Category Archives: Uncategorized

Unanimity in Hypocrisy

Is there no level of hypocrisy to which Republican candidates for president — every one of them — will not stoop? I thought I had seen the depths of their duplicity in the 2012 campaign when they were hypothetically asked by a show of hands whether they would support a tax increase if it were […]

Read More

Sicks, Lies and Videotape

  American culture and society are in the process of becoming corrupted and perhaps unalterably undone by a combination of three increasingly pervasive phenomena: (1) untreated mental illness, (2) politics based predominantly on small, medium and egregious lies, and (3) the instantaneous video reality of seeing and hearing what used to be unshown, unheard, and […]

Read More

The Certifiables

I have contended that in the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney’s chances were severely limited to a significant extent by the Republican debates held before and during the primaries. Being repeatedly on stage with a variety of ideological extremists (which is putting it politely) not only made Governor Romney look like the presumptive leader of […]

Read More

When Irish Ayes Are Smiling

Ireland, a Catholic nation, although with a clearly waning commitment to church dogma, has become the first country to legalize same-sex marriage through a popular vote, and by a resounding margin. Perhaps even more notable, after the vote, the leader of the faction against gay marriage sent a message of congratulations to the advocates of marriage […]

Read More

When Chutzpah Becomes Arrogance

A few weeks ago, Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, at the invitation of John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House, addressed the Congress of the United States and delivered a resounding insult to the president and people of this country. The insult to President Obama was exactly what Speaker Boehner intended. The insult […]

Read More

134 Minutes a Slave

I recently read an essay by Frank Rich (in my opinion, a brilliant observer of America’s sociopolitical scene) about the highly lauded and much awarded film, 12 Years a Slave. Rich admits to being very much emotionally affected when he saw it, but on reflection believes that it accomplishes little if anything regarding today’s racial […]

Read More

The Worst is Yet To Come

About seven months ago, I wrote a blog entitled “Bush League” in which I criticized the Obama administration for a series of deceptions and management blunders, suggesting that if such had been the case when George W. Bush was president, I would have been howling for his head. As I lamented, “The current fiascos reach […]

Read More

The Court v. Common Sense

Not quite twenty years go, a lawyer named Philip Howard wrote a book called “The Death of Common Sense.” His thesis was that government bureaucracy produces so many laws and attendant regulations so absurd as to stifle innovation and productivity, and by failing even the most cursory application of common sense, is counterproductive in pursuing […]

Read More