The American Prospect—Greg Sargent—has a good item on the bogusness of those horrifying reports that Jews and other religious minorities in Iran would have to wear colored badges identifying them as infidels. One of the original reports on this canard,…
We’re pathetic. Brian Williams is in Africa for NBC Nightly News to report on the AIDS crisis and the focus of his piece is Bono of U2, his visit. What a great man he is, what an investment he’s made…
What hath Annie (Proulx) wrought? The gay Vito subplot on The Sopranos, now concluded with his beating death, seems an homage to Proulx’s landmark New Yorker story of 1997—and the Ang Lee movie that was based on it. How many…
In a lot of media outfits, when a big guy retires they put together some sort of festschrift, a fake front page, a book of testimonials, and give it to the guy at his retirement dinner. On 60 Minutes they…
Having watched Barbaro’s unbelievable run in the Derby and his terrifying start in the Preakness, I’m of course pulling for the horse to recover from the phenomenal operation he had today—but I’m wondering whether I should give up watching horseracing,…
A few months ago I went to Syria as a tourist, to visit my wife’s cousin, who is teaching in Damascus. I had a very good time (in stark contrast to an unpleasant trip to Morocco) and since then I’ve…
It struck me today (i.e., I heard someone else saying) that the controversy over The Da Vinci Code only demonstrates the religious need that people feel, how unsecular most of us are. The book is hugely successful not because it…
After the rock I went for a walk yesterday and when I got back to the trail head some s.o.b. had knocked out my window with a rock, then pulled the emergency brake. I’d put a block under the back…
Under this heading, from time to time I’m going to dig up some of the sage advice the neocons and their fellow travelers offered us as they pushed the country toward war in Iraq. First at bat is David Wurmser,…