Gun Control: Gun Control does not stop crime, but it does kill the careers of Democratic politicians. When you speak, write, or think, the word “gun” should neither precede nor succeed the word “control” by a period of less than six weeks. Global Warming: Anthropogenic Global Warming is a fact. Here is another fact: the…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Dan Brown’s Inferno: Yes, this is Hell. Totally.
Dan Brown × Ron Howard × Tom Hanks = Squareness Cubed! Hey, when I started this review, I didn’t realize it was going to be so mathematical! Yes, Inferno is yet another roller-coaster of thrills from the Dan Man—just, you know, a very flat roller-coaster. That rowdy crowd over at Rotten Tomatoes dump all over…
Finger-Pointing in the Dark: The Rout of Neo-Liberalism
It is, appropriately enough, gray and wet in Washington, DC this morning. Brilliant sunshine would be almost more irony than one could bear. Brexit was a stunner. Compared to Donald Trump, it was a popgun. It’s become overwhelmingly clear that the real cost of the Great Recession was not the cost of fighting our way…
Going to bed, looking at disaster
It looks like Trump is in. This has to be the saddest day of my life, worse than the assassination of JFK, of Vietnam, of the assassinations of RFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 1968 riots, sadder than 9/11, because we have done this to ourselves. America, I fear, has much to be…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “She’s all ruff and no castle.” “From what I hear, when the lights go down the ruff comes off, you know what I’m sayin’?” “I hear she’s Vermeer’s favorite model.” “I don’t know if she’s modestly proud or proudly modest.” “She’s the patron saint of lace-makers.” “Sure, it’s great, but what’s she…
Election 2016: the rest is silence
I will be taking a break for the next several days as we endure the slow agony of waiting to learn if the American people want to be led by a sociopath—a question that’s never had to be answered before. I’ve groaned and moaned to the limit of my ability, and now my nerves are…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here “Yeah, I seeing where you’re going with this. But I don’t think you’re really getting there.” “I see it, but I don’t feel it.” “How shall I put this: You can carry it, but you can’t carry it off.” “Beige is not your color.” “You look like the Thing from Leisureworld.” “A…
The Republican Party: Civil War or Hostile Takeover?
Over at New York Mag, Jonathan Chait has an unfortunately challenging and well-argued piece, strongly suggesting that my cozy analysis of a Republican Party sliding inexorably into ever-increasing disarray is not, you know, accurate.1 Chait sees Trump, or, rather, Trumpism, as similar to one of those Alien critters that first infects you and then sort…
Three Bullets? Free Bullets!
A number of years ago now I wrote three novellas recreating Rex Stout’s famous fat detective Nero Wolfe. My “plans” for publishing these legitimately fell through, as my “plans” often do, but the novellas are available absolutely free on the web, in a variety of formats. To download for Kindle, click here. To download for…
News on the Right: the Splinters Splintered!
Okay, only by a generous stretch of the imagination (mine) is the Washington Post “on the right”, but in fact the Post’s editorial page has been aggressively “neocon”, bordering on Likudist at times, what with George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Richard Cohen, Jennifer Rubin, Anne Applebaum and Fred Hiatt ramping up the room in favor of…