Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the gavel of the jolly drunk judge on the knuckles of the white-collar cutthroat.

I come not to praise Tim Russert, nor to bury him, nor even to insult him. He was an intelligent man, though he employed his intelligence in moderation. He...

There's a teeny tiny election tomorrow in Los Angeles, but it's very necessary that we let all our Angeleno friends know:

A crazy racial separatist is running for judge. Read the jarring details about Bill Johnson below. Then vote for Bianco, and "no" on propositions 98 and...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the lifestyle of the sick and famished.

The promise of technology was to relieve us of onerous labors, leaving us more time for delight and relaxation. Instead, technology has provided new onerous labors to replace the old, placed greater production demands on the laborer,...

So I park my car, see, behind the post office on 19th and Ashland. And I get out of the car, see, and I am suddenly gagging because there is a smell on the wind like barf, like if you were standing over a paper shopping bag full of barf....

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: self-adhesive postage for those too parched from the dry white season to lick a stamp to post a letter to the human heart. Got it?

What is the word for a man who has himself filmed visiting a former Nazi concentration camp in order...

This is exactly what I was afraid of. I guess my complaining about the Northern League on Facebook was all for naught, now they have 85 seats in Parliament. Between the Pope, a former Hitler Youth, and the new mayor, "a former neo-fascist youth leader," the politics in...

Want to see a frightening graph?

And the Turkish don't have Ben Stein working his ass off to make them dumber. Soon the graph will have to include medieval Transylvania for the US to even show up on it.

Ben Stein and...

It's not enough John McCain wants to continue George W. Bush's policies, now Hillary does, too. Specifically, the policy of threatening other countries with destruction if they look at us wrong. If we wanted Bush again he wouldn't have a 28% approval rating. Don't they read the papers?

Here's the...

I apologize for the following. It was written in anger brought on by listening to All Things Considered for three whole minutes, a mistake I shall not repeat. Is NPR any better than Charles Gibson? No. In any case, the frothing lather below should be recognizable to anyone unfortunate...

It used to be, if there were a topic that was obviously on everyone's mind, yet the fact that no one would mention it was growing oppressive to all, that topic would be called, "the elephant in the room." "Clearly the elephant in the room is that Edna's husband Roger...

In the TV ad for the movie 21, the announcer says, as if it's a terrific, exciting piece of news,

"Entertainment Weekly calls it 'a card-sharp thriller.'"

True. It's a thriller about card sharps.

But that's no recommendation for the movie.

It doesn't mean it's a thriller that is...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the natural enzyme that gets the cat-pee stains of mainstream politics out of the fabric of our social upholstery.

You know something? All this talk of making progress in Iraq has got me convinced. Why would so many people who've been supporting the...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the salad that needs no dressing.

I need not tell you there is no mention in the Constitution of genetic superiority as a criterion for deciding who will occupy the position of Chief Executive. Of course not. It's elementary school civics. This is...

"I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind." - David Mamet, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead' Liberal," Village Voice, March 11, 2008.

Alec Baldwin, as David Mamet, stands before the bedraggled salesmen. He pulls out a...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the wafer-thin mint that explodes the big fat lie.

This week on BBC radio our own crazy uncle, US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, had the following to say regarding torture:

Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: that exhilarating rush of wasabi into your sinuses.

A $150 billion tax cut. That is what our sorry excuse for a president calls an "economic stimulus package."

A tax cut is a single item. What makes it a "package" exactly? That it's wrapped up,...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the amazing Technicolor dream coat.

What's this I hear about Los Angeles cops having contests to see who can make the most arrests or impound the most vehicles in twenty-four hours? Has all that sushi made the LA police go soft? What happened...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: one of those birds that walk around in the crocodile's mouth, cleaning between its teeth.

SAPPORO -- Eco-tourists on a whale-watching vessel, looking forward to observing the mighty creatures in their natural habitat, were instead greeted by the sight of a harpooned...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the friendly ghost in the machine.

It's clear the world will inevitably shift away from a petroleum-based economy to something more renewable and less environmentally destructive. Such a shift will pivot on the demands and actions of the world's largest petroleum consumer and...

Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the quality you radiate that no camera can capture, not even on Google Street View.

The decision of five Supreme Court judges to effectively overturn Brown v. Board of Education is a cautionary tale. It ought to caution us to think like Hollywood studios,...