Less than two years after taking office, with many criticizing the efforts undertaken to recover from the economic condition of the nation as it was when he took the oath of office, the President said:
Fifty years ago this week, the people who present baseball to a grateful nation did an odd thing: The American League announced that the Washington Senators would move to Minneapolis-St. Paul, but that the league would add two new teams: one of which to be called the Washington Senators.
The stimulus didn't create jobs. The President should have concentrated on jobs before tackling health care. "Obamacare" means that the government will take over health care, tell you which doctors you can go to, and will destroy our freedom. The President is a socialist.
A friend's father died this week after a long, but still tragically shortened life. He was Roman Catholic which meant, as so often seems to be the case, the Jewish guy writing to you was in attendance to watch what, to these eyes and ears, continues to be a quite strange ritual. Since I do not share the faith that makes those rituals meaningful, they still seem, even after seeing them so many times, quite odd in so many ways.
Last week, it was "Winter." This week's awesome, yet already dated, insights about things with barely any political import will simply reside here.
As I post this, I observe that you can take teams out of New York (the team now called "San Fransisco") and Boston ("Atlanta') but some things just seem to run to form anyway.
In the year the Republican Party nominated Senator Barry Goldwater as its presidential candidate, there was never any chance he could win. The country was still reeling from the murder of its young, exciting president, and many people felt that his memory could best be honored by enacting the laws the late President had urged on the country.
As well described by cmaukonen the other day,there are things that cannot always be fully understood unless you lived through it. The unspeakably brilliant Jill Lepore explained to Rachel Maddow last night why that is not always so, and, frankly, why Barth the amateur historian is truly an amateur,but to have missed the Vietnam War period means that much of what passes for political thought these days must be confusing.
When President Carter returned from his well earned obscurity to again ruin my weekend, a blog post to that effect resulted in some bewilderment about why an argument from 1980 should be so important today. To me, and I think to others who remember those days, what this twerp, who I voted for twice (holding my nose the second time) said about one legislative battle over health care insurance said so much about today, and why things seem so bleak, that a fuller explanation seemed to be required for those who think that if only Senator Reid would allow the Senate to vote on the extension of
I was reminded tonight of how much he disappointed me, and how honored I was to vote for Senator Kennedy in the 1980 New York Democratic presidential primary. Those who think their current circumstance is the same as mine and so many others in 1980 are out of their mind, but it will take me a few days and maybe a week to explain that and specifically what he said tonight that reminded me of what a twerp he was and continues to be.
If the ten days which have just ended had a message for this Jew, it was in the Hebrew word Hineni: "here I am." This space will not dwell on the spiritual meaning of the word or its significance in a religious sense. This is not the place for such essays.
Don Draper may have decided against a quickie last night, astounding the Mad Men voyeurs, but here is a little post for a Monday morning. It is based on this and a similar entry on the New Republic site which...
Today's adventure in posting to TPM Cafe resulted in success, but it was not easy and we still assume that out last post there may be on the horizon. I have been directed to three replacement venues and today signed up here, after also joining TPMaholics and Once Upon a TPM
It seemed impossible to post here yesterday, and I thought that was curtains for Barth at TPM Cafe. Today, I find that I continue to exist, so here is what you would have seen here yesterday, if I could have...
We saw this first during the primary campaign in late 2007 and the first half of 2008, where the dueling factions supporting either Senator Obama, Senator Clinton or even Senator Edwards felt it necessary to demonize the candidates they did...
A special midweek post:You were not born in 1939, no doubt, and neither was I, but yet this date has great resonance even today. It is the day when, in 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the day on which the...
Well, this was not easy---finding out how to post under the secret identity I have established for myself. As I have explained elsewhere this assumed identity is necessary only because of how and by whom I am employed, and the...
So many of the people with who we commune said it that we allowed ourselves to at least consider the possibility that the election of President Obama marked the end of the racial politics that had bedeviled the nation from...
It is unclear to me exactly what the White House is trying to say in the face of Peter King's blustering and other sad sacks impugning the comments the President made last night. There is no reason for him to...
