Straight Up | Jan Herman

When we were gone a couple of weeks ago, America heard about the Nincompoop in Chief’s big blooper: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” But it’s even weirder seeing him say it. He […]

In case you haven’t seen the nincompoop’s nominee to head the CIA telling Michael Moore “I am not qualified,” have a look. Porter Goss says: “I don’t have the language skills. … We’re looking for Arabists today. I don’t have the cultural background probably. And I certainly don’t have the technical skills. … So the […]

The oldest trick in the book: Deny and lie — and when the news is bad, change the subject. That’s the Nincompoop in Chief’s m.o. So sayeth the experts, above all Paul Krugman. “I had a bad feeling about Bush, from an economic standpoint, as far back as the 2000 presidential campaign,” he says. “I […]

Is James Atlas really “an overwrought hysteric,” as I called him yesterday, because of his hand-wringing essay, “The Fear This Time,” about life in post-9/11 New York? Well, I still think of him as an Upper West Side weenie. But this morning New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof writes that “a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon” exploding in Times […]

In case we forgot to mention this from today’s Washington Post: The economy has 1.1 million fewer jobs than the day Bush took office, making it more than likely he will join Herbert Hoover as the second president to see the nation suffer a net job loss on his watch. The economy is 7 million […]

Now that our Nincompoop in Chief has nominated a new Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to head the Central Intelligence Agency, here are some words of wisdom from a trustworthy mathematician friend who does top-secret work for the Department of Defense and the American military: “Stan Turner’s comments on the 9/11 report are worth reading. […]

James Atlas writes “The Fear This Time” in the current New York magazine. I suppose the title is intended to bring to mind James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time,” which is already a sign of overreaching and totally inappropriate. The piece itself reads likes an overwritten essay by an overwrought hysteric. Atlas leaves no doubt […]

Glad I went to the sold-out Bob Dylan / Willie Nelson gig Friday night at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., where they launched their summer tour of minor league ballparks before a crowd of about 12,000 fans. Loved the Hot Club of Cowtown, the opening act. Hot Club plays western swing  — lots of their […]

Leon Freilich,

Mr. Herman,I think one of us misunderstood what David Brooks was saying in his commentary about John Kerry’s speech.I thought [Brooks] was saying that the Democratic Party has traditionally been the party for mommies — i.e. it has appealled more strongly to women — while the Republican Party has positioned itself to appeal more to […]

Commenting on John Kerry’s acceptance speech the other night on PBS, David Brooks described the Democrats as the nation’s Mommy Party trying to co-opt the Republicans in their traditional role of Daddy Party. I nearly fell off my chair laughing at what he passes off as punditry. Since nobody else seems to have noticed that […]

This is John Perreault’s good idea, which I’m adopting immediately. He calls it “summer hiatus.”

Martha Bayles gets personal: She writes that Michael Moore lacks the courage of his convictions in “Farenheit 9/11” and should say what he means, “instead of relying on innuendo. But that would require guts, as opposed to a big gut.” I guess she really doesn’t like the guy.

“A picture on July 4 with an article about Gerhard Richter’s book ‘War Cut,’ depicting his abstract painting ‘No. 648-2,’ was reproduced upside down and in reverse.” From the correction on July 18 in The New York Times.

Everybody, including the blatherati, is touting the latest trend in the lit market: graphic novels. May we recommend a neglected category? Let’s hear it for graphic muckraking.

Did someone say truth is the best defense and ridicule the best offense? If not, consider it said. Here’s one example of ridicule that tells the truth, and here’s another. Some may prefer this or this. We like these oneliners, forwarded to us by Abbie Conant, who got them from Irene Stuber, co-host of Abigail’s […]

She made it up. That’s what police now say about the 23-year-old woman who told them a gang of young men who “appeared to be of Muslim North African origin,” attacked her on a suburban train near Paris because they thought she was a Jew. She said they drew swastikas on her, cut her hair […]