Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
**Update** – Despite vowing to ride-out the rest of his contract, Reuters reports that Rudd Lubbers has just quit the United Nations under pressure from sexual harassment allegations. Can his boss, Kofi Annan, survive his mounting scandals? See original commentary here. News and Politics Read more.
Today the New York Times published excerpts of private conversations between (then) Governor George W. Bush and Doug Wead, an Assembly of God Evangelist who secretly taped their discussions. Call me cynical but I’ve read (and heard) the excerpts; And, I smell a rat! The Times and almost every political pundit seem to have bought… Read more.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: What, me worry? It takes a remarkable record of professional incompetence to provoke the (liberal) New York Times to join the (conservative) Wall Street Journal in calling for one’s resignation. Yet Kofi Annan has just achieved this dubious distinction – and deservedly so. Annan was elected Secretary General on 1… Read more.
Jose Canseco’s book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big has been greeted by almost everyone associated with this “all American” sport with a whole lot of sanctimonious blather: Fellow players profess incredulity at Canseco’s claims that he and many of baseball’s best players were (and are) juiced-up on steroids.… Read more.
HRH Prince Charles’ proposal to marry Mrs. Parker Bowles (his mistress-in waiting for 30 plus years) must have King Henry VIII chortling in his grave. Because, no other royal since that raffish king has shown such utter contempt for his religion, the institution of marriage, and the welfare (and lives) of women. But on 8… Read more.
Black comedian Chris Rock won the coveted gig to host this year’s Oscars. Therefore, you might wonder why he’s dismissing the telecast as “idiotic” and nothing more than “a fashion show [that] no black straight man” watches. This no doubt is politically incorrect and rather smacks of biting the hand… But, Rock has a point.… Read more.
The Kyoto Protocol on global warming takes effect today. It requires all 141 signatories, most notably 39 industrialised nations, to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases “that pollute the atmosphere” 5.2% by 2012. Each country has specific emissions targets to meet by this date and the worst polluters can compensate for their transgressions by… Read more.
The world is “shocked, shocked” that yet another African leader has upended democracy to assume absolute power over his country. When Togo’s strongman, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, died a few weeks ago, the military installed his son as leader. This contravened the country’s constitutional provisions for presidential succession. In doing so, however, the Togolese were merely… Read more.
Today, U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice recalled U.S. Envoy to Syria Margaret Scobey to protest the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafiq Hariri. This, even though she conceded that there’s no evidence Syria had anything to do with his death. Except that this diplomatic slap was only intended to warn President… Read more.
Like most DC lawyers, I am challenged on a daily basis to express informed opinions on non-legal matters. However, in the company of lawyers (or worse – politicians), opinions are often spoken but never heard. This weblog will serve as my way to be heard. Read more.
