I went to a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah on Saturday and in some part because of my blog, and its discussion of Jewish politics, felt a little alienated. I forgot to get a yarmulke, then I ran to get one….
Outside the big cities boys entertain themselves by riding around the woods on ATVs—chewing the scenery and melting the glaciers—and vandalizing public works with paintball guns. You see the paintball CO2 canisters strewn in the woods. These kids await their…
When last I visited the subject, my wife had dismissed my criticisms of George Clooney’s political movies, saying I was being mean-spirited. Then fate rallied to my cause. My wife went to the hairdresser and told him about her soft…
As someone who spends a regrettable amount of time watching sports, one thing I look forward to about all the World Cup soccer games I’ll see this summer is, the games end in a timely fashion. Soccer games go 90…
Some commenters have gathered on my Juan Cole post to slag Cole. I need to defend him. One thing they’re angry about is that Cole is being considered for a top job at Yale. They say that he doesn’t have…
A kind reader points out that Nation Magazine’s Washington correspondent, John Nichols, has written a a bio of Dick Cheney. Dick: The Man Who Is President (Dick Cheney). New Press, 2004.
Chris Matthews made a giant breakthrough tonight: He pronounced Dick Cheney’s name right. CHEE-knee. Rhymes with Meany. That’s how Cheney’s family pronounces his name. I heard his wife say it that way at the 2004 convention. And after Cheney’s hunting…
Helen Newman Memo to all plagiarists, fabricators, jailhouse-memoirists and other literary charlatans: This is a story about a writer. Helen Newman, 29, lives at her mother’s place in Brooklyn. She teaches English at a cram school for Korean kids, sometimes…
I don’t care whether it was Ambien or alcohol; I wonder whether Patrick Kennedy isn’t—unconsciously—seeking a way out of politics with his latest run-in with the law. Kennedy last went into rehab just five months ago, now he’s going back….