It doesn’t come often in the average person’s life — maybe never: the transformative thought. The light bulb of invention and inspiration. It came often to Einstein, Edison, Tesla. For us? Not so much. For the sake of America’s children, let’s hope the one Arne Duncan just announced isn’t it — that epiphany…
DetailsThe convention center was a multicolored whirl of abstinence education — in every room — from teen girls learning about the exploitation that can come with a grown-up suitor, to adolescents making a reach into a purple velvet “grab bag” only to find a deathly dilemma in hand, like AIDS or syphilis. …
DetailsRick Perry was in Aspen last week long enough to disappoint a packed room of western conservatives. The Texas governor, you might have heard, is primping for the presidency. And let's admit: He's the kind of candidate to get tea party hearts arrhythmic. It’s not just the hair. It’s not just the square jaw.…
DetailsWhat we’re seeing is this: a cross between The Missiles of October and Dr. Strangelove — a standoff of nuclear proportions. A nation stands on the brink of — stock-market armageddon? A credit-rating mushroom cloud? By air, the missiles of a warring party — the tea party — are observed registering red on the map,…
DetailsFace it. Regression is in. Let us return to yesteryear. Actually, let’s return to the day before that. A marginal candidate wins the Senate seat from Kentucky saying the Voting Rights Act is obsolete. An even more marginal candidate emerges as the Republican presidential favorite in Iowa. Her husband makes his living…
DetailsHaving seen what I did of the Casey Anthony trial, I must agree with the general public consensus. Having seen, that is, zero seconds of the gripping proceedings, zero seconds of the breathless analysis pre- and post-verdict, and having read zero words about the result save for headlines. Life is short. If everyone says the…
Details“Our children,” wrote Marshall McLuhan decades before Facebook and Twitter, “are engaged in extraordinarily hard work, and that work is growing up — because to grow up in a modern electronic environment is a fantastically complex and difficult job.” “Pshaw,” will come the auto-rejoinder. “Their lives are too easy — and nothing the…
DetailsI wanna grow up to be a politician, and take over this beautiful land. — The Byrds Eric Cantor needs to grow up. Unfortunately, the Republican House majority leader equates a tantrum with statesmanship. He is prepared to hold his breath until, well, until the federal government ceases to operate. …
DetailsIn Blazing Saddles, cross-eyed Gov. William J. Le Petomane, hearing the town of Rock Ridge has met disaster at the hands of outlaws, announces to his coterie: “We’ve got to protect our phony baloney jobs, gentleman. We must do something about this immediately, immediately, immediately.” “Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!” goes his…
DetailsThe sad thing is that bad things always come with “war.” Sure, war is a bad thing unto itself. And when will we study something other than war when we measure ourselves and our leaders? Dylan songs aside, when? But the concern here is the term — war — which we…
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