The latest Frank Rich column is a dandy recap of what’s been happening in The Land of Oz. “The attacks [on the press] continue to be so successful that even now, long after many news organizations, including The Times, have been found guilty of failing to puncture the administration’s prewar W.M.D. hype, new details on […]
WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD READ BY CHRIS HEDGES
It took James Woolcott to lead me to a wrenching, eloquent piece on the realities and myths of war by Chris Hedges, who begins this way and never lets up: The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the […]
99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL
Summer is soon upon us, and it won’t be long before it’s off to overnight camp for many lucky youngsters. They’ll be writing home, of course. Low Culture recently posted a letter from a camper who got a jump on the season’s frolics. Here’s an excerpt: Dear Mom and Dad, Greetings from Camp X Ray […]
SO NOT HIS CUP OF TEA
A reader took notice of my recommendation the other day. (OK, if you must know, it was one of my staff of thousands who took notice.) He writes: Jan, we bought the Watson book “Ideas.” It is good, but not as good as I had hoped. Too breezy. I like a tighter line. He spends […]
GAO FINDING: GANNON DID NOT BREAK LAW
Subject: James D. Guckert — Reprinting Government Press Releases as His Own Work You remember when Guckert (a k a Jeff Gannon) published White House press releases, verbatim, as his own reporting? Well, he did not break the law prohibiting the “use of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda,” the Government Accounting Office ruled Thursday. […]
NOTHING STABLE, NOTHING ENDURING, NOTHING INSIDE
I recommend this book review by my favorite aphorist, the British philosopher John Gray, although he is not aphorizing, as he does in his own books (such as “Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals” or Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern.” Gray points to a key question of Peter Watson’s […]
STORE WARS
Obi Wan Canoli says, “The true ways of the farm are almost forgotten.” Click the link, watch and listen. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll wonder why George Lucas hasn’t sued. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
BILL ‘EM: DEAD OR ALIVE
A reader writes: “This is so priceless, and so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today. Be sure to cancel your credit cards before you die — just in case.” A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her […]
BATTLE OF THE NPR CORRECTIONS
The original “correction” about David D’Arcy’s MoMAGATE story that NPR ran on its corrections page reads: Jan. 27, 2005:MoMA Embroiled in Battle over Painting Seized by NazisMorning Edition, Dec. 27, 2004 In a story on All Things Considered on Dec. 27, we reported on the controversy over ownership of a painting on loan to the […]
CITY OF GHOSTS
The Guardian of London reported: “Fresh evidence has emerged of the extent of destruction and appalling conditions” in still-deserted Falluja, a “city of ghosts where dogs feed on uncollected corpses.” That was in January. I guess the corpses have been collected by now. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
NAMING THE MADNESS
When you put a face on death, the madness of war becomes clear. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
WHOSE KLOSE CALL GOT NPR REPORTER FIRED?
National Public Radio made a huge mistake ousting its veteran arts reporter David D’Arcy and is still trying to cover it up. The latest attempt came during an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board when the network refused to produce documents that would allegedly clarify why he was fired and Tom Cole, a unionized […]
NOSTALGIA BUG: ‘UNCLE BILL’ BURROUGHS
When I was looking at my old Bob Woodward interview, some of which I posted because it seemed, uh, timely, I saw another old interview I did — this one with Bill Burroughs. I thought you’d find it interesting. Here’s part of it: Your books are filled with gun lore. What spurred your interest in […]
FIRST THE BLOG, THEN THE REBLOG
Staight Up posts are being reblogged — curated, if you like — in Germany. The reblogger is Fareed Armaly, an Arab-American expatriate (born in Iowa City, Iowa, now living in Stuttgart). I don’t know him and never heard of him before. All I know is, his work has been shown at Documenta11, among other prestigious art exhibitions. The […]
MEMORY LANE: WOODWARD SORT OF OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY
Now that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are together again, taking a victory lap after all these years, like the Simon & Garfunkel of journalism, I’m reminded by my staff of thousands that once upon a time, long ago and far away, I interviewed Woodward about his only non-political book — the one out of […]
I FIND IT STRANGE . . .
… that Chuck Colson is offended — “I am really shocked,” he says — that Mark Felt (a k a Deep Throat) went “sneaking around dark alleys and talking to reporters.” It wasn’t “the right way” for a “very upright” FBI agent to uncover Watergate crimes. Uh, wait a minute, Chuck. Weren’t you one of the worst of Nixon’s real dark-alley sneaks? […]
RORSCHACH THESE UNITED STATES
See the pretty picture and find out … … what it means. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit