The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Your Ugly Ancestors

Now we know where you get it, huh? This photo is from a collection called “Victorian Husbands and Wives” and, in linking the collection at AOSHQ, Maetenloch offered the defense that “makeup and smiles apparently hadn’t been invented yet.” AOSHQ commenters unanimously agreed: I wouldn’t hit that for $100 in 1872 money, which would be like eleventy kajillion bucks […]

Chris Matthews: Exceptionally Idiotic

I’ve been sitting here with MSNBC on my office TV and have twice today seen a particular “Lean Forward” promotional spot in which Chris Matthews uses the phrase “American exceptionalsm” in a way that is both wrong and tendentious. Strangely, this MSNBC spot isn’t available on YouTube, and some Birthers have claimed it was taken offline […]

VICTORY!

We’ve whupped the damned Yankees, and the invaders are reported to be in panic-stricken retreat from the sacred soil of the Old Dominion: Dignitaries, history buffs and thousands of reenactors gathered on the hills and fields outside Manassas on Thursday to mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle […]

The Dark Night of Fascism

“In the hands of a skillful indoctrinator, the average student not only thinks what the indoctrinator wants him to think . . . but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. This man is outraged by the suggestion that he is the flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of […]

Why Do These ‘Organized Political Extremist Groups’ Hate Jane Fonda?

This is just so mysterious, isn’t it? I was to have been on QVC today to introduce my book, “Prime Time,” about aging and the life cycle. The network said they got a lot of calls yesterday criticizing me for my opposition to the Vietnam War and threatening to boycott the show if I was […]

A Democrat, Re-Assessed

One of my pet peeves during the Bush years were those conservative spokesmen — among them, Sean Hannity — who loved nothing better than to contrast today’s treacherous and unpatriotic Democrats with the allegedly good Democrats of The Good Old Days. “FDR, Harry Truman and JFK!” goes this roll call of revered Democrats of yore, […]

The Weird Reich

It’s not unusual for strange ideas to turn up in Maureen Dowd’s column, but she found a really weird one this time: Adolf Hitler invented the blow-up sex doll! The latest wacky Hitler story comes from the British author Graeme Donald. He says that, while researching a military book, he stumbled across a story that […]

U.S. Recognizes Southern Independence!

After seceding from the North and fighting the longest civil war in modern history, South Sudan has finally gained its independence, and has been officially recognized by the United States: President Barack Obama says the achievement is a tribute to the generations of southern Sudanese who “struggled for this day.” So having recognized the legitimacy […]

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