According to news reports, the U.S. military is shipping “bunker-buster” bombs to the U.S. Air Force base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Herald Scotland reports that experts say the bombs are being assembled for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The newspaper quotes Dan Piesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of … [Read More]

Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes: Hollywood power couple marriage ends up on the trash heap. Does this come as a surprise to anyone? There are those of us who thought such was inevitable right from the start. The chance that two self-absorbed narcissists (as artists almost inevitably are) were going to be in it for the long term was slim. It’s … [Read More]

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote “that there are no second acts in American lives.” In his particular case poor Scott was right. He died broke and forgotten in his early forties, but at least he expired in his lover’s arms, the beautiful Miss Graham, who went on to become a powerful gossip columnist in Hollywood’s hay day. I thought of second … [Read More]

In the 20th century, Detroit, Mich., symbolized American industrial might. Today it symbolizes the offshored economy. Detroit’s population has declined by half. A quarter of the city—35 square miles—is desolate with only a few houses still standing on largely abandoned streets. If the local government can get the money from Washington, urban planners are going to shrink the city and establish … [Read More]

Ladies, do yourself a favor, escape from New York. It is the worst possible place to find a man. The ones that are available have been spoiled rotten by the unequal distribution of women to men and even if you get one into a semi-normal relationship, he will cheat. Spend a few dates with a New York male however and you … [Read More]

Actually, Joe set himself up. From the moment he set foot on Israeli soil, our vice president was in full pander mode. First, he headed to Yad Vashem memorial, where he put on a yarmulke and declared Israel “a central bolt in our existence.” “For world Jewry,” Joe went on, presumably including 5 million Americans, “Israel is the heart. ... Israel … [Read More]

I certainly don’t know much about investing, but I can give you one solid tip: don’t bet in the movie box office futures market. Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald expects to get federal regulatory approval to begin trading movie pseudo-shares in April (and a start-up called Veriana Networks also hopes to get into the business). The rationalization is that movie-makers could … [Read More]

Like most butchers, Muhammad Bouyeri of the Hofstad Group is not a man of many doubts. When asked why he slaughtered the Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh, he was succinct: “I was motivated by the law that commands me to cut off the head of anyone who insults Allah and his prophet.”  Most likely, Bouyeri was inspired by Chapter 47, verse … [Read More]

Quaerite Prime Regnum Dei. When someone asks me where I’m from, usually after listening to me speak, then curiously cocking their head in a vain attempt to place my accent, I hesitate. I don’t hesitate because I’m not sure where I’m from. A few months off from high school trying my hand at door-to-door encyclopedia sales in the bitter Atlantic winter, … [Read More]

      Zurich has a reputation for being stodgy, but it ain’t so, at least not after hours. On one of my first visits, I met a Dublin girl by the name of Mary O’Connell downstairs at the hotel bar, which was an Irish bar and a hot spot. She worked as an au pair for a rich family somewhere … [Read More]