Logan, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for CBS News, and a correspondent for 60 Minutes , is a fine—and courageous—reporter. She has for years reported regularly from war zones (such as, in Iraq and Afghanistan).

Today’s news story, concerning the Friday attack on her in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, while she covered the story of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation for 60 Minutes, is indeed very distressing.

From the CBS News statement: “In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”

Logan is recuperating in a U.S. hospital. As the Huffington Post story below notes, Katie Couric, the anchor of The CBS Evening News, says that Logan is "recovering well.”

In an on-line column on Tuesday, Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post wrote the following:

“It took great courage for [Logan] to make this story public, and I wish her a speedy recovery.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/15/lara-logan-suffered-bruta_n_823677.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/2011/02/what_happened_to_lara_logan_wa.html

On February 3rd, eight days before she was assaulted, Logan and her crew had been detained by the Egyptian army, and she had described the severe treatment to which she and the crew had been subjected. Her description of the detention appears as part of the following report:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/15/egypt.logan.assault/index.html?hpt=T2

Piece about Egypt, in The Washington Post

2011-02-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

The essay is by the columnist Richard Cohen, and appeared on 2/1/11.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104014.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

WikiLeaks, #2

2010-12-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

A follow-up from the previous post.

I was looking last night at the WikiLeaks page on Facebook, and read a number of posts (many from other countries).

In that it is WikiLeaks’ page, it was not surprising to see many posts from people who think of Julian Assange as a great hero.

“One day soon,” one poster wrote, “we should choose a day and all use Julians (sic) profile pic as our own face book profile.”

Wrote another: “Julian Assange is a God!”

In short order, too, I came upon various anti-Israel and anti-Jewish posters.

One such poster had this for a Facebook picture: a Jewish star with a swastika contained within it.

Another ugly posting proclaimed the following (I am, unfortunately, no longer surprised by the ubiquity of this kind of thing):

“Weird that there never any mention (sic) about everything that's being done by Israel and the Jews who are running most of the governments around the world, including Sweden I'm sorry to say!”

(I am assuming that a significant amount of support for WikiLeaks comes from people who dislike the United States—and so it is not surprising that one would quickly come upon anti-Israel vitriol on WikiLeaks’ Facebook page. Anti-Americanism, and animus toward Israel, not infrequently go hand-in-hand, throughout the world.)

While I admit to being interested in some of the information recently released by WikiLeaks (such as, the evident behind-the-scenes desire of some Arab leaders to have the United States stop Iran, militarily, from acquiring nuclear weapons), WikiLeaks' indiscriminate publication of hundreds of thousands of highly-sensitive documents remains utterly irresponsible, and potentially perilous. (Assange's disclosures have certainly put lives in jeopardy—which includes his previous release of documents containing the names of Afghans serving as informants for the United States. Please see: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20011886-503543.html.)

And then, today, Assange’s dangerous campaign continued. This, via the CBS News website: “WikiLeaks has been condemned by British and U.S. officials for publishing a secret State Department inventory of sites across the world deemed vital to American security.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20024666-503543.html

WikiLeaks

2010-11-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

WikiLeaks is a deplorable outfit. The website’s latest publication of highly sensitive and secret U.S. documents is profoundly reckless, and dangerous.

From CNN.com: "...White House spokesman Robert Gibbs condemned the release, warning that publishing the documents would jeopardize 'our diplomats, intelligence professionals and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government.' "

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/28/wikileaks.documents.published/index.html?hpt=T1

Here's a story from The Washington Post: “Hillary Clinton: WikiLeaks release an 'attack on international community.’”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112903231.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

And lastly, here's an interesting piece from the website of The New Yorker, by the writer George Packer. He writes, of this latest release of documents by WikiLeaks: “It will make the work of American diplomacy harder for a long time to come."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2010/11/the-right-to-secrecy.html#ixzz16ieUOYhV

Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995)

2010-11-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

Fifteen years ago today, on Nov. 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a very fine man and a courageous leader, was assassinated, just after he attended a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

Good column by Dana Milbank, of The Washington Post

2010-11-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

The column, titled "The Republican Party could use some adults," appeared in The Post on Sunday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102905833.html?wpisrc=nl_pmopinions

Ahmadinejad, and September 11th

2010-09-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

The President of Iran, with his latest remarks about September 11th, continues to demonstrate how sinister he is.

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/irans-ahmadinejad-anti-semite-homophobe-and-911-truther/19646587

Ahmadinejad: "the future belongs to Iran"

2010-09-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, said that “it is clear the future belongs to Iran.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100919/ap_on_re_us/un_ahmadinejad_interview

Ahmadinejad's words reminded me of the chilling scene in the 1972 film Cabaret, in which a Hitler youth member begins singing the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” at a beer garden. During the course of the song, most of the people there join in.

Before posting this item, I checked on google to see if others had written of Ahmadinejad’s words, and the film. I found a couple of people who had—including, on Monday, an essayist for “The Corner,” the column which appears on the website of the National Review; the essayist's comments then appeared on a number of other websites.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/247133/will-future-belong-iran-benjamin-weinthal

September 11th

2010-09-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

After some doubt as to what would occur, Florida pastor Terry Jones’s son says that the pastor’s plan to burn copies of the Koran on September 11th will not be taking place.

The minister‘s plan to burn the Koran was not simply vile, and dangerous. It also struck me as being utterly narcissistic.

September 11th has been (and should continue to be) a day focused upon memory, and tribute: honoring the many victims of the 2001 catastrophe. And honoring the many acts of courage and great heroism which took place that day.

Yet Mr. Jones—in what appears to have been profound self-centeredness—was re-directing the focus of September 11th. America (and the world) would be directing its attention to him, and his plans, and his beliefs.

Let me also say the following: in New York, tomorrow, protests/rallies will evidently be taking place. One side will be protesting against the planned mosque and Islamic center, to be built not far from Ground Zero. The other side will be rallying in support of the mosque.

I would hope these events can be postponed, and that September 11th can be observed as it has been observed in previous years: in reflection, in prayer, in gestures of remembrance, and in acts of public service. September 11th should not be a day for protests, rallies, ideological confrontation.

Timothy Egan, Aug. 25th on-line piece, New York Times

2010-08-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Please note, in particular, Mr. Egan's critical (and astute) comments about radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/building-a-nation-of-know-nothings/?src=me&ref=general

Charlottesville, Virginia

2010-08-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

A piece appearing on yahoo.com: "5 Great Cities For Retirees," from Kiplinger.com.

The first place listed is Charlottesville, Virginia. For years Charlottesville has appeared in lists of/stories about attractive and distinctive American cities. I lived there from the spring of 1995 until the start of 2001. It is a wonderful place, and I think often about how much I enjoyed living there.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/5-great-cities-for-retirees.html

More, from the detestable, twisted mind of Iran's Ahmadinejad

2010-08-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

Recent headline: "Iran's Ahmadinejad doubts Sept 11 attack toll."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6711EA20100807

NAACP's Benjamin Jealous, and recent Tea Party story

2010-07-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

I like the comment by Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, at the end of this recent story (7/19/10) concerning Tea Party figure Mark Williams. Jealous said: "Good riddance, Mark Williams."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39909.html

Update to previous post, and Ron Rosenbaum essay from April

2010-07-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

An Update to the previous post: The North Iowa Tea Party billboard referred to in the post was replaced, yesterday, by a public service billboard. Another Tea Party message, evidently, will soon appear in its place.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/07/tea-party-billboard-comparing-obama-with-hitler-lenin-removed-in-iowa/1

In the previous post, the AOL writer referred to a Ron Rosenbaum essay from April, in which Rosenbaum addressed the matter of language used by a number of Tea Party critics of President Obama and his administration.

In his essay in Slate, titled "The Tea Party's Toxic Take on History," Rosenbaum wrote: "Listen to Tea Partiers on cable news—or read the signs they hoist or their Internet comments—and you frequently encounter the flagrant abuse, the historically ignorant misuse, of words such as tyranny, communist, Marxist, fascist, and socialist."

Rosenbaum's essay is excellent. It can be found at this link:

http://www.slate.com/id/2251669

Anti-Obama lunacy

2010-07-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

From AOL News:

"Obama, Hitler and Lenin Share New Tea Party Billboard"

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/new-tea-party-billboard-of-obama-hitler-and-lenin-receives-complaints-from-other-tea-partiers/19553093

The Gulf catastrophe

2010-06-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

The ongoing oil spill is utterly heartbreaking, and sickening.

Like many, I still cannot understand how a company the size of BP didn’t have in place not only one, but two, or three, backup plans, in the event of a catastrophe.

The National Audubon Society (http://www.audubon.org/) is one of the groups involved in addressing the disaster.

Here is a link, concerning its Gulf-related efforts; there is a link, on that page, if you'd like to make a donation concerning the group's work related to the spill.

http://www.audubonaction.org/site/PageServer?pagename=aa_HowtoHelp

Here, as well, is a link concerning the work of another group involved in the Gulf, the National Wildlife Federation:

http://www.nwf.org/Home/Oil-Spill.aspx

Dana Milbank, on Helen Thomas and Hezbollah

2010-06-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

From Dana Milbank, in his Washington Post on-line column “Rough Sketch” (June 9, 2010):

The good news for Helen Thomas: She finally got somebody to defend her position on Israeli Jews.

The bad news: It's Hezbollah.

Thomas expressed "what people across the globe believe: that Israel is a racist state of murderers and thugs," said Hezbollah, a group of murderers and thugs.

The Gaza ship

2010-06-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

That people behind (and supportive of) the Gaza flotilla were hoping for violence is clear.

This is from a May 28th press release, from the group “Gaza Freedom March,” days before the raid by Israeli soldiers:

“A violent response from Israel will breathe new life into the Palestine solidarity movement, drawing attention to the blockade.”

They wanted violence—just as Hamas, which began its firing of thousands of rockets at Israel after Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, wanted Israel to attack, in response. Israel did respond, forcefully, in the winter of 2008-2009.

*******************

On April 29th, I posted a link to a column by Stu Bykofsky of the Philadelphia Daily News, in which he wrote, critically, of a speech by the Palestinian figure Hanan Ashrawi.

Here’s another good column by Bykofsky, about the raid by Israel on the Gaza-bound ship.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20100603_Stu_Bykofsky__Its_own_history_holds_answer_for_Israel.html#axzz0podKSlqz

Georges Simonon, and Maigret

2010-05-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

I’m at the post office most days, because I get my mail there (at a P.O. Box). Next door is the local branch of The Salvation Army. A few years ago I discovered they have a nice used-book selection, and since then have bought a lot of books there.

Here are two of them; both are part of the Maigret series, by Georges Simenon. I hadn’t read any of Simenon’s books before these, and enjoyed both very much.

http://www.amazon.com/Maigret-Headless-Corpse-Georges-Simenon/dp/0156551446/

http://www.amazon.com/Maigret-Madwoman-Georges-Simenon/dp/0156028506/

Essay from Philadelphia Daily News, 4/5/10

2010-04-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a very good essay, which I'm posting a bit belatedly. It is from early April, and was written by Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky:

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20100405_Stu_Bykofsky__Hearing_a_Palestinian__but_thinking_Ben_Franklin.html

Aharon Appelfeld

2010-04-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

A new book by the Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld, Blooms of Darkness, was published last month:

http://www.amazon.com/Blooms-Darkness-Novel-Aharon-Appelfeld/dp/0805242805/ref=pd_sim_b_2

I have not yet read it, but expect to do so soon.

Appelfeld is an extraordinary writer. While his current work is situated during the Holocaust, his novels often take place as the Holocaust is approaching, or take place in its aftermath.

Says Philip Roth: “Aharon Appelfeld is fiction’s foremost chronicler of the Holocaust. The stories he tells, as here in Blooms of Darkness, are small, intimate, and quietly narrated and yet are transfused into searing works of art by Appelfeld’s profound understanding of loss, pain, cruelty, and grief.”

Here is a link to one of Appelfeld’s best known works, Badenheim 1939.

http://www.amazon.com/Badenheim-1939-Aharon-Appelfeld/dp/1567923917/ref=pd_sim_b_3

Robert B. Parker

2010-03-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

The very talented novelist Robert B. Parker was best-known, certainly, for creating the character of Spenser, the Boston private detective. Mr. Parker died in January, at age 77.

After he passed away, I re-read his first novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, published in 1973; I’d originally read it thirty years ago. It was just as enjoyable, revisited.

I think my favorite books by Mr. Parker are his earlier Spenser titles—in addition to The Godwulf Manuscript, books such as The Judas Goat, Mortal Stakes, and Looking for Rachel Wallace come to mind.

Mr. Parker was a skillful—and wonderfully entertaining—writer.

A poisonous, hateful man

2010-03-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

Headline: "Iranian president: 9/11 was 'big lie'"

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/07/ahmadinejad.afghanistan/index.html

Chomsky, America, Israel

2010-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

I was browsing through Facebook recently (if you're not careful, you can waste a lot of time doing so), and looked at the page of someone I knew decades ago. In her list of favorite Facebook pages, she included a page about Noam Chomsky.

A number of people (largely on the left, though I am sure he has a significant number of right-wing fans as well) think of Noam Chomsky as brilliant; they regard him as a hero.

I am not in that camp. I think of Noam Chomsky’s ideas as being morally blind, dangerously misguided, frenetic, imbued with distortion.

His animus toward the United States, and its foreign policies, is tiresome, relentless—and routinely offensive. (In a November, 2001 interview, for example, he referred to the United States as "a leading terrorist state.") His obsessive hostility toward the state of Israel—rooted in a cartoon-like apprehension of the Middle East conflict (his views of the United States are similarly cartoon-like)—I have long found repellent.

Also repellent: an event currently underway, worldwide, known as “Israeli Apartheid Week.”

Here are two essays about the latter subject. The first is from Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. The second is from Canadian columnist Leonard Stern.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR2010030102761.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/dark+side+Israeli+Apartheid+Week/2612768/story.html

USA Network commercial

2010-02-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

The following YouTube video is a USA Network commercial; it concerns the network’s telecasts (which begin today) of the Westminster dog show.

There is a nice pairing, in the commercial—of lovely black and white video images of dogs, and Lady Gaga’s terrific song,“Paparazzi.”

(Apologies: the audio is unfortunately too low.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq14D4ET5D8

J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010

2010-01-28T12:04:00.001-08:00

Would this come under the category of "Compassionate Conservatism"?

2010-01-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

The headline, in a story from The Boston Herald: "South Carolina Lt. Gov. compares welfare to ‘feeding stray animals’":

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view/20100124south_carolina_lt_gov_compares_welfare_to_feeding_stray_animals/srvc=home&position=recent

And another story, about the same subject:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/25/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6139186.shtml

The Disaster in Haiti

2010-01-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

There are, obviously, a great many organizations raising funds to provide relief to those affected by the disaster in Haiti.

Here is a list of groups providing aid (and links to their websites), via msnbc.com:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

In addition: if you’d like to find out more information about a charity you may wish to donate to, please see:

www.charitynavigator.org

Thomas Friedman, November column

2009-12-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

Here (a month after the fact) is an essay by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

The piece appeared in November, and is called “America vs. The Narrative.”

“The Narrative,” Friedman writes, “is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/opinion/29friedman.html

“The general public didn’t exactly understand what we were going after.”

2009-12-12T19:04:00.000-08:00

A belated update to the posting, below, concerning the planned burnings-in-effigy, in Danville, Virginia, of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello. The event didn’t take place.

The organizer, in discussing the cancellation, argued that the event had been “misinterpreted.”

Actually, I'm guessing many people understood, quite properly, how offensive the idea was.

Greg Sargent, a blogger, wrote the following, about the cancellation:

Nigel Coleman, chairman of the Danville Tea Party, says the local property owner hosting the rally asked him to pull the plug.

“We will not be going forward with the plan,” a crestfallen Coleman told me by phone...“We had to cancel it. The property owner won’t allow us to do it. The media attention was something that he didn’t want.”

Coleman said he was upset that people had gotten the wrong idea about his plan. “I’m disappointed that the story got out of hand and people misinterpreted something we thought would be a little historical lesson. They made people believe that we were committing an act of violence,” he said, adding that the “they” in question were the “liberal blogs.”

Last week, Coleman defended the plan as reminiscent of the American Revolutionaries, a historical comparison that’s somewhat tenuous, given that the revolutionaries were rebelling against a monarch, while the Tea Partiers are protesting a plan created by a government that was elected by a sizable majority.

But Coleman said he didn’t feel that his right to free expression had been tread upon, blaming himself for not anticipating the backlash.

“It was a mistake not to see beforehand that this would be controversial,” he allowed. “The general public didn’t exactly understand what we were going after.”

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/tea-party-leader-nixes-plans-to-burn-pelosi-and-perriello-in-effigy/)

Some people really need to consider decaf.

2009-11-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

Tea Party organizer vows to burn Pelosi and Perriello in effigy

From CNN web site, November 14th, 2009, Posted at 11:28 AM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The organizer of a "Tea Party" protest in Virginia says he intends to move forward with plans to burn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Tom Perriello in effigy next weekend at a rally to protest Democratic health care legislation.

The event is scheduled for next Saturday in Danville, which borders North Carolina and sits at the southern end of Perriello's congressional district. Perriello, a Democrat, narrowly won his House seat in 2008 and is considered a top target of Congressional Republicans in next year's midterm elections.

When news of the rally surfaced Friday, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen condemned the plans as "shocking and despicable."

But Nigel Coleman, the organizer of the Tea Party, told CNN he doesn't see what all the fuss is about. The attention, he said, should be on the Democratic plans to overhaul the health care system.

"We're not going to actually set Perriello on fire or Mrs. Pelosi on fire," Coleman said. "But we have been trying to months to get our point across just how vehemently we are opposed to this health care legislation. For the House vote to come so close and to know that Mr. Perriello is on the other side, it's a kick in the stomach that a lot of people couldn't take."

Coleman said none of Perriello's potential Republican challengers have been invited to the event, which he expects will draw about 100 people.

"Something shocking and despicable is how they've handled this health care legislation," Coleman said, responding to Van Hollen's statement. "Going behind closed doors, writing a bill that is going to fundamentally change what America is. More people are going to be killed by this health care legislation than this bonfire."

Vegetarianism

2009-10-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

People ask me, now and then, why I turned to vegetarianism (next month it will be eighteen years), and it’s not always asked in an entirely friendly way. There’s an edge, at times, to the question; some people regard vegetarians as being somehow alien. I usually mention, when asked, that my decision did not have to do with health concerns, but that it was because of the animal issue.

I think my favorite response to questions about vegetarianism came from the Nobel Prize-winning writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. I have read different versions of the story. One of the versions, roughly, is this: Singer was at a dinner, and was asked if he had declined to eat the chicken which was being served “for health reasons.” Yes, he said—for the health of the chicken.

2001-2009

2009-09-11T13:47:00.001-07:00

Remembering, with continuing sadness, the catastrophe of September 11th...

An essay by Menachem Rosensaft, in The Forward

2009-08-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here is an essay, titled "Analogies Have Consequences," by Menachem Z. Rosensaft, from The Jewish Daily Forward (www.forward.com). Rosensaft is an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School and vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.

Analogies Have Consequences
Opinion
By Menachem Z. Rosensaft

Published August 10, 2009, issue of August 21, 2009.

In 1995, right-wing Israeli demonstrations opposing any political accommodation with the Palestinians featured posters depicting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the uniform of a Nazi SS officer. The message was duly received. On November 5, 1995, Yigal Amir, a far-right Israeli law student, assassinated Rabin at a Tel Aviv peace rally.

Members of Israel’s mainstream right-wing political parties, some of whom had spoken at the demonstrations in question, were quick to distance themselves from Rabin’s murderer. This was not what they had intended, they said. They did not see the posters. They could not be held responsible for the insane behavior of a deranged extremist.

We should keep the Rabin assassination in mind as Rush Limbaugh, arguably the most influential ideologue of today’s American conservative movement, compares the Obama administration’s health care reform initiative to Nazism and the president himself to Hitler.

“Obama’s got a health care logo that’s right out of Adolf Hitler’s playbook” and “Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like Hitler did,” Limbaugh told the millions who faithfully tune in to his radio show. The president “is sending out his brownshirts to head up opposition to genuine American citizens who want no part of what Barack Obama stands for and is trying to stuff down our throats,” Limbaugh continued, and “Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate.”

Limbaugh is not alone in making the Hitler analogy. Demonstrators disrupting town hall meetings on health care reform have brandished images of President Obama with a Hitler-like mustache and signs with “Obama” written under a swastika. Earlier this year, the president of the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County in Maryland wrote on the group’s Web site that “Obama and Hitler have a great deal in common.”

From the outset, the strategy of some Republicans has been to delegitimize Barack Obama by depicting him as somehow dangerous and “un-American.”

First they brayed his middle name, Hussein, and noted that Obama sounds a lot like Osama. Then they called him a Muslim. When that didn’t stick, they accused him of “palling around with terrorists,” and then of being a socialist and a communist, all to no avail.

That was conventional politics, albeit of the gutter variety. By comparing President Obama to Hitler, however, Limbaugh is sending his national audience a subliminal but clear message of a wholly different sort. He may just as well be shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.

Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, has condemned the Nazi analogies in the health care debate as “outrageous, offensive and inappropriate.” Americans, he believes, “should be able to disagree on the issues without coloring it with Nazi imagery and comparisons to Hitler.”

Foxman is right, of course, but he does not go nearly far enough in his criticism. The problem is not just one of civility in political discourse. The real issue is that Limbaugh, with the tacit acquiescence of his corporate sponsors and the GOP establishment, is calling for sedition and worse.

If Limbaugh in his radio broadcast had made, in the words of the relevant federal statute, “any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States,” he would have been thrown off the air and would be awaiting trial on felony charges. But his likening of Obama to Hitler is the functional equivalent of calling for an act of violence against the president of the United States.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, a plurality of Americans consider Limbaugh to be “the main person who speaks for the Republican Party today.” John McCain sees Limbaugh as “a voice of a significant portion of our conservative movement in America” who “has a lot of people who listen very carefully to him.” Mitt Romney calls Limbaugh “a very powerful voice among conservatives. And I listen to him.” Rudy Giuliani has said that “to the extent that Rush Limbaugh energizes the base of the Republican Party, he’s a very valuable and important voice.” And Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele has anointed Limbaugh “a national conservative leader.”

McCain, Romney, Giuliani and Steele should now either unambiguously repudiate Limbaugh’s ugly rhetoric or be deemed to condone it. To paraphrase the old labor movement song, we are entitled to know which side they are on.

It is time for Republican leaders to take responsibility for Limbaugh’s words before they have dire if not tragic consequences.

Menachem Z. Rosensaft is an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School and vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants.

http://forward.com/articles/111855/

Magazine piece

2009-07-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

A fascinating, impressively-written story about whales--and about remarkable and mysterious interactions between whales, and humans--appeared in the 7/12/09 issue of The New York Times Magazine.

The piece, "Watching Whales Watching Us," is by contributing writer Charles Siebert, and can be found at this link:

www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12whales-t.html?ref=magazine

WBZ Radio, and Morgan White, Jr.

2009-07-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday night/Friday morning (between 1 and 2 a.m.), I appeared by phone on Boston’s WBZ NewsRadio, with guest host Morgan White, Jr. While I have been previously interviewed by Morgan on WBZ about my book about early television, during this conversation we spoke not about the book, but about a particular issue: hate crime laws. Morgan feels such laws are not necessary—that current law can sufficiently address such crimes. I’m on the opposite side of the issue, and so we had a debate, of sorts, about the topic.

Above: a 1999 op-ed piece I wrote about the issue, which appeared in The Boston Globe. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Minnesota Supreme Court, and Al Franken

2009-06-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Headline today on CNN.com:

"Minnesota's Supreme Court has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the state's disputed U.S. Senate race."

This is, of course, a victory not only for Franken, but for the Democratic party.

It is also a victory for people like Rush Limbaugh, because it gives them something to get outraged about. People like Rush Limbaugh--and so many of their listeners--love getting outraged about things.

The Franken story, for Limbaugh, should be good for at least two days worth of shows.

The Globe

2009-05-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

If The Boston Globe dies, it will not simply be sad. It will be a cataclysm--for New England, for the paper's readers throughout America, and for journalism.

New Yorker cover, 4/27/09

2009-04-21T23:16:00.001-07:00

I love this drawing, on the cover of the current New Yorker. It's called "Bo," and it's by Bob Staake.

Maybe some businesspeople just shouldn't be in business.

2009-03-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

http://food.aol.com/obama-fingers

President Bush, Thinking "Long and Hard"

2009-01-18T11:49:00.000-08:00

It is not news that in leaving office, President Bush will leave behind, for many, a certain impression: that he is not, really, a man of reflection—and that as President he seemed to govern, frequently, from the gut, from instinct.

Perhaps out of a desire to counter such an impression, Mr. Bush has, on a number of occasions,
declared that he has spent much time in thought.

For years, he has used a certain phrase—one he repeated in his press conference last Monday (January 12th).

During the press conference, he said, of Hurricane Katrina:

“I’ve thought long and hard about Katrina—you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge.” He said: “The problem with that…is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission…”

It is the initial part of that answer—the phrase “I’ve thought long and hard”—that has for some time been a part of the Bush lexicon.

During an October, 2000 debate with Vice President Al Gore, then-Governor Bush noted that he had “thought long and hard about the honor of being the President of the United States.“

In a March of 2003 press conference, before the start of the Iraq war, Mr. Bush said: “And so I—you know, obviously, I’ve thought long and hard about the use of troops. I think about it all the time…”

From an April, 2005 press conference:

Q: Sir, you’ve talked all around the country about the poisonous partisan atmosphere here in
Washington. I wonder why do you think that is? And do you personally bear any responsibility in having contributed to this atmosphere?

Bush: I’m sure there are some people that don’t like me. You know, Ed, I don’t know. I’ve thought long and hard about it. I was—I’ve been disappointed…

In the summer of 2005, Bush said, of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan: “I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her position, and she has every right in the world to say what she believes…and I’ve thought long and hard about her position.”

In January of 2007, interviewed by Jim Lehrer of PBS, Mr. Bush spoke of sending additional troops to Iraq. He said: “And I thought long and hard about the decision, Jim…”

I will give Mr. Bush this: on certain issues, his judgments have had merit. I do not know, for
example, whether he has in fact “thought long and hard” about Hamas—yet his defense of Israel’s right to defend itself, against Hamas’s missile attacks, has been sound. Similarly, over time, he has evinced an essential understanding of the danger that radical Islamists present to the United States (and the world entire).

Yet one asks: has Mr. Bush, as he has repeatedly asserted, “thought long and hard” about issues and decisions? Or has this been an essential part of his failure as President: that far too often (e.g., Katrina, the economy, undertaking/planning the war in Iraq), there has simply not been the long and hard thinking one would have expected?

January 6th Thomas Friedman column, New York Times

2009-01-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

From the op-ed essay, "The Mideast’s Ground Zero," by Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times on-line, January 6, 2009:

"...In the week that Israel has been slicing through Gaza, Islamist suicide bombers have killed almost 100 Iraqis — first, a group of tribal sheikhs in Yusufiya, who were working on reconciliation between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and, second, mostly women and children gathered at a Shiite shrine. These unprovoked mass murders have not stirred a single protest in Europe or the Middle East."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/opinion/07friedman.html?scp=1&sq=%22Mideast

Bernard-Henri Levy essay, 1/9/09

2009-01-09T14:33:00.000-08:00

From The New Republic:

Liberate The Palestinians From Hamas

What to remember once the fighting stops.

By Bernard-Henri Levy, The New Republic Published: January 9, 2009

Not being a military expert, I will abstain from judging whether the Israeli bombardments of Gaza could be better directed, less intense.

Not being able for decades to distinguish between the good dead and the evil dead or, like Camus used to say, between "suspect victims" and "privileged executioners," I'm also deeply disturbed by the images of the Palestinian children who have been killed.

This being said, and taking into account that certain media outlets have been carried away on the winds of folly once again--as is always the case when Israel is involved--I would like to remind everyone of certain facts:

1. No government in the world, no country other than the vilified Israel--dragged through the mud, demonized--would tolerate having thousands of shells falling on its cities year after year. The most remarkable thing in the affair, the true surprise, is not Israel's "brutality"; it is, to the letter, its restraint.

2. The fact that Hamas' Qassam and, now, its Grad missiles have caused so few deaths does not prove that they are artisanal, inoffensive, etc., but that the Israelis protect themselves, that they live burrowed in the caves of their buildings, under shelter: a nightmarish existence, suspended, with the sound of sirens and explosions. I have been to Sderot: I know.

3. The fact that, inversely, the Israeli shells create so many victims does not mean, as protesters have angrily proclaimed, that Israel is engaging in a deliberate "massacre," but that the leaders of Gaza have chosen the opposite attitude and are exposing their populations, relying on the old tactic of the "human shield." Which means that Hamas, like Hezbollah two years ago, is installing its command centers, its arms stockpiles, its bunkers, in the basements of buildings, of hospitals, of schools, of mosques. Efficient but repugnant.

4. There is a capital difference between the combatants that those who want to have a "correct" idea of the tragedy, and of the means to put an end to it, must acknowledge: The Palestinians open fire on cities, or in other words, on civilians (which is called, in international criminal law, a "war crime"); the Israelis target military objectives and cause, without aiming to, horrible civilian casualties (which is called, in the language of war, "collateral damage"--which, even though it is hideous, points to a real strategic and moral dissymmetry).

5. Because we must dot the I's, we will again recall a fact that, strangely, the French press has rarely reported and of which I know no precedent in any other war, or on the part of any other army: During the air offensive, the Israeli army systematically called residents of Gaza who live close to military targets and invited them to evacuate--an Israeli minister said 100,000 calls were made. That this does not alter the despair of families whose lives have been broken in the carnage, it is obvious, but this is not a detail totally deprived of meaning.

6. Finally, as for the famous complete blockade imposed on a starving people, who are lacking of everything in this "unprecedented" humanitarian crisis: Again, this is not factually correct. From the beginning of the ground offensive, the humanitarian convoys ceaselessly crossed the Kerem Shalom passage. According to The New York Times, on Dec. 31--in one single day--nearly 100 trucks carrying food supplies and medicine entered the territory. And I invoke, only to preserve the memory of it (for this goes without saying--but perhaps it would be better to actually say it ...), the fact that Israeli hospitals continue, even as I write, to accept and care for wounded Palestinians every day.

Quickly, let's hope, the fighting will cease. And very quickly, let us also hope, the commentators will regain their wits. They will discover, on that day, that Israel has committed many errors over the course of many years (missed opportunities, a long denial of the Palestinian national demands, unilateralism), but that Palestinians' worst enemies are the extremist leaders who have never wanted peace, have never wanted a State and never conceived of one for their people other than as an instrument and as a hostage. (Consider the sinister image of Hamas supreme leader Khaled Meshal who, on Saturday, Dec. 27, when the scale of the greatly desired Israeli response was becoming clear, only knew to declare a return to suicide missions--and this during his comfortable exile, his cushy job in Damascus ...)

From two choices, one. Either Hamas leaders re-establish the truce that they broke, and, while they're at it, declare null and void a charter founded on the pure rejection of the "Zionist Entity": In doing so, they will rejoin the vast party for compromise that has not ceased--God be praised--to make progress in the region, and peace will be established. Or they will only, obstinately, consider the suffering of Palestinian civilians in terms of its fueling of their annealed passions, their insane hate, nihilistic, beyond words. And if that is the case, it is not only the Israelis, but the Palestinians, who will need to be liberated from Hamas' somber shadow.

Bernard-Henri Levy's new book, Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against The New Barbarism, was published in September by Random House.

Two responses

2009-01-06T16:16:00.001-08:00

In July of 2008, while visiting the Israeli town of Sderot, presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke of the many rocket attacks, from Gaza, that the town had been subjected to.

Mr. Obama said: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that." He added: "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

***********

An interview with Fareed Zakaria, the foreign affairs analyst and Newsweek columnist (and host of the Sunday CNN program "Fareed Zakaria: GPS"), was posted on CNN.com on Wed., January 7th.

Zakaria said: "Israel should end its campaign within a few days. It has achieved most of its major military goals."

In the interview, CNN asked Zakaria: Was Israel right to attack?

Zakaria: I think it was perfectly justified. No society could tolerate the continued rain of rockets falling on their civilian population...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/07/zakaria.gaza/index.html

A Defense of Israel, Washington Post op-ed essay, 1/1/09

2009-01-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

Here is an insightful, well-written defense of Israel's military campaign against Hamas.

The piece, by Robert J. Lieber, appeared in The Washington Post on January 1st, before Israel's ground assault began.

Lieber is a professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/31/AR2008123102773_pf.html

Oh, that George HWB...He's such a kidder...

2009-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Former President Bush touts son Jeb for top job

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer, Sun Jan 4, 2:46 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Another President Bush?

Perhaps so, says former President George H.W. Bush, who has already seen one son, George W., serve in the Oval Office. The nation's 41st president said Sunday that he would like to see a second son, Jeb, be president one day.

Jeb Bush is the current president's younger brother and a former popular governor of Florida. He is mulling a run for Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.

Asked in a broadcast interview about Jeb Bush's consideration of the Senate seat, Bush 41 said: "I'd like to see him run. I'd like to see him be president someday."

When asked if he was serious, he said: "Or maybe senator. Whatever. Yes, I would. I mean, right now is probably a bad time, because we've had enough Bushes in there. But no, I would. And I think he's as qualified and able as anyone I know on the political scene. Now, you've got to discount that. He's my son."

To read the full story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_go_pr_wh/another_president_bush

"CBS Evening News" piece about "The Elephant Sanctuary"

2009-01-02T22:13:00.000-08:00

Steve Hartman is a CBS News reporter, whose series "Assignment America" airs each Friday on "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric."

The following piece appeared on the January 2, 2009 newscast. It's a very beautiful story about the friendship between an elephant, and a dog, at "The Elephant Sanctuary," in Tennessee.

The video of the piece can be found at the top left of the story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/02/assignment_america/main4696340.shtml

The web site of "The Elephant Sanctuary" is: http://www.elephants.com/.

From the web site: "The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, founded in 1995, is the nation's largest natural habitat refuge developed specifically for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee - 85 miles southwest of Nashville."

Will Foolishness Win?

2008-11-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

On October 28, 2008, on the web site of the perpetually outraged--and routinely fact-averse--radio host Rush Limbaugh, there were these headlines, representing segments of his show that day:

“Socialist Obama Cannot Uphold the Constitution He Has Dismissed.”

“Explaining Socialism to Kids.”

“McCain Starts Sounding Good.” The sub-headline read: “The senator is out there battering Obama’s socialism.”

“America’s First Socialist Failure.” The sub-headline: “The real story of Thanksgiving.”

And referring to one of his callers, that day:

“Suzanne Stuck in Socialist Vermont.” Sub-headline: “If Obama wins the presidency, we’re all Vermont.”

I guess when you’ve got nothing of substance to talk about, this is the kind of foolishness you rely on.

Ralph Nader, on Barack Obama, and race

2008-06-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

When Ralph Nader suggested, this week, that Barack Obama was trying to “talk white,” in order to attract white voters, he took yet another step, in his ongoing—and ugly—process of self-revelation.

Said Nader, of Obama: “He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically, he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure…”

Said Nader: “I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson?”

For Nader, unfortunately, such racially-oriented rhetoric is not new.

While in 2008 he suggests that Senator Obama is acting white, in 2000 he charged that Bill Clinton and Al Gore were acting black.

Nader said this, regarding appearances by Clinton and Gore in front of black congregations:

“They’ve got the cadence down, they pander. It’s disgusting to watch.”

Perhaps, in 2000, he envied the popularity of Clinton and Gore, in the African-American community.

Perhaps, in 2008, he is envious of Barack Obama’s popularity, among both black and white Americans.

Nader, too, seems to covet the moral potency with which the issue of civil rights has long been imbued.

Indeed: he routinely appropriates the language of civil rights, in discussing his agenda.

He has complained, frequently, of what he perceives to be the “political bigotry” that he and other third party candidates face from America’s two major political parties.

He has also inveighed, regularly—borrowing from the lexicon of civil rights—against what he calls “corporate supremacists.”

And there is this, from 2001: Nader spoke of what he called the “new slavery.” He said: "The new slavery is the ownership and control of the genetic inheritance of the world—the flora, the fauna and the human genes."

Thus, with this odd, perverse moral equivalence, did Nader trivialize the slavery of human beings, slavery which exists today, worldwide—and which is such a profound part of the heritage of African-Americans.

Nader has long believed that other candidates avoid addressing crucial issues. He clearly believes those candidates do not have his clarity of vision—or his moral heft.

Ralph Nader believes—arrogantly, bitterly, resentfully—in the supremacy of Ralph Nader.

Andrew Lee Fielding

A nice article about Christopher Hitchens

Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading

The Tenth Anniversary

Recommended Reading

From The Huffington Post: "Jon Bruning, Nebraska Senate Candidate, Compares Welfare Recipients To Raccoons"

Betty Ford (1918-2011)

A very belated posting of a Bin Laden-related piece, from The New Republic

Maureen Dowd, on the death of Bin Laden: "Morally and operationally, this was counterterrorism at its finest."

Osama Bin Laden

Columnist Gail Collins on Donald Trump

An essay about Newt Gingrich, and the issue of seriousness, from the conservative Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby

And Ralph Nader shows, as he has shown for quite a while, that he is a frenetic thinker, as opposed to being a serious one

Dennis Kucinich, showing why he is not someone to take seriously

A nice story by Steve Hartman, on the "CBS Evening News"

Essay by Israel's Tzipi Livni, Washington Post

A follow-up, concerning Lara Logan

Wishing the best, to Lara Logan

Piece about Egypt, in The Washington Post

Recommended Reading

WikiLeaks, #2

WikiLeaks

Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995)

Good column by Dana Milbank, of The Washington Post

Ahmadinejad, and September 11th

Ahmadinejad: "the future belongs to Iran"

September 11th

Recommended Reading

Timothy Egan, Aug. 25th on-line piece, New York Times

Charlottesville, Virginia

More, from the detestable, twisted mind of Iran's Ahmadinejad

Recommended Reading

NAACP's Benjamin Jealous, and recent Tea Party story

Update to previous post, and Ron Rosenbaum essay from April

Anti-Obama lunacy

The Gulf catastrophe

Dana Milbank, on Helen Thomas and Hezbollah

The Gaza ship

Recommended Reading

Georges Simonon, and Maigret

Recommended Reading

Essay from Philadelphia Daily News, 4/5/10

Aharon Appelfeld

Robert B. Parker

A poisonous, hateful man

Chomsky, America, Israel

USA Network commercial

J.D. Salinger, 1919-2010

Would this come under the category of "Compassionate Conservatism"?

The Disaster in Haiti

Thomas Friedman, November column

“The general public didn’t exactly understand what we were going after.”

Some people really need to consider decaf.

Vegetarianism

2001-2009

Recommended Reading

An essay by Menachem Rosensaft, in The Forward

Magazine piece

Recommended Reading

WBZ Radio, and Morgan White, Jr.

Minnesota Supreme Court, and Al Franken

The Globe

New Yorker cover, 4/27/09

Maybe some businesspeople just shouldn't be in business.

President Bush, Thinking "Long and Hard"

January 6th Thomas Friedman column, New York Times

Bernard-Henri Levy essay, 1/9/09

Two responses

A Defense of Israel, Washington Post op-ed essay, 1/1/09

Oh, that George HWB...He's such a kidder...

"CBS Evening News" piece about "The Elephant Sanctuary"

Will Foolishness Win?

Ralph Nader, on Barack Obama, and race