Current Invective

John Warner’s retirement is worth about five minutes’ discussion. Instead we got ten minutes of undisguised electoral speculation. Speculation seems to be the currency of modern journalism. Reporters spend more time on things that haven’t happened than they do on actual events. The Warner coverage, for instance, could have focused on what the guy has done in 30 years, but no. The emphasis was on how many senate seats will change hands in 2008. (more…)

Stranded and abandoned in New Orleans,
When the waters flooded everything in sight.
We all were stranded,
And abandoned
To the terrors of the hurricane’s might. (more…)

What’s still in the air six years after 9/11?  Asbestos fibers and poison dust are raised with every breeze, and the atmosphere is saturated with public discontent and a general feeling of justice undone.  Survivors of the New York attack got some money but no trial.  The biggest crime in the history of the city, and nobody prosecuted.  And with all physical evidence of the crime obliterated, it’s impossible ever to know what really happened.  (more…)

To my ear, the term “troops” dehumanizes the young people who face the bombs and bullets. A troop is not an individual, but a group. The individual is a soldier or a marine or a sniper or a communications specialist or maybe just a grunt or a GI.
(more…)

“Turd Blossom,” the nickname assigned by George Bush to his dear friend Karl Rove, was not uttered much by those commenting on the White House aide’s upcoming retirement.  Most reporters seemed content to wish the brainy fellow well, having got past the obligatory 30-second digression on his involvement in the exposure of a covert espionage agent (one of ours). (more…)

With Mattel’s recall of several million lead-contaminated toys from China, you may have heard a reporter express an opinion critical of Chinese toymakers and the lax standards applied to the manufacture of goods bound for the U.S.   What you haven’t heard is any suggestion that the goods be manufactured here.  (more…)