In Praise of Folly

Shooting has just begun on a new History Channel miniseries based on the Kennedys. The eight-hour project has already stirred up some contr...

An important op ed from Paul Krugman on Sunday suggested that we may be on the road to a depression: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opini...

I write often here about the rhetorical strategies and tautologies conservatives use and the general tenor of conservative discourse. Today,...

There can be no more thankless job in the world than umpiring/referring big time sports (college and professional). When you do a good job, ...

There was a wonderful post in Talking Points Memo a couple of days ago, which you can read here: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/...

It will be interesting to see how conservatives will spin what many might call another Obama/Democratic Congress success -- the passage of f...

The following quote from A.O. Scott's New York Times  review of Knight and Day perfectly captures the problem with Hollywood today: ...

Corporate executives got more good news from the Supreme Court yesterday, as a suit brought by ethically-challenged Jeffrey Skilling of Enro...

I usually allow this blog to sort of follow the news of the day, but I think it is time to ask a broader question that doesn't relate to...

The match that wouldn't end finally did, after three days and 11 hours and 5 minutes on court, with a 70-68 final set victory for Americ...

The U.S. soccer team completed a nail-biting group stage of the World Cup with a dramatic 1-0 victory over Algeria in the 91st minute. It wa...

Following the advice of positive thinking gurus the world over, BP's PR team is in overdrive turning a tragedy into good news ( http://b...

Sarah Palin had a tweet today about the Gulf Crisis . . . “Gulf disaster needs divine intervention as man’s efforts have been futile. Gulf...

New York Times Visual Editor and Op Ed contributor Charles Blow has an interesting Op Ed on the waning popularity of Obama: http://www.nytim...

While we do not have to sell our souls to the corporate devil quite yet, we do apparently have to sell our privacy. So said the Supreme Cour...

During the BP hearings today, Texas Republican Congressman Joe Barton criticized the White House’s brokering the $20 billion fund as a “shak...

After eight years of Bush, Cheney and crew arguing that the President has almost unlimited power, Republicans are actually complaining that ...

Seniors and others in the U.S. have called for legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs in America (with much cheaper versions of...

Many think of the Tea Party as a fringe party that is much more active in the backwoods of American life. But as the New York Daily News re...

Boston, MA -- For the first time in six years, Kobe Bryant admitted a foul call. The momentous event occurred with 3:24 left in the fourth q...

A new study finds that college students lack the empathy of their peers from 30 years ago: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100528/sc_l...

In yet another blow to those arguing that all people in the U.S. should have equal access to the institution of marriage, a new study finds ...

poor, it appears. A new study finds that quality of life for American children has fallen to 1975 levels. That translates to 21% of children...

The party of no is starting to say yes -- at least to Internet users who might have an actual platform for them. Rather than telling us what...

I have been absent from my blog the past month or so with an end of semester rush, but wanted to start it up again now. I have talked often ...

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...