Tough times bring out the best in us, as people like to say. People say a lot of things. From my personal experience, mankind responds to catastrophe very unevenly. That can-do, community spirit that brings folks together to roll ...
I used to answer friends who told me something I’d said was tasteless (and they were right) with a quip like, “If you can’t joke about terrorism and cancer, what can you joke about?” I was mostly being an ass, but a tiny ...
In the frantic post-election scramble for a plausible narrative of How Things Went So Wrong, we see the outlines of the future battle for what’s left of the conservative movement, and the party it fitfully influences. The spin could be ...
I’m working on too many speculative projects—and putting off the one that I’m sure would sell the best. Since I fear I’ll never get around to writing the thing, I’ve decided to spill the idea. If one of you can bang it ...
I don"t know if it's my reckless, Napoleonic march into middle age, or the decline of our infrastructure, but with each trip I feel more and more like travel is hell. This week, a "simple" overnight trip from Manchester to D.C. felt ...
Professional comics have an old saw that says, “Never go on after a kid or an animal.” But this week I have no choice. America’s hog and pony show dragged on for more than a year, and we’ll be scooping up the steaming piles ...
More tragic than the rubble of a raped and looted city, than the cancer-ridden face we knew when it was lovely, is the crumbling of a once impressive mind. In some ways it is much sadder, as it makes the observer think back and question the ...
On February 25, 1917, Russian soldiers serving Tsar Nicholas II in St. Petersburg faced a choice. On November 4, 2008, Americans voters will stand in the same position. They must choose between a crooked, bumbling oligarchy prone to starting futile ...
Some readers have taken time to complain that they"ve detected self-referential material and personal anecdotes in my autobiographical humor columns. Week after week, they slog their way through 2,000-word articles which they do not enjoy, by an ...
It's funny to see John McCain realize, so late in the game, that he really does want to be president"even more than he wants the editors of Washington monthlies to admire him. For most of this campaign, he has behaved like the kind of ...
On a number of literally life and death issues, American conservatives and Catholics stand in a firm alliance. On other subjects, these groups pull in different directions"and this tension causes suspicion, irritation, even hostility on both ...
Last week’s column I managed to offend a fair swathe of my audience by using an acronym I didn’t make up in reference to the GOP’s vice-presidential candidate. Lesson learned: From now on, I’ll refer to women like Gov. Palin ...
