In Praise of Folly

Not surprising given attitudes on taxes, the countries trust in government has been trending downward for the better part of 50 years. Pew, ...

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that most Americans think "most taxes" are wasted. A surprising 74% of responden...

Lehman Brothers screwing their investors by hiding its riskier investments through its undisclosed subsidiary Hudson Castle: www.nytimes.com...

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the new exhibit at the Guggenheim. It provided a sometimes interesting engagement with the evolution of...

There have been some impressive debut novels in recent years, including Gary Schtyngart's The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Jonat...

David Brooks used to be a conservative I could occasionally look up to. When he was on PBS, he seemed to be reasonable and often had interes...

The New Yorker has a nice article on global warming doubters in the current issue: www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/04/12/100412taco_talk...

So you cheated your way through high school, earning an honors degree. Then after getting kicked out of five schools (for cheating, those hy...

In a move clearly designed to destroy America, President Obama passed new fuel emission standards for cars today. The new standards are an a...

Scott Brown and Mitt Romney are mad as hell about Obama's healthcare plan and they are letting the world know it. Romney has been using ...

The papers are full of the radical Christian group that planned to kill an police officer and then others at his funeral: www.washingtonpost...

So Obama appears to have passed a bill that some have been hankering for over 70 years. It is a major achievement, especially when one party...

Not that it is really surprising to people who are paying attention, but the mainstream media has finally gotten in on critiquing the group ...

After years of watching their interests go unheeded by Washington, corporations will finally have their say in the political arena. The Supr...

A highway, airport, aircraft carrier and one of the biggest federal buildings in DC are all named after Ronald Reagan. But that's not en...

Surprise, surprise . . . the two conservative pranksters that caused a media firestorm over five months ago charging that ACORN was giving a...

To those of us who has watched bumbling Democrats for the better part of 30 years it is a near miracle to conceive that they might actually ...

In an odd turn on the American love affair with Schadenfreude is a new website that will let friends anonymously tell you what they really t...

What do you do when history is working against you? What if people really do want to learn from history so they don't repeat it? Well, j...

The Washington Post today reports that Wall Street is shifting its allegiance from Democrats to Republicans: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/c...

It depends who you talk to. For those at the top of the income ladder, this is clearly the case. They benefit from a laissez-faire approach ...

"I'm not frightened by bipartisanship... We should be brave enough to stand up and say let's work together until we finish defe...

So a growing number of Democrats are pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to include the public option in the reconciliation bill, that...

Simpson that is! A few articles in the past few weeks have called into question one of America’s favorite pastimes – namely, working. The Da...

There is something wrong when Jon Stewart and the Daily Show staff are doing much superior work to the mainstream media. Why can't anyon...

And now for something completely different . . . apparently American men are taking postmodernism to its absurd limits. Rather than buy a co...

So you’re thinking of running for office? What should you do to brand yourself and make sure you get sufficient exposure? Raise some money f...

One wonders how long the current Republican strategy can be effective -- can it really carry them back into power by simply doing nothing? O...

One of the most underreported problems in America today is childhood obesity. We do talk about it occasionally, but there is little dialogue...

Jacob Weisberg, Slate editor-in-chief, has an incisive critique of the political climate in America today. Rather than blame the politicians...

So a Senator from Alabama now thinks that it is acceptable to stop all 70 of Obama’s outstanding nominations until his fair state be given t...

Over the past two decades, Superbowl ads have become almost as important as the game itself. At parties across the country, people who could...

The Family Research Council has gone a step further than arguing that gay marriage will destroy America: news.firedoglake.com/2010/02/02/fam...

So now even legislation they support, or even came up with in the first place, they reject if it gets the imprimatur of the President. This ...

An interesting article in the Washington Post today argues that this congress has actually been the most successful since the Great Society ...

This has been a bad couple of weeks for Democrats. If we add the election in November, things have been going downhill for a few months now,...

Now that the Supreme Court has further expanded the rights of corporations as individuals, I think it’s time to contemplate the issue from t...

Is Truman Burbank the embodiment of us all? The character, played by Jim Carrey in The Truman Show (1998), won him a Golden Globe for Best A...

Why do we smile when lost in sadness we lay? Why do we laugh when tears right the way? Why do we hate when we’d rather create? Stay in a ...

The Supreme Court decision today is a smack in the face to democracy. Coupled with the result Tuesday, the hope the Obama presidency gave us...

I haven't heard anyone mention the irony that MA happens to be the first state in the country to dabble in socialized medicine, when Duk...

I occasionally read Esquire for pleasure, usually while taking care of some daily business. There was an interesting quote from Mohamed ElBa...

The Post continues its discussion of the Obama presidency today, with E. J. Dionne offering his analysis of the current Conservative backlas...

Obama won a sizable election a little over a year ago. He came into office with high popularity ratings and a desire by the country for chan...

What do you get for someone who has everything? A private jet, a limited edition Porsche, maybe a small island in the South Pacific? Well fo...

A number of articles today bring together an underlying theme of this blog. The first is from USA Today, detailing an unexpected rise in for...

So as Haitians are literally dying in the streets ( www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/world/americas/14haiti.html?th&emc=th) , you assume all w...

An interesting article in the National Journal yesterday ( http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2010/01/health-insurers-funded-chamb...