California,
the media like to tell us, faces an unprecedented fiscal crisis. The budget
deficit is $40 billion and growing. The state is so short of cash that, within
days, it may issue IOUs, rather than checks, to pay its bills. The Legislature,
bitterly divided, seems unable to agree on a way out. The governor warns of
"financial Armageddon."
How should we prepare for apocalypse?
Before you hide under your bed, check out a few books by some of California's leading
journalistic interpreters of… more
"Neither side was entirely happy, and that was a good thing," said Ghaith al Omari, who was then a Palestinian negotiator and is now with the American Task ...
Clinton speechwriter and author Ted Widmer liked the obvious lack of "elaborate, orotund speechwriter language," the "tight language, short sentences and ...
We're asking a lot of Barack Obama, just to right the
sinking ship of American politics. Can we expect him to save American culture
as well? Can a president spin that much gossamer from his oratory? Can the
American people make better books, movies and music, inspired to new heights by
better speeches and our better angels?
If history is any guide, the answer is simple: No, we can't!
... among other things, he suggested that Israel has been directing US policy on the Middle East. "This is terrible for the United States," said Daniel Levy ...
Perhaps it's because I look gullible, confused or in special need of
spiritual guidance. Maybe it's because I hang out alone in public
places. But, since I was a teenager, I have been a prime target for
proselytizers of all stripes.
For Barack Obama, Iraq is the bad war and Afghanistan the good war. The
president-elect has promised to cut back our involvement in the former
and wage the latter with vigor, committing more troops and money.
Paradoxically, Obama's solution for Afghanistan could worsen its
problems.
"There's been a sea change in thinking," said Leif Wellington Haase, director of New America's California Program. "People will realize over time what a big ...
I thought it would be the other way around, that my tastes would become more refined as I grew up. But I confess that the older I get, the more stupid movies I watch. I mean, the other day I sat through Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” on pay per view. Was it good? Not really. But it made me chuckle a few times, and it was cold outside and, most important in this economy, it was… more
We're obsessed with race and ethnic relations in the U.S., so much so
that we tend to believe that most crime, violent or otherwise, is
committed across racial, ethnic or religious lines. We make a special
category for "hate" crimes. Governments compile statistics on them.
Journalists, always looking for the next great divide, eagerly read
intergroup conflict into just about any form of antisocial behavior.
