The iPINIONS Journal

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Archives for 2013

Obama White House: Too Male, Too White

Friday, January 11, 2013 at 5:44 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Given all of President Obama’s political rhetoric about gender equality and diversity, you’d think this would be a very progressive and transformative portrait. But it’s not. (“Women Complain about Obama’s All-Boys Club,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 21, 2011) This, in part, is how I lamented the portrait acclaimed journalist Ron Suskind painted in his book,… Read more.

No Baseball Hall of Fame for Bonds, Clemens or Sosa !

Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 7:21 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

January 9 looms as a day of reckoning for Baseball (i.e., a referendum on steroids in Baseball). Candidates must be retired for at least five years and need 75 percent of the votes to be inducted. More to the point, members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BWAA) will either vote based solely on… Read more.

Taylor Swift Breaks Up with Harry Styles

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 8:05 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

We are a doomed civilization. Only that can explain why news about pop star Taylor Swift breaking up with her latest trophy boyfriend competes with breaking news about NFL football. Taylor’s swift break-up Her latest hookup was with Harry Styles, the Mick Jagger wannabe from the British boy band One Direction (aka 1D). It lasted only 65 days, which… Read more.

Redskins Come Up Lame … Again

Monday, January 7, 2013 at 5:55 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a Philadelphia Eagles fan. But it would be gauche for anyone like me who works in Washington, DC not to be a Redskins fan – if only by default (i.e., as long as their success has no adverse impact on that of my team). Of course most of… Read more.

Playboy Hefner Finally Captures His Runaway Bride

Friday, January 4, 2013 at 6:06 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

Here, in part, is how I expressed unbridled schadenfreude two years ago when 84-year-old Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s 24-year-old fiancée Crystal Harris left him standing at the altar: Nothing indicates how patently venal his fiancée’s motives were quite like reports that she called off the wedding because Hef refused to guarantee her a weekly allowance… Read more.

Sandy Hook Elementary – Back to Normal?

Friday, January 4, 2013 at 5:38 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

The lucky kids who survived the shooting massacre in Newtown, Connecticut three weeks ago returned to school yesterday. Not surprisingly, the school district is going out of its way to provide a “normal” learning environment – complete with a new campus seven miles from the old one. Which is why it seemed so farcical, if… Read more.

‘Democrats Rout Republicans’: Avoid Fiscal Cliff (revised)

Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 7:49 AM
Written by Anthony L. Hall

After a few more weeks of Democrats and Republicans playing their fiscal game of chicken, it would not surprise me if they come up with a plan at the eleventh hour to avoid falling over this cliff. Not least because they themselves created this so-called doomsday scenario—in the spirit of mutually assured (political) destruction—precisely to… Read more.