At first I was shocked to read today in the New York Times of the puzzling new political attack by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela against the seemingly harmless target of golf. Apparently pro-Chávez officials have moved in recent weeks to shut down two of the country's best-known golf courses....

There is an interesting article in today's New York Times about a service that now exists to help recovering patients make their way through all the false charges on their hospital bills. These self titled "medical advocates" charge to help you navigate the language of the insurance companies and...

It was never a short or long range goal of mine to save the Republican party. But it came to me yesterday how they can do it. Now my altruistic side has got the better of me.

It hit me after reading Maureen Dowd's column in the Sunday New York...

It may not surprise you to hear that I have very little experience negotiating international policy. While this wouldn't have held me back from a prominent advisor position in the Bush years, I am afraid that it disqualifies me from stepping up to the plate in the current administration. But...

The following in on the front page of Motor Authority, a site I check every day. Okay, okay. I've never read it before. It was forwarded to me by the man with whom I live. But wow. Say what you will about the Muslim religion, this has to be the...

On Friday, President Bush said something odd after signing into law tougher sanctions against Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a thug who is hanging on to his position of power even after being defeated in an election.

What he said was; "No regime should ignore the will of its own...

Yesterday former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a public apology in the newspapers to his wife for flirting with other women. Today San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom publicly apologized for having an affair with his re-election campaign managers wife. The President of Israel is about to be indicted on...

Well, now that the dust has settled and all the cell phones have been put away and the heads picked up off the floor in the gallows room, and all the extra rope put back in to storage... I thought it might be time to look back with a little...

There's a picture of George W. Bush talking to Donald Rumsfeld on the front page of the NY Times today. It infuriated me instantly, so I sat and tried to analyze my own rage.

Here's what I figured out: There is a reason why every picture...

Its difficult to bid too fond a farewell to 2006 because continuing to endure the presidency of George Bush kind of reminds me of being an impatient little kid in the back of a car on a very long cross country trip, kicking the seat in front of me...

I know a lot of people who are funny for a living. And almost all of them send me funny Christmas cards. Some are silly funny ie: my friend who always poses with a cut out of a rabbi. Some are ironic funny ie: My friend who sent a Xerox...

An article elsewhere on this page informs us that officials from the Miss USA pageant may strip reigning Miss USA Tara Conner of her title due to "inappropriate behavior at a NYC bar." Donald Trump, who owns the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, apparently told CNN that " Conner...

Happy Thanksgiving. I've been expecting you.

Let me begin by saying that I am picking up that you snuck out of large family gathering seeking momentary respite in the sanctuary of your computer. You are chafing under the yoke of too much Thanksgiving based family togetherness.

It is...

It may not surprise you to hear that I have very little experience negotiating international policy.

I do, however, know a lot about interacting with pathological narcissists. I was raised by them and have long lived among them as I continue to study them in relative peace. In a...

Stepping past all the craziness of the current political scene in the United States for just a minute, there is an interesting object lesson about the way politics works on display in Hungary. I don't really follow Hungarian politics. I have too much staring off in to space to do....

Bush gave a speech to the U.N. today in which he said "My country desires peace." Then later in the very same day Iran's President Ahmadinejad gave a speech in which he said that his nuclear program is "for peaceful purposes only." I was thinking about those two things, plus...

In the late eighties I did pieces for a now defunct local news operation which they ran under the umbrella of " Merrill's L.A." . Because my main credentials involved the work I had done along these lines for the Letterman show, I was given a kind of carte blanche...

Today on the New York Times editorial page Author and Dog Expert Mark Derr takes issue with the methods of Author, Dog Expert and Media Star, Cesar Milan, also known as "The Dog Whisperer." Apparently Mr. Derr feels that Mr. Milan has both simplified and harshened dog training with his...

Well, ever since I reviewed "Kim Jong Il on Opera" people have been urging me to examine some of his other works.

Okay, no one actually urged me to do this. Not even one person.

But after reading Kim Jong Il's official bio I was taken by the fact that...

I usually try not to blog on here unless I am able to reinforce my roll as intellectual parsley in this grand banquet of geo-political discourse.

Still I figure no one but me is going to use this forum to mention the fact that China is about to kill 500,000...