The eulogies are coming in: Richard Ford’s reluctant gaze today, Andrei Codrescu’s footnote. James Lee Burke. More than half of his roughly two dozen novels are set in and around New Orleans and the Louisiana bayous. Here, for instance, he takes us on a simple, geographic tour with the St. Charles Avenue streetcar — reputed […]

The most astonishing photos you’re ever likely to see of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were taken throughout the week by news photographers whose work has been distributed by the Associated Press. Some of them have been published in various dailies, some not. Click the links to see […]

Greg Henderson, a pathologist, was attending an HIV/AIDS medical convention in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the city. He remained behind after shipping his family to safety in Jackson, Miss. Henderson then managed to send this message to a friend via the Internet. Here it is, slightly edited: I am writing this note on […]

THE BULLSHITTER SPEAKS “Katrina’s dealt the Delta folks A blow that’s mighty darn unhealthy, So I’m calling for further sacrifice: Another tax cut for the wealthy.” —

Now that New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast have drowned and the Bullshitter-in-Chief is scrambling to offer artificial respiration with underfunded federal agencies, what does Grover Norquist, opednews.com reminds us, Norquist’s infamous line that he wants to starve government small enough so he can “drown it in a bathtub” sounds like the special […]

Entertained by its right-wing humor, William Carlson pays

killed more than 100 people at last count, and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, along the Gulf Coast. The Chronicle’s EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Oh, and let’s not forget this, with thanks to Hammond Guthrie for the reminder: “Naked Lunch.” In an editor’s note to “Minutes to Go” and Arts & Letters Daily for the tip: My favorite romantic,

Finally. A “How to Win in Iraq,” which has just been published in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs, Brooks writes: The article is already a phenomenon among the people running this war, generating discussion in the Pentagon, the C.I.A., the American Embassy in Baghdad and the office of the vice president. Notice there’s no […]

whole damned review sounds like that. And on the front page, no less. How could you let it out of the house, and how could they have let it in? — Tireless Staff of Thousands EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

After a humongous computer meltdown — thanks to a crappy Dell Inspiron laptop — we’re limping back into service. May we draw your attention this morning to Adam Cohen’s And by the way, does this sound like anything you’ve heard of lately? He lived either in the darkness of the hood, or in the white […]

Art Kunkin says so. You remember him, founding publisher-editor of the old Free Press back in the day? Kunkin, right, wants to re-connect with not revitalized, while there’s a in Crawford, Texas. Meantime, Gig LeCarp won’t be attending tomorrow’s $2-million fireworks memorial for Hunter S. Thompson, where the late writer’s bagged-up ashes will be shot […]

Bob Herbert has written the lead of the week in

According to The Wall Street Journal, which scrutinized more than 5,000 pages of newly released files from John Roberts’s years as an associate counsel in the Reagan White House, he filed memos urging Reagan to ignore an invitation from Michael Jackson to a concert in Washington and to avoid even sending a congratulatory letter because […]

From here on in we will no longer refer to the current president of the United States as Dear Leader, King George, Georgie Boy, King Georgie Boy, W., Gee Dubya, or by any other antonomasia (lovely, obscure word stolen from William Buckley’s outright liar on this morning’s New York Times op-ed page (“Oh, I’m sorry […]

Two years ago today, Straight Up howling bid for independence. A year ago today, it was still bawling, but in a more civil tone with a mind-numbing issue facing all of us. — Tireless Staff of Thousands