If you read my recent ear-boxing of literary super star T. S. Eliot, “T. S. Eliot a Prissy Sh*t, studies show”, you know I’m not a big fan of the pride of St. Louis, making rather raucous fun of his abysmal mistreatment of his long-time (until he got tired of her) soulmate, Emily Hale, and…
Search Results for: HAROLD ROSS
Cutting Ike’s pages, and cutting Ike’s prose
I recently read a new book by Slate’s Fred Kaplan (if a webpub can be said to possess a man)—The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War—which is an interesting read, though I wouldn’t call it “definitive”, unless perhaps when Fred says he’s giving us the “secret history” he implies that he’s…
Old Man War Machine, he jes’ keep rollin’ along
(Editor’s Note: I wrote this piece to describe the military intellectual complex’s endless search for a new Cold War. But Donald Trump seems to be looking for a hot one.) The Washington Post’s recent release of the “Afghanistan Papers”, which reported at least a significant portion of the near-infinite number of lies told to justify…
Those Mean Old Disestablishment Blues: Why it’s so hard to put Humpty-Dumpty together again
Dreary old Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by almost three million votes, despite being deeply loathed by millions of voters, many of whom held their noses and voted for snatch snatchin’ Don. Post election, Trump’s poll ratings have never reached the 45% mark, despite a booming stock market and a steadily expanding economy. So why…
Fred Kaplan: So sadly so right
I blow hot and cold on old Fred Kaplan, who hangs his hat at Slate, most recently, cold, when Fred waxed hot, announcing that “America’s retreat from the world under Trump has shown why we’re still the indispensable nation”1, vaguely claiming that all the world is crying out for American “leadership” to solve all their…
Poor, Pitiful Paulie Ryan, from policy wonk to policy wank in six weeks
If you’ve been hatin’ on House Speaker Paulie Ryan as long as I have, seeing Paulie finally take the beatdown he so richly deserves is schadenfreude beyond a Paulie hater’s wildest dreams. Perhaps the best of the many, many drubbings Paulie has received is administered by the hitherto unknown (to me) Philip Klein, who hangs…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “It’s a simple question, kids! Have you seen the White Whale!” “Go ahead and see him! Just remember, this thing started out as an ingrown toenail!” “Don’t act so stuck up! You’d be nothing without Harold Arlen and you know it!” “What do you mean it’s ‘wrong’ to ask for revenge? Is…
E.B. White and the Past Recaptured. Again!
I could say that I’m not obsessed with the New Yorker, but that would be wrong. If you don’t believe me, go here, or here, or here, or here, where I’m in the midst of a 30-part examination of the writings and life of James Thurber. Back in the day, E. B. White was almost…
Pimp my mansion—the continuing saga of Katy Weymouth
Is Wash Post publisher Katy Weymouth that much worse than the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and the Atlantic Monthly, not to mention the New Yorker? All Katy wanted to do was rent out her fancy mansion, her paper, and herself to corporate lobbyists anxious to meet government movers and shakers. In a fascinating follow-up…