I should probably stop using so many parentheses and exclamation points in my heads, but when they fit they fit, you know what I mean? Actually, the fact that there isn’t going to be any grand budget deal growing out of the Tea Party’s “shut it down” fiasco is becoming so obvious that I scarcely…
Detroit Denial: A Democratic Disease (but not entirely!)
Remember when we were told that the average retired city worker in Detroit was receiving a pension of no more than $19,000 a year? Well, it turns out that was only sort of accurate. In fact, when there was extra money in the pension system, it was paid out in the form of “bonuses to…
Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: “Let’s Call This”
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra perform “Let’s Call This,” composed by Thelonious Monk, arranged by Jason Lindner, at Symphony Space at “Andy and Jerry’s: A Tribute to the Gonzalez Brothers” on October 15, 2011. Special guests: Andy & Jerry Gonzalez.
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Don’t sweat it. He has the shtick, but we have the stick.” “No, it’s Jerry Steinbrenner. A lot of people make that mistake.” “His fast ball isn’t much, but his knuckler is a bear.” “Make him cover first. He’s way slow off the rubber.” “The thing you have to know about this…
Anne Applebaum, oddly ubiquitous
Anne Applebaum is a distinguished journalist and scholar who has written about the horrors of the Soviet Gulag and the oppressive Communist rule in Eastern Europe following World War II. She is married to Radosław Sikorski, currently Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. So why is she writing about Iran? My guess is, synergy. In a…
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown: “We See”
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, tenor saxophone; Steven Feifke, piano; Raviv Markovitz, bass; Jimmy Macbride, drums. Posted by Chad Lefkowitz-Brown
The Shame of the Obamacare rollout
Liberals like to think big. They like to think “comprehensive.” Whenever you read a liberal “big picture” plan, you will read thorough discussions of the various aspects of the problem to be solved, along with the appropriate solutions, and then you will get the kicker: you can’t address these problems separately; you have to do…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Your Harry is a real brother-in-law’s brother-in-law, Dolores. How much is it going to cost me to get rid of this thing?” “Well, they’re back. That ‘Farewell to Fungus’ crap didn’t do a damn bit of good.” “Damn kids! Where’s the rest of him? I paid good money for that!” “What part…
Big Picture Bullshit
Apostate Republican David Frum and apostate jerk* Robert Samuelson both back the camera up from the current fray di DC to give us the big picture. Says Frum: Why are American politicians playing so rough? We have moved into an era of scarcity. Once it seemed possible to have the spending Democrats wanted, financed at…
O Lucky Obama!
A few weeks ago—or was it a few lifetimes?—I was remarking that it couldn’t be possible that President Obama could slide out of an utterly gratuitous, entirely self-inflicted mini-war with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the help of Vladimir Putin, but that’s exactly what happened. But of course that was only a warm-up. Now the…