Archives for April 2009

By releasing the torture memos and then rebuffing calls for an independent truth commission, the president is doing much worse than cementing a reputation for compromise: He’s siding with the rightwingnuts and with all the Congressional pols — Republicans and some Democrats — who want to bury the past. Does Barack Obama truly believe that […]

In London The Guardian posted its obit Sunday at 9 p.m., which means it went live in New York at 4 p.m. But this morning’s print edition of The New York Times makes no mention of Ballard’s death. OK, print is slow — but not that slow. And how come there’s no obit on the […]

This is my twitter to the world That never twittered me — The inane things of daily life Deserve obscurity. Incessant streams of messages — They come in starts and fits — What one’s eating, whom one’s dating — A universe of twits! — Leon Freilich (He’s our Calvin Trillin.) Postscript: June 15 — Looks […]

All the Hemingways I saw were going for stratospheric prices. Well, not exactly going. More like asking. If I remember correctly, a signed presentation copy of the rare Paris edition of in our time had a price tag of $465,000. Signed firsts of Ulysses by James Joyce and Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot didn’t come […]

Does the Council on Foreign Relations Depredations merit another name change, i.e. the Council on Foreign Federal Depredations? To judge by Patricia Cohen’s report on its recent conference about the Great Depression, I think so. She writes that New Deal critics like the author and syndicated columnist Amity Shlaes, a senior fellow at the council […]

…from Hassan Sabbah: Listen to my last words, anywhere! Listen all you boards, governments, syndicates, nations of the world, And you powers behind what filth deals consummated in what lavatory, To take what is not yours … Read along if you like. I bear no sick words junk words love words forgive words from Jesus […]