Ross Douthat, whom I’ve more or less left alone for some time, has a considered pushback against President Obama’s recent prayer breakfast talk during which he alleged that Christians could, at times, be as bad as Muslims, citing the Crusades and the Inquisition as examples. Douthat wisely leaves the Inquisition alone1 but is not completely…
No tears for Brian Williams
Did you hear about former NBC nightly news host Brian Williams? Well, if you haven’t, he’s out, and all the complaints about an outrageous and hypocritical media firestorm can’t conceal the fact that the petard on which poor Brian self-hoisted and self-destructed was a cream-puff nightly news item about a non-event starring Brian himself! Did…
Ukraine Cease-Fire Announced; John McCain Cries
Sure it’s tentative—after the negotiations concluded, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had a “glimmer of hope” that everything would work out as intended—but the announcement of both a cease-fire and a plan for making that cease-fire permanent must still be a heart-breaker for John McCain and his legions. The Great American War Machine was all dressed up for…
John Brennan, liar? No, John Brennan, super liar.
Read, if you can, Conor Friedersdorf’s tale of endless hypocrisy and deceit from CIA head John Brennan and his assorted minions and ganifs at the agency. Yes, your tax dollars at work.
Obama Administration randomly shoots itself in the foot, three times
If a rabidly anti-Semitic terrorist attacks a kosher deli, knowing it’s a kosher deli, and starts killing the people inside because he hopes they’re Jews, well, those are random acts of terrorism, according to President Obama, along with Jen Psaki of the State Department, and Josh Earnest of the White House, all of whom apparently want us to believe…
Jonah Goldberg, down with the Inquisition, still going to Hell
President Obama, remarking at a recent prayer breakfast that Western Civilization, and Christianity in particular, has had some flaws, has once more unleashed the floodgates of right-wing outrage upon himself. Among the most ardent defenders of most things Christian is Jonah Goldberg, who explains, and explains away, “the Inquisition” by noting that an inquisition is really just an…
Imagine, the New York public school system wired to Carmen Fariña’s ass
Back in the day, Harry Cohn, notorious chief of Columbia Pictures, had a foolproof way to judging a film’s merit: “If my fanny squirms, it’s bad. If my fanny doesn’t squirm, it’s good. It’s as simple as that.” To which Herman Mankiewicz responded, “Imagine, the whole world wired to Harry Cohn’s ass!” Carmen Fariña, New…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “I know I’m a pretty bird! Just leave it alone! For God’ssake!” “We’re going to win and I’m going to tell you why. Because advertising is all about repetition and repetition is what we parrots do best. Just be yourselves and we can’t lose.” “Bob, stop talking like a mynah bird. I’m right…
Oberlin’s Gridiron Glory
A week or so back I was delighting in George Will’s annual disparagement of the Super Bowl and suggested that perhaps, when young George was at Princeton, he’d been humiliated by some football hearties, leaving him forever embittered, and suggested that if he had only gone to Oberlin, like me, where there are none such,…
The story was big! It was bigger than Jill Kelley’s boobs!
The thirteen-year-old boy in me* thanks the Washington Post for thinking up another reason to run a picture of Jill Kelley’s mighty bust, shown above, but the news value the Post obtained by rummaging through Jill’s emails to the hapless (or stupid) Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, discussed in the accompanying article, is hard for…