It is that time of year again. I write not of Christmas actually, but of heading down south of the Rio Grande. For more years than I can remember I have spent Christmas in my tent in some Latin American country, usually in some God-forsaken jungle. This year will be the same. School ends today, … Read more

One is not supposed to revel at the sight of an enemy in pain. I hereby request a dispensation from all the relevant powers that be. I want permission to indulge in schadenfreude, ‘a delight in the misfortune of others’. Not lightly do I ask for this. I know that the Carpenter tells us to … Read more

Ever wonder where all the money given to the UN ends up? You may wonder no more. It of course pays for generous salaries for all the directors and sub-directors, secretaries and sub-secretaries, chairmen and sub-chairmen, advisors, administrators, all sorts of Pooh-Bahs, potentates and assorted layabouts, parasites and do-nothings. It also pays for the true … Read more

What do you get when a racial group votes year in, year out, for one political party? When that party relies with an arrogant confidence that the racial group will never, ever switch to the other party? When that party says and does anything and everything to keep that racial group in the fold? You … Read more

Yesterday I made the decision not to be a sheep. My hand was forced by all those bullet-ridden bodies strewn across Nebraska and Colorado. I also remembered the words of the Carpenter. But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak … Read more

Would Republicans prefer Obama on the Democrat ticket next November or Hillary? That is the question. That is the only question. Yes, I left out Edwards. That fop will not make it to the election. There is little to say about his supporters other than they are an embarrassment to this Republic. First let us … Read more

We have read this sort of headline before. Gunman who killed 8, himself at Omaha mall had lost job, girlfriend, home The subtext fairly screams at us: ‘The reason Robert Hawkins walked into Westroads Mall and shot to death 8 persons was because he had a run of bad luck.’ Wrong. The reason the fellow … Read more

As a mere boy I would wonder into my grandparents’ bedroom to marvel at the number of pill bottles on their dresser. There were dozens of them. It seemed to me that they lived on them. And the talk around their home always got back to their illnesses and ailments. There was the diabetes, the … Read more

It happened right on schedule. Again—yet again— my lungs are under assault by some wandering virus or bacteria. This is the—what?—sixth time that they have suffered so since I returned to the US after 14 years overseas. It is tiresome, but what to do about it? Being around 280 squealing adolescents all day has much … Read more