Essays
1090 results
Page 99
Obama: The guilt-by-association ploy
On 'pal-ing around' with William Ayers
Campaign attempts to link Obama to William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright and Zbigniew Brzezinski beg a larger question: So what? Why should we worry if a candidate "pals around with" former terrorists or critics of Israel?
Essays
2 minute read
Baseball, love and rock "n roll
The very last baseball metaphor, or:
Love, life and the Phillies' World Series victory
Sometimes the concert is perfect and there are seven encores. But how many times did you send your soul's Mitch Williams out there and watch your own hopes, like a baseball, sail over the back wall into hellish oblivion and black nights?
Essays
2 minute read
Bush: The final days
The case for impeachment (even now)
Most Americans have forgotten George W. Bush as his administration winds down. Yet the pace of its destructiveness has accelerated as January 20th approaches. The case for impeachment still needs to be made, if only for America’s self-protection between now and the inauguration.
Essays
7 minute read
Studs Terkel: The art of winging it
Studs Terkel:
The virtues of a life played by ear
The empathic mensch interviewer Studs Terkel, who died on October 31, reached voraciously for life’s opportunities and rarely paused for breath. You don’t get to choose your parents, but I and thousand of others were blessed by Terkel’s tutelage. He taught me how to look and ask questions.
Essays
4 minute read
An "unresponsive' critic's response
Some of us dance,
and some are critics
Choreographer Myra Bazell argues that her peer dancers make better critics than outsiders who “shark around desperately.” As one such shark, allow me to bite back.
Essays
3 minute read
Pre-fab dwellings at MOMA in New York
Pre-fab housing:
Confessions of a convert
Where I grew up, factory-made homes meant trailer trash or cookie-cutter suburban sprawl. But the creative pre-fab homes on display at MOMA provide us with intelligent solutions to many pressing environmental and economic issues.
“Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.” Through October 20, 2008 (Part I) and October 26, 2008 (Part II), at Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 St., New York. (212) 708-9400 or www.moma.org.
“Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling.” Through October 20, 2008 (Part I) and October 26, 2008 (Part II), at Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 St., New York. (212) 708-9400 or www.moma.org.
Essays
4 minute read
The vice presidential debate (2nd review)
Sarah Palin's body mike
(and two other reasons not to underestimate her)
Sarah Palin’s debate strategy and her execution of it were quite sophisticated and carefully orchestrated. That “Can I call you Joe?” greeting, for example, was a mater stroke of manipulation.
Essays
2 minute read
The vice presidential debate (1st review)
Sarah Palin's 'American Idol' audition
Senator Joe Biden offered a substantive presidential contrast to Sarah Palin but failed to penetrate her gee-whiz persona and sly evasions. Katie Couric, on the other hand, unleashed the truth genie.
Essays
4 minute read
First debate: McCain's body language
First debate: The body language behind McCain's words
The first presidential debate seemed to confirm that the business of war, rather than the art of diplomacy, is John McCain's true essence.
Essays
2 minute read
John McCain: A therapist's view
McCain struggled throughout young adulthood in the shadow of two revered admirals. His five years’ imprisonment in Vietnam released him from that family pressure. But his subsequent journey of personal liberation has been unmarked by concern for those he encountered along the way.
Essays
6 minute read