(Glen Beck Chart. Graphic courtesy WikiCrane, the online community of crane operators.)   Gentle Readers,   I have launched the new-year with a series of polemics about how screwed up everything is, and some observations about things that need to happen, because if they don’t, we are cooked geese.   Naturally, my fulminations have not […]

It is tempting to leave the topic and move on, but there is more to all this than I can quite let go. I got a lot of feedback on the piece on the Cloward-Piven recipe for fomenting radical change in America. Not being a devotee of Fox and being highly skeptical of what passes for […]

It is tempting to leave the topic and move on, but there is more to all this than I can quite let go. I got a lot of feedback on the piece on the Cloward-Piven recipe for fomenting radical change in America.   Not being a devotee of Fox and being highly skeptical of what […]

The guard is changing in statehouses across the land as the latest cast of characters takes office. Governor Moonbeam is replacing the Governator in Sacramento; Andrew Cuomo became the 56th governor of New York yesterday. They are two of an increasingly slim number of progressive governors from shrinking states. Both have got huge problems. In […]

The guard is changing in statehouses across the land as the latest cast of characters takes office. Governor Moonbeam is replacing the Governator in Sacramento; Andrew Cuomo became the 56th governor of New York yesterday. They are two of an increasingly slim number of progressive governors from shrinking states.   Both have got huge problems. […]

(Mr. Simpson tries on the famous glove as a deputy looks on. Photo courtesy of the Guardian, UK)We will make it short and sweet this morning, since we are all still trying out the feel of this brave New Year, a little like Orenthal James Simpson and the famous glove. A good pal wrote me yesterday […]

(Mr. Simpson tries on the famous glove as a deputy looks on. Photo courtesy of the Guardian, UK) We will make it short and sweet this morning, since we are all still trying out the feel of this brave New Year, a little like Orenthal James Simpson and the famous glove.   A good pal […]

(Terrapins Stadium, College Park, MD, on a Pee Dee. Photo Socotra.) There were high thin clouds that enhanced the delirious blue of the Maryland sky. Temperature in the low sixties. A nice breeze to make the flags stand out. And the tailgate? Damn! It was a Pee Dee: a perfect day. It could have been […]

Crazy   (Batman, Robin and Civilian at Willow, Halloween, 2010. Photo Socotra.) I sometimes complain that I am overcome by what is going on, but this is an extraordinary morning. It is crazy. The two comedians, liberals, I think, who masquerade as conservatives,  are having a rally for sanity on the Mall today. It is a […]

(Old City Gate, Seoul.) I threw some money on the bar and we stumbled out; one young Spook, one active Mata Hari, and the last flower of the Empire singing “Waltzing Matilda.” Mata looked embarrassed. There was a fortuitous cab waiting in front.  We sped through the evening streets past the brooding bulk of Namsan […]