A week or so ago, in a piece breezily titled, for the sake of the faint-hearted (and Mark Zuckerberg), “O my Democratic Party, Where the F*ck Art Thou?”, I argued that the much maligned Nancy Pelosi was still pretty much a shoo-in for re-election as House Speaker: “luckily for Pelosi if no one else, she…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Yo, Clarence Thomas! God is the searcher of all hearts, not you!
Clarence Thomas, eagerly accepting the role of Supreme Court curmudgeon in chief now that Nino Scalia has cashed in his chips, eagerly accused six of his colleagues of cowardice—or perhaps believing in “abortion rights”—when only Justices Gorsuch and Alioto would join him in voting to hear appeals of cases that involved the use of Medicaid…
Uh Oh! Someone at CNN knows Mathematics!
Yes, it has come to this: reporters, at CNN no less, who have studied calculus. In an article on the impending departure of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, we have the following: Kelly’s highly criticized handling of the [likely wife beater Rob] Porter controversy was an inflection point in his tenure ….” For…
The Devil is in the Footnotes
Evelyn Douek is an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School, studying international and transnational regulation of online speech. Before coming to Harvard to complete a Master of Laws, Evelyn clerked for the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Hon. Justice Susan Kiefel, and worked as a corporate litigator. She received her LL.B….
H.W.–the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
De mortuis nihil nisi bonum? Speak nothing but good of the dead? Well, I leave that to the fancy outfits. If you want to read about what a wonderful guy Il Giorgio, aka “Aitch Dubya,” was, well, read the Post or the Times, or whomever. Here at Literature R Us, we mix the good with…
O My Democratic Party, Where the F*ck Art Thou?
Well, good question. If Happy Days aren’t here again, and they aren’t, life is better, definitely. To have the House of Representatives back in Democratic hands after eight long years is definitely a pleasure if not a treasure. As one representative put it “Being in the majority is a thousand times better.” Furthermore, the party’s…
Shorter Ramesh Ponnuru: “We don’t need no lousy, stinkin’ Independent Judiciary!”
Yes, I may have condensed (slightly) Mr. Ponnuru’s sentiments, so let me provide some backstory. A few days back, as Politico’s Matthew Choi reports, a federal district court judge in California, Judge Jon Tigar, ruled against President Trump in an immigration case, causing the president, unsurprisingly, to bellow in rage, claiming that Tigar ruled the…
“Grow up, Conservatives!” bellows the Weekly Standard, in its very best grown-up voice
Yes, grow up, conservatives, demands the Weekly Standard’s Chris Deaton, bemoaning the right’s “short game” critique of U.S. representative-elect and left-wing babe o’ the millennium Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Stop making fun of her wardrobe, particularly when, as it turns out, the outfit was a loaner, and concentrate on refuting her wacko long game, which as it…
Laugh at Me!
The dude above, in full 1965 black and white, is one Sonny Bono, once married to a woman named Cher, whom you may remember. Back in 1965, Sonny’s hair, clothes, and general assemblage were considered risible among the geriatric set, causing Sonny to protest. Today, since its selection as a co-site for almighty Amazon, Crystal…
Luxury Hotels know how to raise prices, but not wages
If you’ve ever even thought of staying in a luxury hotel, you know they aren’t cheap. Well, yes they are. Bloomsberg has a bit “Chinese 5-Star Hotels Apologize After Video Reveals Hygiene Horrors” suggesting that these videos show up from time to time, because “Worker shortages and low pay make it hard for hotels to…