The nitty gritty

Killer Congressmen

2012-01-02T21:35:00.003-05:00

The following current, retired, defeated or dead members of the U.S. Congress voted in 2009 to kill a U.S. Park Service ranger. The murder, by a brave wounded warrior of our heroic wonderful armed forces, didn't happen until Jan. 1, 2012 in a national park -- which had been opened up to loaded weapons by the following defenders of freedom. I wonder if Gabby Giffords would change her shameful vote

Oct. 24, 2011

2011-10-24T14:06:00.001-04:00

Images from the 70th and 6th birthday party for Roberta and Zachary Bergman, respectively, and a couple from the next day.

What We Can Know

2011-10-02T10:28:00.004-04:00

“Everything happens for a reason.”If it weren’t such an odious cliché, the thought should be applauded as the highest form of Enlightenment thinking. However, the Age of Reason occurred about 400 years ago and has been replaced by an emphasis on the mystical and divine (which is why Rick Perry may be president in 2013 and not Barack Obama.)Yesterday, New York Yankee Robinson Cano explained his

Muting the Mawkish

2011-09-11T10:51:00.005-04:00

The “mute” button will be my favorite and most used device of the day because TV today, especially the football portion of the schedule, will be dripping with inappropriate, if not fake, patriotic gestures staged by this generation’s Joseph Goebbelses -- reborn as Roger Ailes and Karl Rove. I do plan to watch football and check the news at the appointed hours to see if there is anything I

Dodger Blue Language

2011-09-07T01:05:00.015-04:00

Haven’t had so much fun at a ballgame in a long time. It wasn’t just that through a friend of Jon’s we got to sit in the first row behind the Dodgers’ dugout; it wasn’t just that it was Steven Strasburg’s long-heralded return a year after major surgery; it wasn’t that he pitched five scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out four; it wasn’t that the game was not well attended due to

Capital Day

2011-09-05T18:24:00.012-04:00

Had a satisfying Labor Day, indulging first in my love of small-town parades and then a baseball game from prime seats with my family. As the columnist E.J. Dionne says, it should be called “Capital Day,” because it is no longer about the labor movement, which has gone the way of the milkman, but just another faux-patriotic day that marks the end of summer, the start of school, renewed

Me and Bubba

2011-08-03T20:11:00.006-04:00

In the fall of 1970, in my first full year as a reporter at UPI, the Baltimore Colts were on their way to the Super Bowl. I only covered home games, but during the week before each playoff game, I was assigned to go to practice and write a story for the national sports wire. I was 22 and had long hair. Luckily, there was another guy just out of college who was on the team who also had long

Every Picture Tells a Story

2011-07-28T19:21:00.003-04:00

When the history of this miserable seventh season of Washington Nationals is written, the fall from the grace of plus-.500 baseball will probably be dated from last week’s end of a nine-game road trip on which they should have gone 6-3, but went 3-6 instead. What bothers me most, as a season-ticket holder and baseball maven, is that the way they lose is inexcusable at any level, including

Separated at Birth

2011-07-24T10:07:00.003-04:00

Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, left, Wall Street financier Steven Rattner, right.

"When in Doubt, Call them Out"

2011-07-15T23:48:00.003-04:00

I am finally back after a week of umpiring at a baseball camp called Cooperstown Dreams Park, which brings in 104 teams of 12-year-olds a week during the summer, at somewhere between $700 and $1,200 a pop to bathe in the glory of the Hall of Fame about five miles away. As an ump, there is much I leave to be desired, but I learned a lot about the art and craft and loved my time on perfectly

Tradition and Treacle

2011-07-04T21:57:00.002-04:00

Just spent a glorious Fourth, as a always, listening to military bands, the National Symphony Orchestra and America’s top musical artists, while watching the most spectacular fireworks display over the Washington Monument. The only thing better than being there is where I was – on my couch in an air-conditioned family room watching the whole Public Broadcasting System’s “A Capitol Fourth” on a

Disfigures of Speech

2011-05-27T14:55:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I was in a community center when the public address system informed us that a test of the fire alarm was about to commence and that we should ignore it. I did, to the best of my ability -- but I could not help but wonder what a “fire annunciator” is or how exactly a “fire emergency” differs from, say, a mere fire. Later, I was grocery shopping in a high-end store and was taken

Wasteland is Vaster, More than Half Vast

2011-05-26T06:39:00.003-04:00

I know, I know. TV watching will rot your mind, but it is particularly unnerving to find that television news (an oxymoron like “march music”) is as offal as anything else in the vast wasteland.My most recent complaint is what Bill Maher has called "tornado porn." Any destructive weather event is of utmost significance -- to the people who live, not particularly to anyone else beyond a few

The Chicago Code

2011-05-19T14:35:00.004-04:00

When my public affairs career at FDA came to an abrupt end, I blamed the Chicago machine politics of Barack Obama for putting in place incompetent kids who had no clue as to media relations, personnel management or general qualities of being human.More evidence comes from this account earlier this week by a reputable suburban Chicago newspaper of new Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s press secretary. The

Nationals Mismanagement

2011-04-30T20:52:00.002-04:00

When a supposedly Major League team has more batters hit by pitches than it has hits, and when a team is walked five times, has two hit batters and benefits from an opponent’s error in the first two innings you might expect it to win.But then you are not talking about the Washington Nationals, which although it is not even the worst team right now, it is is vying hard for the honor.On Saturday,

America Going to Hell in a Teabag

2011-04-07T21:34:00.012-04:00

As I write, there is still no agreement on a short-term spending plan. But the real danger to the republic was the huge plop in the toilet bowl of discredited ideology from media darling Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Hades. (Separated at birth from Chris Moltisanti). Ryan unveiled a long-term economic plan that has less to do with sound national financing than with returning America to the turn-of-the-

Extremely Liberal Renewal

2011-04-01T15:33:00.003-04:00

I have subscribed to the liberal New Republic for about 40 years, so I was definitely going to renew. When the phone call came from the outsourced subscription company, I was offered as a "preferred subscriber" a 50% discount if I signed up before next week at a mere $67.99 a year. So I took it, pending a confirmatory call from a supervisor. A few minutes later, when the follow-up call came, I

Transparent Vindication

2011-04-01T13:48:00.004-04:00

As loyal readers may recall, I was suddenly defederalized last October a few weeks short of being legally immune from employer abuse of the kind administered to at least four older workers in the FDA public affairs shop. Everyone knew the that new boss was not only not the same as the old boss but actually was parachuted in from a planet where “communication” meant silence, “transparency” meant

Dim Bulbs

2011-03-27T09:51:00.003-04:00

The death of Geraldine Ferraro, juxtaposed with a major political speech by Michele Bachmann yesterday reminds us of how far women still have to go. My instinct would be to ignore Bachmann, (R-Village of the Damned), but we should not. Bachmann is at once too ripe a target for ridicule and too much of a threat to the generally held ideal that women are at least equal to men. She and Sarah Palin,

War Powers

2011-03-22T14:06:00.000-04:00

How can all the Obama-haters who called him a ditherer for not intervening in Libya now turn around and complain that such action is illegal? The Republicans, including the once-but-no-longer-honorable Richard Lugar, suddenly wonder where Congress’ constitutional power to declare war went.It went out of business due to lack of use since the U.S. declaration of war against Romania, Hungary and

Tempus Fugit

2011-03-13T14:03:00.004-04:00

Just realized that the current month's photo on my personalized wall calendar is a kind of mirror image of the framed photo that has been on the wall forever. Funny how hair color changes over time.

David Broder, 1929-2011

2011-03-09T19:19:00.003-05:00

I might have spoken with David Broder twice, but the time I do remember he was polite and solicitous. I really only knew of him what he wrote and what others said of him. Lately, I had become critical of him for focusing on the same issues that I think have been stale for 20 years – the importance of political parties, the brilliance of certain state legislators and a centrism so devoid of

SEO: The Epitaph for Journalism

2011-02-21T19:56:00.004-05:00

Looking for suitable employment in my area of expertise, communicating important information to the public, I feel defeated – defeated by the evolution of journalism from almost a priestly calling to a puerile exercise in “search engine optimization.’"Much criticism of the “mainstream media” centers on the notion of “media elites” deciding what is important and then propagating a presumed

Mourning in America

2011-02-04T13:05:00.004-05:00

I will watch the Super Bowl this weekend and try to keep up with events in the Middle East. But I will otherwise keep the television off lest I become convulsed with nausea at the national outpouring of treacle over the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan.I was a reporter who had the privilege of covering the White House for four and a half years, encompassing the middle of his tenure. I believe I

Another Reason to Cancel the Washington Post

2011-01-28T21:18:00.006-05:00

Sorry to have to announce my divorce from the Washington Post's Style Invitational again, but this does it.Once a year, contestants are asked to make up humorous rhymes about people who have died in the previous year. And once again, this particular contest to which I devote hours and skill, has no room for me. So, for the presumed amusement of Dear Reader, and to memorialize my ego, ., here are

Separated at Firth

2011-01-25T11:40:00.005-05:00

Not being female, I had not paid much attention to Colin Firth, confusing him from time to time with Colin Farrell, but not Colin Powell. Anyway, my wife recently noted she liked MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, and I figured out why.

2011-01-19T17:21:00.003-05:00

The following is a letter I have sent to the president of the Society of Professional Journalists regarding the "retirement" of the organization's Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award.I have just learned, with dismay, of the SPJ Board’s decision to “retire” the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award. No matter how much this baby was split, the decision is, nevertheless, a repudiation of

Giving Rational Cover to Irrational Acts

2011-01-11T11:04:00.003-05:00

What did George Wallace and Ronald Reagan have in common? They are the only two prominent right-wingers who have been targets of assassins.Were JFK, RFK, federal judge John Wood, the husband and mother of federal judge Joan Lefkowitz killed by right wingers? Not necessarily, but when you add those cases to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and two abortion providers, plus the Oklahoma City

The F Word

2011-01-05T12:16:00.007-05:00

As the new Congress is seated, I am reminded of what Mo Udall said about democracy after his fifth straight second-place finish in the 1976 Democratic primaries:“The people have spoken – the bastards.”For the moment, I am more open than I may be later regarding the Republican majority in the House and the Republican obstructionists in the Senate. Again, to quote, a sage, this time H.L. Mencken:"

The Most Professional Way

2010-12-29T09:53:00.002-05:00

Brandon Lloyd of the Denver Broncos, booted off three teams for his being a nonproductive jerk, was finally named to the Pro Bowl, the National Football League’s all-star game.Asked if he wanted to say to his previous employers, “I told you so,” he replied, “No, I want to say, ‘Fuck you.’ And I mean that in the most professional way.”

Jews and Jesus -- Not a Match Made in Heaven

2010-12-20T17:19:00.006-05:00

Let me state I am not in favor of murder.But the "tourist" stabbed to death in Israel was one of those "Jews" who believe in the divinity of Jesus and was there to spread her message of self-hatred. I have even spit in the face of one of these vermin in D.C. who was proselytizing at Metro one Rosh Hashana.It's bad enough there are Christian and Arab Jew-haters. And I understand Jews who

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

2010-12-17T09:05:00.004-05:00

For free, you can read a provocative publication that provides intellectual ballast for what most of us know by heart -- that progressive ideas strengthen America and that the conservative ideal has been hijacked by know-nothingism. Here is a sample article: