“I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid.” This quip from noted orator and alleged President of the USA, Joe Biden, is one of a series of ethnicities and backgrounds for a man who increasingly physically resembles one of those little rubber skeletons people had on their key rings in the 1970s. ...
Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange centers on teenage psychopath Alex and his violent gang of “droogs.” It has proved to be sadly prophetic in Britain, but one line has become newly relevant. In the book, the “Lodovico Treatment” is intended to cure young hooligans of their ...
Common sense. How can you possibly be against it? Americans of a certain generation used to talk about “Mom and apple pie” as examples of things that you cannot help but love, and it looks like common sense should get the same thumbs-up. But what is common sense? If we are going to be ...
The 1942 movie Casablanca is the cinematic version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which a Victorian woman reportedly disliked because she found it “full of clichés.” It ought not to be legal to be unable to recite at least one of Bogart’s lines as suave restaurateur Rick Blaine, and my personal ...
Those who live under public scrutiny, whether they wish to or not, would do well to learn an axiom concerning the media: The news cycle can be your friend or an enemy to be feared. In the event of a potential scandal, ride out the first week of the media tsunami and you might just make it through. ...
When the telling of jokes was still part of European culture, racial and ethnic traits were often a key ingredient, and comedians thrived on national stereotypes. A perfect example is the gag about the tragic sinking of a Scandinavian ferry, leaving only six survivors in a lifeboat: two Danes, two ...
The British media are much like a magician who waves his free hand to distract the audience while he pockets card or coin, unseen, with the other. Presently, you would think Fleet Street stringers would be working late nights to cover what should be huge stories, not exactly Watergate but (if you ...
Britain’s worsening immigration crisis is actually two crises for the price of one. The first concerns the U.K. government and optics, a weaselly little word I first heard used by Obama when he was caught by the media playing golf during some national crisis. “The optics,” he said, “were ...
The unelected gauleiters of the European Union must look back a decade with wistful fondness to a halcyon time when their only real headache was the Greek economy. Now, with energy stocks dwindling, inflation and immigration rising, and anti-E.U. protests gaining in confidence, the days when ...
There have been many legendary comments made in the House of Commons, the primary legislative chamber of the United Kingdom, and Sir Winston Churchill is responsible for many of them. Supposedly, the old bulldog was sitting across from Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) and waiting for battle ...
