Columns

"After seven years of neglect, only a strong and consistent hand can alter the region's downward slide. If President Bush were truly concerned with his legacy, he would make up for lost time by putting forward a detailed, balanced and comprehensive plan and, equitably using carrots and sticks, sell it to the Israelis and Palestinians. This, and not words, might make a difference."

"Arab leaders have long ignored, neglected, and oppressed their own people thereby allowing the perfect storm of Islamic ignorance, poverty, frustration, and anger against them and their foreign handlers."

"Compounding this situation is that fact that, waiting in the wings, are a number of senior moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats making noises about an independent third-party candidacy. The principal contender in this group is New York City's Mayor Mike Bloomberg (who was a moderate Republican but has recently declared himself an independent), whose enormous personal fortune could self-finance a run for the White House in a way that even Ross Perot could not have done back in the 1990s."

We are now living in the time of “peak TV,” where good shows are increasingly harder to develop and expensive to produce. Every drama about cops, doctors, private investigators, reporters, lawyers or Star Trek has been done, and the best sitcoms were made 20, 30 and 40 years ago.

"In the end, the Iowa caucuses did what they were supposed to do. After a year of meeting, greeting, questioning and sizing up the candidates, Iowa voters filtered out the strongest campaigns. The candidates will now go onto the next round: New Hampshire's primary election on January eighth. While some Democrats have withdrawn from the race, it is clear that this is now, in reality, a three-person contest. Polls taken in New Hampshire on January third show that Senator Clinton's lead in that state is shrinking (she once led Obama in the state by over 20 points, but the most recent polls give her 32%, 26% to Obama and 20% for Edwards)."

"Presidential candidates have to be considered in the context of the current historical crossroads. No matter how much we admire or revere an individual, there’s too much at stake to pursue faith-based politics at the expense of reality-based politics. There’s no reason to support Obama over Edwards on Kucinich’s say-so. And now, I can’t think of reasons good enough to support Kucinich rather than Edwards in the weeks ahead."

"What kind of media future do you think I would’ve had if I chose to keep complaining about the system because of losers? I’d probably be a loser too! Not if I can help it. And I can, obviously."

Despite its renown and popularity, [Charles] Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is trite and predictable because Scrooge is less a character than he is a plot device designed to get us to the treacly ending. The 1951 movie retains this ending but Noel Langley’s screen adaptation surpasses Dickens’ story by giving Scrooge needed dimension.