In the fable, the farm boy phenom makes his way to the big city to amaze the world with his arm. At a stop at a fair on the train ride to Chicago, he strikes out the Babe Ruth of his time on three blazing pitches. Enter the Dark Lady. Before he can reach the stadium for his tryout, she shoots him and leaves him for dead.
August 17, 2007
Israel's legal right to pursue Hezbollah into Lebanon should not be in dispute. The United States' mission into Afghanistan five years ago provides ample precedent. But, as the United States has discovered, the practicalities - and impracticalities - of actually pacifying Muslim territory are daunting.
So prospects for a secure peace - for Israel, also for the United States - depend…
July 21, 2006
A senator seeking to model his career on that of some earlier Senate titan might choose one of the 19th century's "great triumvirate"- Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Calhoun. Twentieth-century luminaries would include Mr. Republican, Robert Taft, or the pride of New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
But Alfonse D'Amato?
July 17, 2006
It's 8 a.m. and my neighbor in Casco Bay, Maine, Bob Putnam, has been at work for hours by the time he eases the lobster boat up to the dock to take this slacker on board.
July 15, 2006
The long dying of Louise Will ended in Newport Beach, Calif., recently. It was time. At 98, her body was exhausted by disease and strokes. Dementia, that stealthy thief of identity, had bleached her vibrant self almost to indistinctness, like a photograph long exposed to sunlight.
July 13, 2006
As it looks beyond the elections of 2006, a Republican Party known for ideological solidarity is on the cusp of a far more searching philosophical battle than are the Democrats, historically accustomed to bruising fights over the finer points of political theory.
The coming Republican brawl reflects the fact that President Bush will leave office with no obvious heir, and Bushism…
July 11, 2006
Tomorrow the United States will become more geographically stable than it has ever been. It will have been 17,126 days since the admission of Hawaii to statehood on Aug. 21, 1959. The longest previous span between expansions of the nation was the 17,125 days between the admission of Arizona on Feb. 14, 1912, and the admission of Alaska on Jan. 3, 1959.
Since then the nation has…
July 10, 2006
Mexico is in a mess because voters in its presidential election were so closely divided between Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate of the center-left, and Felipe Calderon, of the center-right. As a result, there are charges of theft and miscounts, of "grave inconsistencies." Lopez Obrador has insisted that the authorities "help clear up any doubts," and "not allow the will…
July 7, 2006
For your Fourth of July reading, open a mind-opening book about an immensely important American war concerning which you may know next to nothing. King Philip's War, the central event in a bestseller that is one of this summer's publishing surprises, left a lasting imprint on America.
July 4, 2006
Have you ever noticed a certain hesitant quality to the expressions of patriotism by progressives or left-wingers?
The patriotism of the conservative goes unquestioned. It's assumed that every politician on the right will wear a flag on his lapel and effortlessly hold forth on ours as "the greatest country in the history of the world."
July 4, 2006
Lynn Smith-Lovin was listening in the back seat of a taxi when a woman called the radio talk-show hosts to confess her affairs with a new boyfriend and a not-yet-former husband. The hosts, in their best therapeutic voices, offered their on-air opinion, "Give me an S, give me an L, give me a U." You can spell the rest.
July 2, 2006
Many Democrats discovered God in the 2004 exit polls. Specifically, they looked at the importance of religious voters to President Bush's majority and decided: We need some of those folks.
Off Democrats went to their Bibles, finding every verse they could - there are many - describing the imperative to help the poor, battle injustice and set the oppressed free.
July 1, 2006
It was probably not the wisest metaphor to choose for a country with only 58 kilometers of shoreline. "Cut and run" is, after all, a nautical term. More to the point, one person's metaphor for cowardice is another's description of speed and survival.
As for the other mantra of war debate? We're still at sea on whether to "stay the (disastrous or not) course."
June 24, 2006
A few years ago, a Los Angeles television anchor said: "Dodgers and Angels highlights at 11. Please watch anyway." Some viewers probably thought ABC should have said something like that when announcing Al Gore's recent extended interview on This Week. But the interview signaled an important alteration of the competition for the Democrats' 2008 presidential nomination - that is,…
June 12, 2006
