Last night, my life was at an all-time low.  While competing in a ping-pong tournament with Mimsy, I went back to return Algernon’s serve, and--you’re not going to believe this--I stepped on the ball!  Well it was ghastly, just GHASTLY.  (Apologies to Patrick Dennis… Read full post »

When I was elected President of my New York cooperative association, the building had three problems:  the roof, the lobby, and the boiler.  I promptly appointed three vice-presidents, each in charge of one of the areas of concern.  Life was a lot easier after that.

It se… Read full post »

Once a hero, always a hero?

Everyone acknowledges that McCain was a hero. But is he a hero still?

Anyone who has ever lost a bet, a lover, or a job has experienced the pain of loss.  How about losing a contest for the world’s most important job and… Read full post »

 Hillary Clinton said that Fox News was the most balanced coverage she'd received on televison during the campaign.

For every blowhard like Sean Hannity, there's an Alan Colmes. Or at least there was.  For every meglomaniac like Bill O'Reilly, there's a Pulitzer Prize winner, Charles… Read full post »

Is there a sadder sack on the planet than Harry Reid?

With great political flair, he has managed to parlay blatant corruption in Chicago into a personal embarrassment.  First, he wasn't going to seat Burris, and he didn't.  Then, Obama and other functioning intelligences get to him and he r… Read full post »

Let’s reason together.

The distinction between attacking what posters say and who posters are is undoubtedly a useful one.  But on a forum such as this, it seems to me that the only way you can meaningfully attack a poster personally is by making up facts, and what person… Read full post »

“Eight years, and I haven’t been able to lay a glove on the American infidels on their home turf.  Damn!

But, things may be looking up.

• The new head of the snoops who keep screwing up our plans is a notorious “yes” man with some intelligence, perhaps,
… Read full post »

A lot of recent discussion of the Israel/Hamas conflict reflects the philosophy of relativism, which bloomed in university classrooms during the rebellious 60s and seems to have great staying power.  Hallmarks of this philosophy are comments like “one person’s terrorist is an… Read full post »

During the decade of my formal education, I would escape the books by taking the subway to 125^th Street in New York City and stroll across to the Apollo Theatre for an evening of entertainment and escape.   I can't recall ever being disappointed.

Pearl Bailey was there complainin… Read full post »

Legitimate reasons exist to question both the sincerity and the intensity of Obama’s support of Israel in that country’s historical and current struggle against Islamic extremism.

Obama’s campaign rhetoric was reassuring, but it was, after all, campaign rhetoric. … Read full post »

Caroline Kennedy's embarrassing foray into the arena of unscripted public speaking offered further proof that she is epically unqualified for the Senate seat she seeks.

The addiction to "you know" (a little like some posters here are addicted to the first-person, singular, subjective pronoun) is an e… Read full post »

Two (hence the plurals) stand out.

First site:  the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn (where Madonna doesn't come from).  Drag beauty contest sponsored by the Mafia.  For some reason, macho Italian men are fascinated by transvestites.  Hmm. When the clear winner won, a small word was b… Read full post »

Before the Industrial Revolution, when fields were green, when air was pure, and when hearts were in the highlands, people lived, if they were lucky, into their 60s.

Anyone living today in their 70s or 80s should find the smelliest smokestack around and plant a big sloppy kiss of gratitude… Read full post »

Two ten-story “M”s frame the vast stage placed at one end of Sao Paulo’s Morumbi Stadium, one of the world’s largest soccer venues.  No, they don’t stand for Me and More Me.  It’s Madonna, and Sunday’s concert was the last in her Sticky and… Read full post »

In view of the important things going on in the world today, I'm struck by how much e-space is taken up with blogs about nothing but blogging.  I'm particularly bewildered by writers who focus on the extent to which their posts are read, rated, covered, whatever.

I can understand discussion of… Read full post »

Among the more amusing sights and sounds of the current political scene is the spectacle of liberal "intellectuals" and media fawners kvetching about Obama's not honoring his debt to them for getting him elected.  There's shock and awe(ful) about, inter alia, his cabinet and other appointments,… Read full post »

Joe, the bootlegger, started it all. 

JFK disrespected the office to which he was elected with more illicit sex than WJC could have imagined in his wildest wet dreams.  He then intoned that we should serve the country, not ask it to serve us in a speech that Karl Marx… Read full post »

In Paglia's recent and brilliant analysis of evolution in language styles, which she claims has passed Cavett by, she quotes Cavett's ridiculing Sarah Palin's speaking in "run-on sentences."  She could have added that this indicates that Cavett doesn't know what a run-on sentence is.

A run-on se… Read full post »

Somewhere along the line, some fairly basic philosophical foundations for the life that Americans enjoy, and often take for granted, get lost in a miasma of feel-good mushiness.  The foundations I’m speaking of are the concepts of free will, private property, the profit motive, and… Read full post »

We celebrate our victories wherever we find them.

 The Georgia voters were apparently more activated by two achievers, Romney and Palin, than by Ludicris and Ludicrous.

Obama was probably rooting for Chambliss, and he probably wants Franken to lose, too.  He's not exactly exerting himself t… Read full post »

Based on an admittedly limited involvement in OS, it seems to me that there are two very different types of posts here.  The first type is written as one would write a reasonably important letter. The second type is more like a text message or a recorded telephone conversation.  In other… Read full post »

Greta Van Susteren's interview with Sarah Palin is really bad news for her detractors.

In the face of defeat, incredible and really stupid abuse from pundits, bloggers (yes, many of you), and political commentators, Governor Palin pulled off an interview with candor, humor, and political savvy, and a… Read full post »

No one will be nominating Bill Richardson for a loyalty award in the near future.  After having been supported by the Clintons for many years, he turned on them and went for Obama--a turnaround for which he will be, indeed has been, amply rewarded.

Now certain voices on the far left… Read full post »

It is clear that the Mormon Church made a strong effort to effect passage of Proposition Eight in the State of California.  The Church has been criticized strongly for this by writers, bloggers (some of whom are also writers) and others.

No matter how one comes down on the… Read full post »

In this classic British film, remade rather poorly with Christopher Reeves, a group of very strange children have the uncanny ability to sense a threat to any one of them and to act robotically in defense, much as a psychic lioness would protect her young.

As noted in a previous post,… Read full post »