Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
When Tina Brown took over The New Yorker, it got hip, edgy and, to me, boring. We continue to subscribe, though, in large part because Mr. Bookworm has always subscribed. And I still read it because it's there, which is how I got to read two movie reviews that give
Continue readingI'm disgusted with the coverage of Al-Zarqawi's death, which focuses obsessively on how meaningless it is and how it will do little if nothing to make a difference in the President's war for oil. Oh, by the way, try telling that to the wildly celebrating Iraqis. The worst I heard
Continue readingMr. Bookworm took umbrage when, ten minutes into The Constant Gardener, I walked off, saying it was pompous, irritating and (because I knew from the movie reviews that the main point was evil corporations sucking African life blood), silly. The trigger for me was when the lead female character, in
Continue readingAnn Coulter's comments about a core group of 9/11 widows — that they enjoyed their husbands' deaths — was crude, rude and ultimately stupid. Why stupid? Because Ann's underlying point is lost, and it's actually a good point. Fortunately, a couple of year's ago Dorothy Rabinowitz made the correct point
Continue readingThis time it doesn't look like a rumor. This time it looks like the real deal: Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Multi-National Force-Iraq Commanding General, announced the death of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi in the following statement during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
Continue readingI talked to a liberal friend today who was up in arms at the fact that, in California's Central Valley, Rep. Richard Pombo beat former congressman Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. for the Republican nomination. He's evil, disgusting, he has a horrible record on the environment. How could they vote
Continue readingThere is nothing new about the misogyny that permeates fundamentalist Islam. I won't do a laundry list here of all the insults visited on women, both Muslim and non-Muslim, who live in or near fundamental Islamic communities. The other day, though, I was struck by how essentially misanthropic this form
Continue readingI'm one who joined in the chorus of complaining about the government's decision, at airports, not to offend Arab sensibilities by focusing on twenty-something Muslim males, washed and smelling of roses, sweating heavily, and boarding airplanes. I'm all of random checks of others, as well; it's just that I think
Continue readingNidra Poller writes about an aggressive anti-Semitic group on the rise in France. The whole article is depressing, but I'd like to take special note of the article's conclusion: Outside the ORT school, where the minister met with residents, a dapper gray-haired shop owner said, with dignified regret, “It’s over
Continue readingMany, many years ago, I read a wry, sarcastic book called I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional : The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help. As the book's title indicates, Wendy Kaminer, the author, was tackling the competitive dysfunctionality that the whole therapeutic culture promoted. The chapter in her book that struck me
Continue readingI hated the movie Pretty Woman. While critics — and my friends — were raving about a charming Cinderella story, I saw a movie that glamorized prostitution and gold digging. Blech. To me, it was a totally amoral story. I was reminded of it today, though, when I read this
Continue readingThe title of this post is the phonetic spelling of the Hebrew phrase "Jersusalem of Gold," a song I grew up hearing. A modern song, yes, but it captures the Jews' three thousand year old emotional connection to Jerusalem. From Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat
Continue readingI commented yesterday on the dishonest rhetoric the New York Times used to discuss the same sex marriage debate. Today, I was going to write about the "politics is personal" approach liberals areusing to turn traditional marriage on its head. Fortunately, Dennis Prager saved me the effort. His latest column
Continue readingElections in Czechoslovakia saw the population go right, by a hair: The main Czech conservative party has won the country's parliamentary elections held on Friday and Saturday (2-3 June) but it remains unlikely that it will set up a majority government coalition. The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) tops the election
Continue readingI have two reasons why June 6 is a really important day, and neither has to do with the Devil. First: VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE,
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