I feel sick to my stomach as I write this.

This morning I read the interview with the former Guantanamo guard who describes in excruciating detail how Gitmo prisoners were allegedly subjected to anal rape as well as other forms of sexual abuse, torture, humiliation, and other atrocities, all...

Whitman, speaking from beyond the grave, with an eye toward our current ills:

BUT WHAT AILS THE PRESENT WAY OF FILLING THE OFFICES OF THE STATES? IS IT NOT GOOD ENOUGH?

I should say it was not. To-day, of all the persons in public office in These States,...

We recently discovered that our young puppy has pee-peed all over our expensive silk Persian rug, in five places to be exact. We bought it some twenty years ago, an utter extravagance when we didn't have kids and had some discretionary income and were trying to settle, convince, and inure...

Lots of upbeat, buoyant, exceedingly sanguine-type folks have been proclaiming that the November 4th election constituted nothing less than a generational watershed in our nation's history, ushering in a post-boomer epoch of youthful governance. After all, we elected the whippersnapper 47 year old instead of the creaky, cranky, crotchety 72...

I just don't get California's Proposition 8, the initiative for a state constitutional ban against same-sex marriage. It's become the most expensive "social issue" ballot measure ever. The stakes are high.

In my neighborhood, there are yard signs for and against the measure. I must say, I'm simply baffled...

A few days ago (which is to say, prior to the Wednesday night presidential debate), I met Sam. Joe the Plumber should really meet Sam, too.

I was jogging away on the treadmill at my local gym when the guy next to me--who turned out to be Sam--introduced himself. He...

David Foster Wallace has passed away. He hanged himself. The world has lost a spectacular writer. Already it seems as if some special portal of human intelligence has been closed off.

He was a colleague and friend. I have no mind to try to pay adequate tribute to him here....

I know, I know: Sarah Palin is receiving rosy plaudits for her speech last night. She is being heralded as the savior of the GOP, someone with enough moxie to sustain the party's unholy alliance between the oil plutocrats and the oily preachocrats.

Many pundits in reviewing her polished...

You decide (kind of a no-brainer, though):

"High office is like a pyramid; only two kinds of animals reach the summit, reptiles and eagles." --D'Alembert

Our country is spinning out of control -- morally, that is. Hitting the skids. Going down the tubes. Going to hell. Rotting. I can't find the right language. But it's bad, folks. Really bad. These are dark times. I'm not exaggerating for the sake of a blog.

Yesterday, John...

Bill Kristol is desperate to find an ad hominem way to smear Barack Obama, and the New York Times continues to oblige this warmonger and professional propagandist with prominent print space.

Kristol's contortionist tactics have hit an all-time low: In today's column, Kristol faults Obama for "omitting" a...

Allow me to do a little downbeat and wet-blanket prognosticating here, a bit of bad-boy forecasting in the "worst-case" rather than the "blue-sky" register. So get out your tea leaves and/or chicken entrails and read along with me. Please, I beg you, tell me why the following scenario won't in...

Now that John McCain and Dick Cheney have made their surprise visits to Iraq, expect another media-coordinated, officially dispensed round of rosy propaganda about how wonderfully the surge (read: escalation; read: permanent occupation) is going.

Beats me how Cheney can delude himself into believing that he can somehow serve...

The redoubtable Jane Hamsher raised a taut issue recently over at Firedoglake, and I've been waiting for someone to follow her lead. But so far, not a word. So I'll take the plunge.

Jane points out that John McCain's Botox treatments are becoming not only conspicuous, but also flat-out...

For what it's worth, I'm voting for Barack Obama in the California primary on Feb. 5.

For me, the clincher is the war (read: occupation; read: foreign policy fiasco). In case you've been lulled lately into MSM complacency about it, allow me to remind you: We're still throwing serious...

I'd like to elaborate a bit on an ABC News report last week that quoted me (correctly) as proffering a theory about something called "the Juno effect" as a way of thinking about recent abortion trends and abortion politics.

Last Thursday morning I found myself in the middle of...

Methinks that Hillary Clinton's unexpected surge in New Hampshire is attributable entirely to Bill Kristol's inaugural column in Monday's New York Times. Call it the "Kristol factor." He's always wrong. Once again -- it took only a day -- he proved that his powers of prognostication are just not very...

In Sunday's Washington Post, George McGovern, at 85-years-old, sternly recommends that Congress ought to impeach Bush and Cheney ("Why I Believe Bush Must Go: Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse"), even though much prevailing sentiment runs decidedly against it. He explains that after the 1972 presidential election, he,...

A contemptible editorial in Saturday's Los Angeles Times severely chastises Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for withdrawing the "telecom immunity" legislation in the face of Sen. Christopher Dodd's ongoing filibuster threat. The Times editorial team contends, rather hysterically, that Reid's delaying the bill until January "threatens to undo a...

The pressure's building. Bells. Whistles. Clack, clack, clack. Zonk zonk. Swish, swoosh. Kapowie. Level one, level two, level three. Wah, wah. Game over.

Help! My precious kids want deluxe video games for the holidays. Almost all of their friends (so they say) have them: Wii. X-Box. PlayStation. Game Boy.