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CHUTZPAH
When politicians of the Joe McCarthy type insist that English is the only language to be spoken in this country, they are missing a glorious opportunity for words of other languages that make the English language more colorful. One of those words is chutzpah, which I assume is Hebrew in nature or perhaps even Yiddish.…
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NOSTALGIA FOR CALVIN COOLIDGE, HERBERT HOOVER AND OTHER CONSERVATIVE ROCK STARS
In the latter half of the 1960s, AT&T decided that I could serve the corporation best by working in its Washington Office. At that time the company maintained a relatively small office in Washington headed by a full vice president who was assisted by two assistant vice presidents. There were about five department heads such…
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MIRACLES OF MATHEMATICS
This Saturday morning, February 9, my breakfast was largely ruined by listening to a speech by Governor Huckabee which was delivered to the Conservative Political Action Conference, a group of ideologues. Huckabee explained that when he went to college, he did not major in mathematics but rather in miracles. In this case, the miracle business…
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JOHN MCCAIN HAS SUFFERED ENOUGH
Those of you who follow Republican politics will be aware that John McCain is the presumptive front-runner in the quest for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. McCain has such a commanding lead in the delegate count that it is only a matter of days until he is declared the Republican nominee.…
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ENDURING ANOMALIES
The enduring anomalies that are referred to in the title of this brief have to do with religion and politics. Both of those subjects have fascinated me since I was a lad of six years. Now that I am entering my 86th year, it might be said that I am older but no wiser or…
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GOVERNORS’ RACES AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE
This fall there will be governors’ races in our two great states of Virginia and New Jersey. Why these two states hold off-year elections is beyond the ken of human understanding. In New Jersey, for example, these off-year elections seem to have been held since the beginning of time. The race in Virginia has stirred…
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THE SUPREME NITWIT
If any of my Republican friends desired to cast a ballot in the 2012 Presidential election in favor of Mark Sanford, I suspect that they will be sorely disappointed. As we now know, Mark Sanford is the governor of the great state of South Carolina who abandoned his duty to go court his girlfriend who…
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LIPSTICK FOR PIGS
Logic has taken one brutal beating recently from Condoleezza Rice and from our former Vice President, Mr. Cheney. For example, this past week, which was the last week in April, Madame Rice, addressing a group of Stanford University Students, was asked about waterboarding. She provided an answer that was convoluted as well as full of…
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PREACHERS
The basic question that this essay proposes is “Where are the preachers now that you need them?” According to news accounts, we are now into the seventy-seventh day of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Pious pilgrims, such as myself, have searched for answers. We have made inquiries along ecclesiastical lines but…
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REFUDIATE
The Duchess of Alaska, Sarah Palin, had a pronouncement over the past weekend. On two occasions, which were recorded in newscasts, Sarah used the word “refudiate.” When she was asked to explain what “refudiate” meant, she said that William Shakespeare made up new words at various times in his career. Those of us in the…