Upon his recent death, I realized I had matriculated in the Barney Rosset School of Literature, or, more correctly (since I didn't know who Barney Rosset was when I started), The Grove Press University of the Arts. I also went on to graduate school at New Directions...

I share at least one attribute of the Catholic Bishops, now at war with the Obama administration: I don't want to talk about contraception, either.

I've taught for over three decades at the university which some characterize as the place where the American Catholic Church "does its thinking." Well, here...

The Republicans, once again, have "caved" on allowing the extension of the payroll tax reduction -- if you consider furthering their anti-Social Security strategy an act of caving. Among the many stories the media has misreported over recent decades, Social Security is one of the most egregious. I have been...

The Super Bowl was, well, super. The game had its moments: the first "free" touchdown in the big game that was, supposedly, not meant to happen (but once a running back turns around in a sitting position on the goal line, he's only gonna fall in backwards, pushed by all...

Let me be blunt: When Republicans run against an incumbent Democratic president, they usually choose a damaged war veteran as their candidate. The '96 election set the pattern: Bob Dole v. Bill Clinton. (A less caustic analysis is that they pick someone who has run before in primaries and lost....

One thing is clear: Newt Gingrich is not running as Ronald Reagan, but as Margaret Thatcher, at least the Thatcher caricatured by Spitting Image, the Brit satirical television show, circa 1984. Gingrich has often been lampooned as a puppet, one in particular, the malevolent horror-film character Chucky, but Spitting Image's...