Surrealistic Ben, the da-da man from Harrisburg, Pa., sends us this one. A frog the size of a cow? In central Pennsylvania, all things are possible. “Mom! Mom! Mom! Do we have any flies? You know, some really big ones?” Lois sighed. Jeremy and his frogs. She didn’t know where he got them. “Mom! Mom!…
Author: Alan Vanneman
The New Republic: Starting to stop not making sense
What is the deal with the New Republic? A couple of days ago they published an intelligent article on the Middle East by Kenneth Pollack, and today they publish a long, intelligent article on the fact that no, America is not “declining” (unless you mean, like, morally, in which case it totally is), an article…
Felix Salmon: Suze Orman is a big, fat idiot!
My god, is it Make Fun of Felix Salmon Week again already? I thought I had just gotten done trashing Felix two weeks ago! How time flies, eh? Well, enough shilly-shallying. Let’s get down to business. Two weeks ago, Felix wrote “I’m a big fan of Suze Orman, and I’m generally very mistrustful of prepaid…
Newt Gingrich is not a racist. He only makes grossly racist statements. All the time.
Over at the Daily Beast, Peter Beinart ties himself into knots trying to explain why “non-racist” Newt Gingrich says racist things, to wit, that black people (and only black people) somehow need to be told that they should stop collecting food stamps and get jobs instead. “Gingrich’s problem isn’t racism,” claims Pete earnestly, the sweat…
The Washington Post: Not entirely without honor, on occasion
I’ve pretty much lost count of the mean things I’ve said about the Washington Post,* but, by publishing “10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free” by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, the Post has demonstrated that it still feels some obligation to present opposing views. Turley’s eponymous blog…
The Obama Wars
President Obama ran for office promising “to end a war.” The artful use of the indefinite article, especially when coming from a Harvard man, should have been a tip-off that ending a war didn’t mean, you know, “peace.” The President has ended the war in Iraq, pretty much, if you ignore our Baghdad “embassy,” a…
Thelonious Monk’s “Bye-Ya,” performed by the Conservatoire de Nantes, at the Heure Musicale du Jeudi, November 13, 2008
Pierrick Menuau, tenor sax, Simon Mary, bass, Jean Chevalier, drums, Jean-Marie Bellec, piano. Posted by jmbellec
No Way New Yorker!
For the real deal, go here. “No offense, but you girls need new outfits, and I’m the damn Isaac Mizrahi of spandex.” “No, my name is not Clark fucking Kent, it’s Billy fucking Batson. Now give me a damn martini before I SHAZAM your damn ass.” “They all looked like this before they had a…
It was a slam dunk! An upside-down slam dunk!
Was the Bush Admninistration’s invasion of Iraq based on faulty intelligence? No, says Paul R. Pillar, deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center from 1997 to 1999, writing in Foreign Policy online. It was executed in the face of correct intelligence, to wit: “Had Bush read the intelligence community’s report [issued in October 2002], he…
So Unfair! To Arianna, I mean.
“Howie” Carr, who, according to David Weigel, is “probably the most influential talker in New England,” has recently labeled Newt Gingrich “a butch Arianna Huffington.” Funny! Funny, because I had always tabbed Arianna as a butch Newt Gingrich. What goes around comes around, I guess.