Recent Comments

1. 8 days ago on Doonesbury

   Okay, I just want to check on the timing of all this, since you seem to have followed this. Our troops were at 2,500; The Afghan government lasted less than 24 hours, and 5000 Taliban were released from jail as the government left. If this is what happened, in the right order, then the “chaotic” withdrawal was pretty much guaranteed. By the out-going president. Also, the first days of the withdrawal were chaotic, but after that, over 100,000 people got air lifted out. Far from total chaos, although the media always describe it as “chaotic.” If this was a political move by TFG, it was brilliant. But I wish we had a conscious press corps.

2. 4 months ago on Doonesbury

   As a former manager of care for my mother, I want to report that all the home healthcare aides we hired were capable, sensitive, and sensible, not to mention reliable. Some of them were geniuses at caring for the elderly. Some nursing home aides were beaten down by the system they worked in, but kind and patient anyway. Try to concentrate on how good a patient you’re going to be when the time comes that you need help to live with dignity. Making passes at the women who empty your bedpan is … deeply unenlightened.

3. 5 months ago on Clay Bennett

   Or his first.

4. 5 months ago on Clay Bennett

   Dear Mr. Bennett. and other posters: I thought you might like to hear from an 81-year-old person, namely me. There are definitely things I’ll never ask my knees to do again, but luckily enough, the NBA doesn’t seem to need me. My mental skills are unimpaired, and my experience of the interplay between the American media and recent Democratic Presidents is deep and rich. America’s 800m Olympic team doesn’t need Pres. Biden; the country does. America also doesn’t need the New York Times, as they keep screwing up royally since they decided they can run the country better than a Democratic President. My brother died of dementia and other symptoms of diabetes. The dementia took a long time to become noticeable. Mr. Biden passed a neurological test in February of this year, and he continues to battle his stuttering to death every day. I beg you, think it possible the NYT can get it wrong. And think it possible that an 81-year-old can run this country better than the NYT.

5. 6 months ago on Doonesbury

   “The Lanyard” is also a poem by Billy Collins, which is a small masterpiece of humor and irony. The poet reads it to us on YouTube. >

6. about 1 year ago on Doonesbury

   My prediction is that they will let the captain marry them midair, and when they land again, the weather will be perfect, and they’ll have six hours of bliss before the realities of marriage set in.

7. over 1 year ago on Doonesbury

   My brother once brought in TV coverage of an Afghan camel polo match in which the “ball” was a dead goat. There IS a market for towel fights.

8. over 1 year ago on Doonesbury

   Do unpublished letters to the editors of the New York Times count as “works”?

9. over 1 year ago on Two Party Opera

   Don’t worry Kalkkuna, many EFL (English as a first language) people won’t get it either.

10. over 5 years ago on Two Party Opera

    The ultimate goal of the prison system is to get unruly white youths off the street because we have no jobs for them, get black youths into jail and get some work out of them at the lowest possible wage, and to give some work as guards to white men of unremarkable talent. Our current system accomplishes all these goals quite well despite the best efforts of outsiders who want to teach them to read, give them college classes, put them on debating teams, and get them to stage productions of Shakespeare. Our prison system is not well thought out, but then, our legislators are as reluctant to think and feel as the general populace. Does Elizabeth Warren have a plan for prison reformation? Let me check.