The Fortnightly Rant

With the Republican Party hell bent on capturing Congress once and for all this November, and the White House two years hence, it may be time to ask if perhaps someone ought to consider taking a few prudent preventive measures, lest our democracy—such as it is—should be snatched away forever. We hasten to add that, in proposing that somebody actually do something, we do not mean to give offense to anyone. As others before us have observed, there is more than enough incivility in the public discourse already. Besides, one can’t be too careful these days. One never knows when a partisan from either camp …

Read moreIsn’t 32 Years Long Enough?

Memorial Day is coming pretty soon. It will be here in ten or eleven days, depending on whether you count the day itself. That’s a point one could argue either way. If we have learned anything since a Black man was elected President, it’s that people can argue about anything, and come to blows over nothing. Our seniority obliges us to keep posterity in mind when we write the news. We must imagine that some part of our readership is as yet unborn. That part comes easily enough; one might even say we were born for this.* It’s getting more and more difficult, though, to …

Read moreCulture War Memorial Day

The Union Leader* revealed on Sunday that its former publisher William Loeb sexually abused his daughter and his step-daughter. Ordinarily we try to avoid clichés, but this is a special occasion: yes, we are shocked, but no, we are not surprised. Readers under a certain age may not appreciate the magnitude of this revelation. In recent decades the statewide daily has been but a shadow of its former self. For more than thirty years, though, beginning in 1946, the Union Leader was New Hampshire’s Pravda and Bill Loeb was its Stalin. His vitriolic editorials ran on the front page, thundering against anyone who dared to …

Read moreStrangely Predictable

It’s shocking, this cartoon—let’s admit that right up front. Sadly, it’s also accurate. Some might say it’s offensive to depict the revered personification of our great nation being stabbed in the back. Most likely to voice that objection, we’d wager, would be those who wielded the blades to begin with. If they were to be honest—some imagination is required here—these people would say that the old buzzard has outlived his usefulness. God knows there’s a certain cohort of people in this country—we’d use the term “class,” but that’s verboten—who have worked Uncle Sam like a rented mule. Their next move will be to take him …

Read moreThose Stabby Invisible Hands

This will sound crazy but the day may come when we’re grateful that Ginni Thomas was once the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice. That feeling of gratitude would be contingent, of course, on certain further developments. First, there would have to be an appropriate public response to the bizarre recent revelations about the Thomases. At a bare minimum these would include Congressional hearings, with all their officious folderol, preferably expedited, and culminating in the resignation of Justice Clarence Thomas. Ideally, this action would be followed by an appropriate form of chastisement for having trod upon his ethical obligations. If we seem premature in this …

Read moreWhich Side Are They On?