Tag Archives: George W. Bush

Too Much or Not Enough?

I didn’t really have time to listen Tuesday evening when I flipped on the video of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) speech on the dispute between the Senate Intelligence Committee (she’s the chair) and the Central Intelligence Agency, but once I started listening, I couldn’t stop. I’m not a fan of Sen. Feinstein, I think she’s […]

Godwin’s Scale

Hillary Clinton, frantically flailing to keep her brand fresh until 2016, this week compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler and then, having secured the requisite attention, “clarified” her remark, saying she wasn’t comparing Mr. Putin to Mr. Hitler.  Got that? You might say Ms. Clinton was invoking Godwin’s Law, which states: “As an online discussion […]

Knee High (?)

“Corn should be knee-high by the Fourth of July,” is an agricultural adage applied to various states, but in the northern US where I’ve spent most of my life, it’s generally been a true and good metric for the kind of a summer we’re having in any given year. Cornfields are never far away in […]

Can I See Some ID?

I was in Washington a few weeks ago and attended an event at a bar.  I showed up with my colleague Charlie; we’re both in our 50s, our hair is gray or thinning or both, our faces seamed by decades of care.  No one could mistake us for teens, but we pulled out our photo […]

(Un)Free for All

I’m on Rick Santorum’s side – in a narrow, limited sense.  The former senator from Pennsylvania is not my kind of politician.  There may be a few issues on which we agree, but I’m not inclined to seek them out. That said, Mr. Santorum meets the qualifications to run for president of the United States.  […]

To Appease the Gods

So the last Americans pulled out of Iraq, eight and a half years later, leaving an uncertain nation with an even more uncertain future. As I watched the video of the last trucks crossing the Kuwait border, all I could see were the black hulls of the Greek ships sailing away, gray smoke still hanging […]

Thousands and Ten Thousands

I have a friend who came back from serving in Vietnam 40 years ago. Shortly thereafter, his father, who owned a liquor store, was shot and killed during a robbery. The killer was African American. My friend’s family is white. “I used that for a long time,” he told me. “I’d say, ‘It’s OK for […]