With regrets for all the chaos and death and destruction, it was necessary that George W. Bush should ascend to power and retain it for two terms of office. He is a singularly giftless man, but he brings one gift to everyone: disaster. Placed at the pinnacle of the greatest military empire in human history, its wealth and reach unimaginable in Caesar's day, equipped with every conceivable advantage that the very most powerful, influential cabals of rulership and commerce and warmaking can bestow, all of their collective beneficence concentrated behind his every purpose, yet he will fail.
The tooth fairy, Santa Clause, WorldCom profits, the Easter Bunny, al-Qaeda.
The cruel, evil jerks who blew up the London subway last week, despite appropriating al-Qaeda's name for their website and T-shirts, have about as much to do with al-Qaeda as a Beatles tribute band has to do with the Fab Four.
Tell us your "source," Judy Not published in The New York Times
The only thing more evil, small-minded and treasonous than the Bush Administration's jailing Judith Miller for a crime the Bush Administration committed, is Judith Miller covering up her Bush Administration "source."
I thought I'd be pleased when the American public finally caught on. It happens, eventually. The George W. Bush Mutant Death Festival, so popular for several years, has finally lost its appeal. Mark my worms, Paris Hilton is next. Not that there's much difference. Two debutantes mincing their various ways across the world stage, one clad in swimsuit, selling cow, the other clad in flight suit, selling bull; Americans bought both of 'em for a while.
How the war on terror is eroding our civil liberties
Heading for Oakland from Seattle to see my grandkids last week, the Alaska Airline check-in machine refused to give me a boarding pass. Directed to the ticket counter, I gave the agent my driver's license and watched her punch keys at her computer.
It was François-Marie (Pappy) Arouet, writing under the nom de plume (name of the feather) 'Voltaire', that said, "to hold a pen is to be at war". I couldn't agree more, albeit retrospectively. I'm at war, pen-fashion, with what I regard to be a sweeping tide of superstitious, retrogressive, vengeful, dimwitted anti-intellectual goat-spanking that has swept the United States like a tide. But I also know, because I periodically dip into that fusty old thing they call literature, there's little to be said anew that Voltaire didn't say back when he was running around in wig and garters getting banished from Paris.
Many male readers have come to me asking, "what can I do to bring the romance back into my special relationship?" The only question I am asked more often is "how do I get bloodstains out of automobile upholstery?" It is possible that the first question would obviate the second, if only someone would explain all about what women like. Here is a simple list that will help you reignite the spice in your lady friend's heart.
When most people hear the word 'filibuster', they automatically think of Philip Armbruster, inventor of the steam banjo and the self-ladling tureen. In fact the filibuster is a vital tool in the legislative sabretache, used to ensure that a minority group, such as the American public, does not have its best interests steamrolled by the marching jackboots of the majority in power. And yet, there is a fierce Republican effort to do away with this ancient tradition. What is a filibuster, you ask stupidly? I groan. The word 'filibuster' comes from the Dutch vrijbuiter, from which we also get 'freebooter'. The original sense of the word was that of a mercenary, someone inclined to take hostages. It came into its modern sense when officially condoned in 1872: the exercise of the right to 'unlimited debate' to literally talk legislation to death, sheer loquacity grinding legislative business to a halt.
Commentary 
The Inevitability of George W. Bush
The tooth fairy, Santa Clause, WorldCom profits, the Easter Bunny, al-Qaeda.
Situation Desperate
How the war on terror is eroding our civil liberties
Voltaire, I Can Dig Your Rap
Many male readers have come to me asking, "what can I do to bring the romance back into my special relationship?" The only question I am asked more often is "how do I get bloodstains out of automobile upholstery?" It is possible that the first question would obviate the second, if only someone would explain all about what women like. Here is a simple list that will help you reignite the spice in your lady friend's heart.
When most people hear the word 'filibuster', they automatically think of Philip Armbruster, inventor of the steam banjo and the self-ladling tureen. In fact the filibuster is a vital tool in the legislative sabretache, used to ensure that a minority group, such as the American public, does not have its best interests steamrolled by the marching jackboots of the majority in power. And yet, there is a fierce Republican effort to do away with this ancient tradition. What is a filibuster, you ask stupidly? I groan. The word 'filibuster' comes from the Dutch vrijbuiter, from which we also get 'freebooter'. The original sense of the word was that of a mercenary, someone inclined to take hostages. It came into its modern sense when officially condoned in 1872: the exercise of the right to 'unlimited debate' to literally talk legislation to death, sheer loquacity grinding legislative business to a halt.
