Bullshitter-in-Chief are still shitting us. But of course you’d never know that from this morning’s lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal. It rails against Congressman Jack Murtha, who wants an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. The editorial also claims, “President Bush’s surprise visit to Baghdad did a lot to assure Iraqis about U.S. resolve.” […]

Try this: “Guy [the main character in a new Neil LaBute play] cauterizes himself against pain, in large part through language, a sort of semantic jujitsu that obfuscates his emotional reality and keeps him firmly within the parameters of his own narrative.” (Italics added.) I prefer critics who write in plain English, especially when they’re […]

Necrophilia Variations”: Mikey Houellebecq would be jealous … heh? Postscript: And

Ouch! “Karl Rove Won’t Be Charged in CIA Leak Case.” So says a WashPost headline. And here’s I don’t think so. (He’s the freelance who written here, “I wouldn’t bet against him on the Rove indictment,” despite my “News Junkie”), keeps getting in his way. Wish it didn’t.

Is my boat comin’ in? Have a look at What I really love — besides the pleasure he got from “Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice.” When he insists “art is about appearances, not reality,” I’m convinced. What impresses me most about Kyle Gann’s writing in general, apart from the consistent clarity and the […]

Reality Studio? (Don’t answer that.) The site is dedicated to Burroughs scholarship, and so rich in related material it’s dangerous. You can end up doing nothing all day but read it. For instance, have a look at this “Everything Is Permitted — Nothing Is True.” Which brings to mind this question: What would the millions […]

If you weren’t paying attention, you missed it. OK, you didn’t miss it, my staff of thousands did. “It” is the little documentary Council on Foreign Relations for a “special screening.” (Better late than never.) A. Q. Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan’s A-bomb, who set up a global rogue network that effectively privatized nuke […]

Stanley Weintraub’s review of two books, “The Forgotten Fifth,” in this morning’s Washington Post. The review itself is routine, less interesting than the The Staples piece, focusing solely on “Rough Crossings,” is more specific and literary (recalling, for instance, “the contradiction cited by Samuel Johnson, who inquired … of the Americans in 1775: ‘How is […]

THE COPYCAT AND THE ORIGINAL CAT. The New York Times story, which appears on the NYT Web site with the partial headline

A friend asks: “So what’s next, another

To the pressed the case for war today at Arlington National Cemetery, just a short time after signing into law a bill that restricts protests at military funerals, he would have said two things. The first, according to Complete Poems: 1913-1962 EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Bullshitter-in-Chief as the true pop-cult idol of our time. Here’s his portrait, right, a study in heroic banality concocted by editorial cartoonist ‘toons for CNN.com. The truth is I haven’t watched “American Idol” in three years, ever since leaving MSNBC.com, where I had to write about it as part of my job. But I did […]

“Armed Groups Propel Iraq Toward Chaos,” follows up on his colleague what Nir Rosen and Ahmed Hashim had to say a couple of weeks ago at the Council on Foreign Relations. Just thought you might like to know, if you didn’t already. Filkins is well worth reading. Like Rosen, Hashim, and Tavernise, he gives the […]

Back from four great days in Philly and recovering from trainlag (the ride took only 90 minutes, but Amtrak does that to me), I see the Metropolitan Opera’s Martin Bernheimer’s billing for it in the Financial Times: The valedictory exercise promises to be the most momentous event at Lincoln Center since the stuntmaster David Blaine, […]

Remember the report — if true — is fondly to be wished. There’s been no confirmation, official or unofficial. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

The mugshot of the

Ahmed Hashim told what they knew. “I think there is absolutely no hope that things will get better in Iraq,” said Rosen, who was last in Baghdad three weeks ago. “The civil war will get worse.” What’s more, he added, “the government of Iraq, if it has a role, it’s a negative one.” He was […]