Archives for June 2004

Why does The Guardian in London have so much better daily coverage of books and authors than any American newspaper, bar none? Have a look at The spice of life (about J. P.Donleavy, who put the ginger in “The Ginger Man”) and Age of unreason (an extensive interview with J.G. Ballard, who may be the […]

Thank you for the thought: “They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it’s worked for over 200 years, and heck, we’re not using it any more.” Thank you for the references or, as we like to […]

This has been making the rounds on the Web for a long time. But it’s a parting thought for our red-white-and-blue summer: A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it’s a free market. A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it’s a free market. A major bank can […]

By Jan Herman Went to the memorial service for Rosemary Breslin this afternoon. She was a terrific gal. Used to work with her at the Daily News. She died the other day at age 47 of a mysterious blood disease so rare that it still has no name. She called it “the headache that wouldn’t […]

Our search for a hideout continues. But we couldn’t let this go: As tipped by Arts & Letters Daily, Ann Crittenden’s essay “What Do Mothers Want?” asks the question: “Why has the U.S. never had a decent system of child care? One feminist answer, ‘dumb men, stupid choices,’ is long overdue.” Far be it from us […]

We interrupt our search for a hideout to bring you this: Belated advice from Christopher Hitchens, who has finally got around to acknowledging the obvious about Abu Ghraib: We may have to start using blunt words like murder and rape to describe what we see. And one linguistic reform is in any case already much […]

A couple of people I know are heading to a rainforest in Central America, which  reminds me it’s time to head somewhere. I haven’t figured where just yet. But my staff of thousands is working on it. In the meantime, there’s plenty in the archives to keep you amused or befuddled, impressed or depressed, until our […]

By Jan Herman Ray Charles, who died yesterday, was never president of the U.S. of A. No state funeral for him. He was a different kind of president — “The Genius,” as many called him. For me, he was the unforgettable President of Soul. I still remember a show he did one snowy winter night in 1963 in a dingy […]

Isn’t it romantic? “Let’s take a look back at the lifelong love affair of Nancy and Ron,” is how one MSNBC anchor put it yesterday morning, giving their relationship a first-name status usually reserved for the likes of Antony and Cleopatra or Scarlett and Rhett.” How touching. And then a further reach too far: “When […]

Unlike the thousands of Americans who will line Constitution Avenue to see the horse-drawn caisson delivering Saint Ronald‘s coffin to the Capitol Rotunda, where his body will lie in state — and unlike the media maestros who will sanctify the rites as whispering hosts of a civic religion — Greg Palast has lost no love, admiration or respect […]

See it to believe it: “Attorney General John Ashcroft is refusing to release or discuss memos detailing U.S. torture policy. Lawmakers accused him of trying to hide how the Bush administration has justified the abuse of prisoners.” (Click on the link above and then click on “Watch 256k stream” to play the video.) Here’s how silly […]

So you doubted the White House bonehead, Rummy boy, chief crony Cheney and the rest of the gang had dirty hands? You believed the use of torture on Iraqi prisoners was the low-level notion of “a few bad apples” and not the systematic plan of higher-ups? You didn’t (or couldn’t) believe the rule of law as […]

What’s next? Saint Ronald? Everybody, including Mikhail Gorbachev this morning, is recalling just how wonderful the 40th U.S. president was. “I think he understood that it is the peacemakers, above all, who earn a place in history,” Gorbachev writes, in a bow not to the Great Communicator so much as the Friendly Persuader. In the […]

The trouble with the death of Ronald Reagan is that, whatever else it means, it will give our White House bonehead a ceremonial stage to play statesman in mourning for the rest of the week until Reagan’s burial. Will that get the bonehead a bump in the polls? We think so. When he pays blustering lip service to the noble ideals that Reagan […]

We all need something to get us out of bed. Here’s what gets me up in the morning: Bill Moyers on truth and journalism. If you’ve got a few minutes — OK, 30 minutes — have a look at him speaking recently at the National Conference on Media Reform in Madison, Wisc. Moyer’s keynote address […]

We’re familiar with all the objections to Ralph Nader’s presidential candidacy. But we still believe he has every right to run. We also believe he’s the most  passionate, intelligent, accomplished and honest of all the current candidates. If the American people want to elect the presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry, they should vote for him —  as we will, […]

A report this morning from the Associated Press: Enron traders gleeful at ripping off grandmas. “Enron traders openly discussed manipulating California’s power market during profanity-laced telephone conversations in which they gloated about ripping off ‘those poor grandmothers’ during the state’s energy crunch in 2000-01, according to transcripts of the calls.” An editorial this morning from […]