Like a lot of people, I’ve felt that Cal. Sen. Dianne Feinstein never objected to the CIA spying on people until she found out they were spying on her. Nonetheless, the senator has done something, in a city that, when it comes to the staggering series of crimes, lies, and abuses that have occurred during…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Dan Drezner, kickin’ John Kerry’s butt
There was a time, so long ago, when John Kerry thought himself quite the war protester, quite the moralist, throwing away his Vietnam War medals, or at least copies of them, to show what he thought of Washington incompetence and hypocrisy. Well, now he’s personifying the same. According to Josh Rogin, reporting at the Bloomsberg…
The U.S. is a country of peace. A piece of you here, a piece of you there
Bill Maher and John Cleese have a mostly enjoyable rap on “political correctness,” which of course they don’t care for. I agree with about 90% of what they have to say, but when Bill brings up his take on Islam—the “piece of you here” bit alluded to in the head—I felt a certain disenchantment. It’s…
When is a Nazi war criminal not a Nazi war criminal? When there’s no evidence that he is a Nazi war criminal
Congress has acquired for itself a fair amount of ridicule for boldly cutting off Social Security benefits for four, count ‘em, four seriously aging dudes living outside the U.S. who may have committed war crimes in World War II. This bold action was the result of an article from the Associated Press saying that back…
Robert Rodi Trio —“Poppa’s Resolution” (“Ba-lue Bolivar Blues”)
Robert Rodi supplies lyrics to Monk’s tune, written in praise of the Bolivar Hotel, the sometime residence of the Jazz Baroness, Pannonica von Koenigswarter .With Matt Yeakley, guitar, and Bill Markus, bass. Performed at the Foundation Room in West Hollywood, CA, June 7, 20014. Posted by Robert Rodi.
The Mentalist, making me mental, or, “We don’t need no lousy, stinking Bill of Rights!”
Post-Thanksgiving ennui can make you do stupid things, like watching The Mentalist, a semi-Psych rip-off that is now thankfully in its final season. I always found the ads for The Mentalist—a smart-assed “genius” who makes the police look like chumps while solving all their toughest cases for them—distinctly off-putting, but, well, I guess it was…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “It’s the old ‘some pigs are more equal than others’ thing come back to bite us in the ass.” “He says he’s always depended on the kindness of strangers, but I’d say that ‘gullibility’ is more à propos.” “Don’t sweat it. We’ll get fat. He’ll get slaughtered. I’ve seen it a thousand…
Jan, Jan, & Maarten—“Misterioso”
From the “Bariton Festival” in Durgerdam, Holland, 7 Oktober 2012, featuring Jan Menu, baritonsaxofoon, Jan Voogd, contrabas, and Maarten van der Grinten, gitaar. The boys are a little slow off the mark, but eventually they make it work. Posted by jijimoso
Chuck Hagel—“Pour encourager les autres”*
One of the comparatively few attractive things about President Obama is his dislike of the “ritual dismissal”—the Washington practice of figuratively beheading a pre-eminent DC playa, not really because his departure will make a difference as much as the sheer pleasure involved in seeing an important somebody get his butt publicly kicked. Well, a foolish…
A tear, and a poem, for Marion Barry
I will shed a tear for Marian Barry, for, as a fellow human being, he deserves one on his death. But let it be remembered that Barry was a terrible mayor of Washington, DC, whose incompetence and greed made life for Washington’s poor far worse than it had been. Barry turned DC’s government into a…