Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Sarah Palin:

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that...

I wrote this bit of doggerel a while ago but only just got around to making it hyperdoggerel by equipping the stanza numbers with links. (Warning: VI and XVII may autostart.)

I

Sarah's bridge
Is falling down;
From Nowhere hangs
Her brief renown.

II

Take...

Watch carefully: blink and you'll miss it. (Hint: it happens at 1:36.)

Just when you thought the Clinton campaign had cornered the market in whining, special pleading, and all-around silliness, the McCain people give them a run for their (dwindling) money.

Responding to Obama's smackdown of McCain's Hamas smear, McCain advisor Mark Salter said: "He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally,...

The pundits agreed:

Given her desperate need to make a dent in Obama's vast pledged-delegate lead...

Given that her campaign was not merely broke, but deep in the red...

Given that, a few months ago, polls showed her leading in Pennsylvania by 20 points or more...

Given the support of...

My friend Joe (not his real name) looked up from my Barcalounger, which he's been hogging all week. One tentacle held the remote, the other an empty bag of Smartfood.

"I have two questions for you," he said. "The briefing papers I read on the way here gave the impression...

Ask people why Dukakis lost, and they'll tell you: the tank.

Ask people why Gore "lost" (that is, failed to lock the election up so tight that it couldn't be stolen) and they'll tell you: he claimed to have invented the internet.

Ask people why Kerry lost (or, just possibly,...

This is the seventh installment of a short novel that I began posting during the season of Easter and Passover. For a brief introduction and a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words, see the first installment.

nun he

Her face -- look at her --

This is the sixth installment of a short novel I'm posting (in whole or in part) during the season of Easter and Passover. For a brief introduction and a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words, see the first installment.

mem gimel

Her son was right,...

This is the fifth installment of a short novel I'm posting (in whole or in part) during the season of Easter and Passover. For a brief introduction and a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words, see the first installment.

lamed

The dervishes keep spinning. He...

This is the fourth installment of a short novel I'm posting (in whole or in part) during the season of Easter and Passover. For a brief introduction and a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words, see the first installment.

kaf dalet

Don't worry, Yehuda...

This is the third installment of a short novel I'm posting (in whole or in part) during the season of Easter and Passover. For a brief introduction and a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words, see the first installment.

yod zayin

They say he heals...

This is the second installment of a short novel I'm posting (in whole or in part) during the season of Easter and Passover. For a brief introduction and a glossary of Hebrew and Aramaic words, see the first installment.

yod alef

Hiss of green wood,...

During Holy Week, I'll be posting some portion (and perhaps the entirety) of a short novel. There is some precedent for posting fiction on the Post -- Deepak Chopra, for one, has done it -- and the present work is one that bears on many issues now hotly debated in...

"Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Thursday that Japan's military had forced foreign women into sexual slavery during World War II, contradicting the Japanese government's longtime official position.... 'Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs...

(Sorry I'm late with this. I was in Brazil planning our '09 invasion.)

Just a couple of weeks after the NYT's front-page story on the "prewar slide show" (sample pdf here) that "cast Iraq in rosy hues," we have another shocker, exclusive to the Huffington Post: a newly declassified...

1) Security. As the President has aptly noted, terrorists "hate what we stand for" -- freedom and democracy. Thanks to Republican efforts, there will soon be nothing left for them to hate us for.

2) Security, again. Secret nuclear weapons programs by rogue states and terrorists are no...

Date: February 12, 1999
Defendant: President William Jefferson Clinton
Charge: Lying about a blow job
Cost to the US taxpayer: $52 million
Outcome: Impeached and found not guilty

Date: November 5, 2006
Defendant: Ex-President Saddam Hussein
Charge: Crimes against humanity
Cost...

SEAGULL: Sources inside the federal Food and Drug Administration say that a tainted Congress, believed to be responsible for sickening millions of Americans over the past several weeks, may be recalled soon. NPR's Ina Yappy reports.

YAPPY: It's sweeping the country. It plays no favorites, affecting red, blue, and paisley...

"Automobiles. The printing press. The personal computer. These milestones of progress improved society forever. Now it's democracy's turn." -- www.diebold.com

From the time of its birth in ancient Athens, democracy has been a scarce commodity. So scarce, in fact, that wars have been fought over it.

In 490 B.C., the...