Sky Box I don’t know if they are going to execute gang-leader Stanley “Tookie” Williams tomorrow, or if the Syrians are responsible for the latest assassination in Beirut , or if the terrorists are responsible for the tremendous blast at the fuel depot near Heathrow Airport outside London . I have not been paying that […]

Late Start The Federal Government is starting two hours late this morning, which means we are just that much less vulnerable. The snow that remains from the sharp blizzard last night is heavy and crusted and already going back to water. The Kids are going to have to act fast if they are going to […]

Human Capital Twenty-five years ago today, John Lennon was shot and killed outside The Dakota, his apartment building at One West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan . The Dakota was a logical choice for the famous couple. It offered enhanced security, a bakery and wine cellar, all the amenities and a […]

Oil Slick They say that the hull integrity of the battleship Arizona is going to fail one of these days, and that will be a disaster. She has always leaked a few drops of black oil, the stuff they used in those days. It is worse than DFM- diesel fuel marine- which is what the […]

Torture Ramsey Clark is seventy-seven years old. I think that staying active is what keeps you young, and Mr. Clark has certainly been active since that strange aberration that made him briefly the Attorney General of the United States of America . Ramsey was in court in Baghdad yesterday to lecture the judge on the […]

CUBI I don’t know about you, but I awoke with the smell of rich dark earth in my mouth. It was musty and I could smell the corruption, and waited for the cock to crow. Must have missed curfew and had to go to ground to avoid the Philippine National Police and the Shore Patrol. […]

Bugs Of course we have bugs here. They are everywhere, creepy-crawly things that hatch in the darkness. Some of them are necessary partners in the food chain, and some are just nuisances. Like Congressman Randy Cunningham. He traded his hero-medals for the cockroach suit this week, blubbering on the television that he would seek redemption […]

Relationships and Response It was a great holiday weekend. Four days off, right in a row, no Quarterly to publish, and I let the daily just slide. I felt a little guilty about it, but I had company and other priorities. It was a great holiday, but everything comes with a price. It all depends on […]

Turkeys You would not think that turkeys come home to roost. They are flightless birds, for the most part, though in the wild are capable of limited vertical maneuvers. Ben Franklin had proposed we adopt the Turkey , rather than the bald eagle as the national bird, on several quite practical grounds. The eagle, while […]

Two If by Sea Before Congress got out of town for the holiday, the House Homeland Security Committee approved a sweeping bill intended to stiffen the nation’s border security. Sweeping measures make me nervous. It normally means that no one had a chance to read all the way through the Bill. I think they only […]