A few recurring themes converged this week when the dress-up Attorney General Barbie Doll yelled and deflected her way through a five hour Congressional hearing, setting a new record for embarrassing behavior by a federal appointee, which was, already, a…
In the 60s, from Dylan and Baez to Country Joe and the Fish, from “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” to “Fortunate Son” to “Blowin’ In The Wind” to (fill in your favorite), our protest, our rage, our…
We often use the term “pathological” to describe a person who lies so consistently, they seem unable to stop. When the condition goes further, however, and the speaker appears to believe his own fabrications, the condition is described as “mythomania” or “pseudologia…
After beginning its life as one critic’s description of the disastrous 2003 remake of Texas Chain Saw Massacre Two, the term “dumpster fire” began, by 2010, to gain popularity in the sports world as a way of characterizing a totally disastrous…
Last week, as part of a December-January movie-going binge, I finally saw Nuremberg, the latest film about the famous war crimes trials held in Nuremberg in 1945-6. Unlike those that have preceded it, this film centers on the psychological chess game…
In a posthumous collection of essays, letters and notes by F. Scott Fitzgerald, titled The Crack-Up, his friend, Edmund Wilson, pulled together the author’s writings about his mental and physical breakdown in the 1930s. Fitzgerald wrote of his struggles with disillusionment and…
I know that many of you, like me, are devoted readers of the excellent emails sent every day by historian and Boston College Professor, Heather Cox Richardson. I also imagine, since so much is coming in over our virtual transoms,…
There have been various attempts, in the last three or four decades, to push the idea that lack of experience is some kind of qualifier for government service, positing that “fresh ideas” are needed. Just bring a fresh perspective to…
It began with a growing discomfort among many Americans concerning the questionable uses of our military forces. First, we saw soldiers in full battle gear invading several (Democratic-run) American cities, deployed, ostensibly, to “protect” federal property. We immediately understood, however,…
In 1623, in one of a series of prose Meditations titled No Man Is An Island, poet John Donne wrote, “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,” affirming that the death, suffering or deprivation of even one…
By now, I am sure that everyone has become familiar with the story of the Emperor who was so misled by his lackeys about the quality of his new (non-existent) clothes, he failed to see that he was naked. The…
Whether taken as a proverb or a nursery rhyme, the lesson of the lost nail stands today as a warning of the escalating damage that can be caused by a seemingly trivial loss. “For want of a nail,” the saying…
I’ve just returned from a travel break and, of course, it’s tough to disconnect these days, even if your trip is to the moon. So…like you, I’ve been In Touch With The News, which is becoming more and more disconnected…
