March 2010

Note to Sean Penn, et al.

March 31, 2010

On March 5th Sean Penn, who has been doing remarkably fine work in Haiti, appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show, and, in defense of Hugo Chavez, said Everyday this elected leader is called a … a dictator here, and we just accept it and accept it. And this is Main Stream Media who should … [...]

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An Historic Error

March 29, 2010

The Israeli settlements, on the West Bank and in Gaza, were an historic error the cost of which Israel is now paying. Many people in both public and private life feared this to be so when the Likud government began its aggressive settlement policy in the 1970s, and time has proven them right. Israel acknowledged [...]

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Sunday Scattershot

March 28, 2010

A Face of Health Care Reform Julia and I have a very dear friend who, post divorce, and confronting the vagaries of life with determination – he began, this semester, an educational program aimed at a new career – has health insurance for his young daughter, but none for himself. A week ago he began [...]

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How We Lived on It (15)

March 27, 2010

Music: Protège-Moi/”Protect Me from What I Want,” by Placebo Video: aylakadam21 Share Tweet Subscribe to comments on this post Email

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Indian Rights, Human Rights

March 26, 2010

I was going to post on Israel today. Recent developments are much in the news (Jeffrey Goldberg is even pausing to consider – “This is big stuff,” he says), and more than is generally the case, there is a sense of urgency, though nothing in particular is about to happen. But this is the point. [...]

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That’s What They Think, Friday 3/26/2010

March 26, 2010

Matthew Yglesias – Pelosi As Trailblazer Of course, the Pubs despise her. More, less than Obama? Is she Goering? Goebbels? (How did we ever revile people before we had Nazi references? I know – anti-Christ.) And, of course, Tom Delay was so much more attractive a figure. The truth is – one more “of course” [...]

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“And You Know That It’s Right…”

March 25, 2010

Following up on yesterday’s post on the untethering of the GOP from reality, we have Timothy Egan, The New York Times – “House of Anger“ Having welcomed Tea Party rage into their home, and vowing repeal, the Republicans have made a dangerous bargain. First, they are tying their fate to a fringe, one that includes [...]

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The New GOP: All “Whacked”

March 24, 2010

If you are an individual of cosmopolitan inclination, yet native affections, you are bound to have moments that rupture your sensibilities. On the eve of the new millennium, Julia and I were in Venice with our dear friends Ashley and Mark, all of us marveling at how an event long anticipated in the far horizon [...]

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Israel: Escaping the Image and Language Trap

March 23, 2010

So, post the  Biden-visit contretemps, the Quartet, including the United States, has a second time condemned Israel’s housing construction plans in East Jerusalem, and the Netanyahu government has offered, privately, to take “confidence-building” measures to further the path of negotiations via the current “proximity talks” proposal. Where does that leave matters? People who know internal [...]

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While I Was Away…

March 22, 2010

…I did not wonder, as I did before leaving, whether the world might spin askew in consequence of my bloglessness. (I was, I confess, guiltlessly schlepping, nesting and playing.) Consider, then, my total shock and no little dismay at discovering that our fragile planet has, indeed – according to measurements from the International Society of [...]

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Gimme a Break

March 8, 2010

Or I’m taking one, anyway. Today, we begin the move out of the motorhome, out of storage, and into the new apartment. It is reorientation time. Then, next Sunday is my birthday. (I will be thirty-five. Or twenty-five. I forget. But either way I look much younger, and I have a head of hair like [...]

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Eating Poetry* (X)

March 7, 2010

Shopping for Pomegranates at Wal-Mart on New Year’s Day by Campbell McGrath Beneath a ten-foot-tall apparition of Frosty the Snowman with his corncob pipe and jovial, over-eager, button-black eyes, holding, in my palm, the leathery, wine-colored purse of a pomegranate, I realize, yet again, that America is a country about which I understand everything and [...]

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Eight Bad Arguments for Torture

March 5, 2010

I believe in American exceptionalism. There, I said it. Now let me make clear what I mean. I believe the American advent, the American idea, and the American experience are exceptional: a nation of laws, and not of men and women, a constitutional democracy founded in and devoted to the liberty of its people, a [...]

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Landed

March 3, 2010

Julia and I took an apartment yesterday. Just over sixteen months ago we rented our home, uprooted nearly every element of our lives, and hit the road in our thirty-seven foot motorhome. We spent four days with the coach parked in front of our house moving about a half percent of what we own into [...]

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A Reader’s Gallery 1

March 2, 2010

John Curran is a reader who lives in Oakton, Virginia. Not long ago, John and I had a spirited exchange over two posts on the recent Supreme Court decision regarding corporate campaign spending. It turns out John is a federal computer security officer, and I’m not allowed to tell you anything else under threat of [...]

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