There was a long, well-researched article on Friday in the Huffington Post that was sort of the opposite-Obama. The point of it wasn't that there are people who won't believe a birth certificate about where someone was born, but rather that there are people who won't believe a...

As mobile technology expands, so too does the need to run that technology. And that can mean using a gobsmack lot of batteries, which can mean a gobsmack lot of money to replace. As a result, a lot of people turn to rechargeable batteries as an alternative.

Perhaps the biggest...

A few years ago, I wrote an article on the Huffington Post explaining why I thought that legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller should be Kennedy Center Honorees. A few days later, my phone rang and the voice on the other said, "Hi, is Robert there? This...

I've read a whole lot by George Plimpton. Oddly enough (or not oddly), nothing in his high-end, literary Paris Review magazine, celebrating its 60th anniversary. Just his books, in which, despite his lack of skills, he famously participated in professional sports -- playing the most important, and therefore most risky...

"I don't know about you, but watching anti-American globalists plot against our Constitution makes me sick."
-- Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on the U.S signing the United Nations' "Small Arms Treaty"

For once, I agree with Rand Paul. He's right, he doesn't know about me.

Just so you understand,...

For the February 18 issue of Time magazine, the publication fell all over itself and anointed a new head of the Republican Party. The man who would lead the floundering and disjointed party out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. It would be as if they thought...

The conservative National Review magazine has an amusing article about the far-right reincarnation of Joe McCarthy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), considering a run for the presidency. It's not intended to be amusing, I don't think, but it is. That is, if your definition of "amusing" includes the concept of gross,...

I spent enough of the past weekend watching the NFL Draft. Wall-to-wall experts. The commentators, analysts, former players, former coaches, drafted rookies, and more, far more, everyone had an opinion. Everyone knew The Truth, at least for the weekend. And it all put the sportsworld, at least for the weekend,...

[This is a reprint of a column originally written in 2009. And this year is the 10th anniversary of the actual event itself! Some stories simply demand repeating. Or better put, demand not being forgotten. This is one of them.]


April 27, 2009

Oh, Say...

If you'd turned on the news and saw wall-to-wall coverage about a fertilizer bomb that went off, killing at least 15 and injuring 150, you'd be horrified, and would completely understand every network reporting on it -- and only it -- all day. Yet the explosion in Texas on Wednesday...

"You know, folks mock Mitt Romney for what he said, but he's right. Forty-seven percent of American citizens pay zero in income taxes. It's just true."
-- Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA)

So, you know that Republican Party "Growth & Opportunity" study that told themselves...

Last Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke to students at Howard University.

"How did the Republican Party, the party of the great emancipator, lose the trust and faith of an entire race?" he asked.

The answer to Sen. Paul's question can actually be answered simply, with just one word. And...

I love the Chicago Cubs. This is known in linguistic circles as an understatement. During the course of the year, I'll listen to all or at least part of 150-155 games a year. To be fair, that "part" might only be an inning, but hey, it's still part.

Honestly, to...

A couple days ago, I wrote an article for my website about the national video of physical abuse by Rutgers University basketball coach Mike Rice, who subsequently resigned. Just before finishing it though, I had a brainstorm. (Yes, it happens sometimes.) As a result, I added a bizarre,...

What with the new movie, Oz: The Great and Powerful out in the theaters, it got me thinking about The Song. There have been a lot of wonderful interpretations of "Over the Rainbow," but this might be my favorite. That's because it's done by someone who should know. E.Y. "Yip"...

One of the great things about reading history and remembering the past is that, as the famous quote suggests, you won't be condemned to repeat its mistakes.

Another is that you don't paint yourself in a fool's corner by getting your facts wrong and misinterpreting what actually happened.

But also,...

My mother, Betty Lou, loved April Fools' jokes. This may not seem like a big deal, except that she didn't really have a sense of humor. I don't mean that she wasn't funny or want to like jokes. Just that she didn't have a "sense" of them. Like some people...

From the Elisberg Industries Mailbag. Letters We Get Letters. The following was sent to me. Really.

Dear Answer Man,

Perhaps you can write me a column that will instruct me on what to say to my mother. I was raised by my folks a die-hard liberal -- JFK was their...

A few weeks back, I got an email from my pal Bart Baker. Bart is a wonderful writer, who's written several screenplays (most notably, Live Wire, with Pierce Brosnan), as well as a ton of TV movies -- including a series of Mother of the Bride romantic comedies. He's also...

"I think that is not a reasonable question."
-- Richard Perle, architect of the Iraq War, to NPR's Renee Montagne question whether it was worth it.

So, let's see, there were 4,500 Americans killed, 32,000 Americans officially wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead or wounded. And...