In Defense of Don B.
Donald Barthelme is among those writers, like Kurt Vonnegut and (please, no laughter) Richard Brautigan, whom I found funny—sometimes brilliantly so—before coming to resent them as one-trick ponies,...
View ArticleHot Water
Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. What happens to it at 99,000 degrees?. That was the temperature of the water in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean after the United States tested a...
View ArticleCynical Specter Runs to the Left on Afghanistan
How cynical is Arlen Specter? I know. That is sort of like asking how deep the ocean is or how high the moon. But sometimes, following the twists and turns of the five-term turncoat senator’s position...
View ArticleNobel Speech
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech could have been a whole lot worse. In fact, there is much for conservatives to crow about and much to drive the antiwar(s) Left up the wall. He did acknowledge the...
View ArticleThe Harvard Law Review Must Be Aghast
In the ongoing debate over Obama’s attack on the Supreme Court, the president seems not to be faring all that well. Politico’s forum on the subject contains a range of criticisms. They fall into...
View ArticleNo Fifth Star for Petraeus … Yet
I am a fan and admirer of Pete Hegseth and Wade Zirkle, two distinguished combat veterans who have been the driving forces behind Vets for Freedom, an important organization (on whose advisory board I...
View ArticleOh, Man, Not Another Sputnik Moment …
I keep a list of historical analogies — derived from years of grading papers — that tell me that the individual using them is (to be polite) more interested in rhetorical impact than historical...
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