Scrolling through the comment sections under news stories about Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against the New York Times — dismissed by a judge while a non-sequestered jury was still deliberating and no doubt next heading to an appeals court — provides ample evidence of the dismal state of political tribalization in this country. With few... Read More

I am unwilling to join the rest of China pundits on the fainting couch, overcome with dismay and disapproval at the PRC’s unilateral declaration of an ADIZ. All the big kids have an ADIZ. The PRC has an ADIZ. I don’t think it’s going anywhere and we should get used to it. To me, the... Read More

Continuing my ongoing investigation into fertility, I wanted to take another look at who's having children. This post will look at fertility from a different angle: the spread in fertility by sex, IQ, political orientation, and education. I was prompted to this by a recent article describing parenthood in Norway. It found that a fifth... Read More

Over at Yahoo someone penned a poem about Sarah Palin's unique take on Paul Revere's ride, in which she said to an audience at Boston's Old North Church:   He who warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and, um, making sure as he's riding... Read More

Sarah Palin has written an "Open Letter to Republican Freshmen Members of Congress" telling them what they should support in the upcoming legislative session. The letter is clearly directed towards those congressmen who are believed to be associated with the tea parties. Her advice on foreign policy is pretty much a straight neoconservative interpretation –... Read More

Just had a call from friend of mine who is a literary agent. He told me that a friend of his at Harper Collins confirmed that Sarah Palin has received an advance "in excess of $7 million" for her memoir "Going Rogue." The book will come out in the middle of November and was written... Read More

Am I hallucinating; or has Neocon Central, that is, FOXNews and its NY Post-affiliate, been working overtime to secure the presidential nomination of Sarah Palin? From the very moment Sarah announced her goofy decision, on July 3, to step down as Alaska governor before her term had expired, Carl Cameron and the other neocon hired... Read More

Although Stacy McCain is entitled to his preference for Rush and Palin over their critics, I must seriously question his ascription of a rightwing populist label to either figure. Stacy is describing people with conventional GOP leanings who cultivate a populist style. Rush is a very predictable advocate of whatever left-leaning centrist the GOP is... Read More

In the crucial final weeks of the campaign John McCain is mostly doing only one event a day. This is the man of whom his primary care physician at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said to journalists in a conference call last May 23: “At the present time, Sen. McCain enjoys excellent health and displays... Read More

Sarah Palin basically adhered to a straight Bush foreign policy, as Joe Biden noted, though there were a couple of exceptions. Her great love for Israel and her willingness to let Tel Aviv attack Iran as if there would be no consequences for the United States is a result of both her Israel-centric view of... Read More

I know I am not the only one to notice the recent wave of neocon attacks on Sarah Palin coming from David Frum, David Brooks, and Charles Krauthammer. They all make essentially the same point, i.e. that she is not experienced enough to become president. Brooks predictably has the most sophisticated argument, that experience is... Read More

I really do want to like Sarah Palin. She is authentically blue collar, religious, and not overly corrupt, greedy, or ego-driven in the fashion of the politicians we have come to know and love over the past sixteen years. I am not overly concerned with her lack of experience as we have seen a lot... Read More

PARIS — The French are still trying to understand how Barack Obama popped out of nowhere to run for the world's most powerful office. Now, they are struggling to comprehend last week's Republican convention that produced the political bombshell from Alaska. French, like many North Americans, were stunned and confused by Sen. John McCain's surprise... Read More

Having been listening to happy talk for more than a week about the “Palin factor,” courtesy of all my local friends and the commentaries of Pat Buchanan, and having felt at least for a few minutes some of the same euphoria about the GOP vice-presidential candidate, it now seems appropriate to look at the gaping... Read More

Being well schooled in scripture, Sarah Palin is certainly familiar with the Book of Kings, Chapter 1, verses 1-4 and I’m sure they have crossed her mind in recent days: On Thursday night John McCain certainly looked stricken in years, tottering through his interminable speech, and whatever heat now nourishes him in political terms comes... Read More

Having already thrice denied denied any connection with Pat Buchanan, it was perhaps inevitable that Sarah Palin's walk to Canossa would now entail passing through the gauntlet of The Lobby. On Tuesday she was accompanied by Joe Lieberman when she met with a group from AIPAC . She described her "deep, personal and lifelong commitment... Read More

Please note this commentary was written before the new horror stories broke out about Sarah's daughter and about her out-of-wedlock pregnancy. It also came before CNN announced on Monday evening that the Alaska governor would be trounced and humiliated by Joe Biden in any debate because 'the Delaware senator has an encyclopedic knowledge of facts'... Read More

It is really a shame that Sarah Palin, who reminds me of Donna Reed in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, has already flubbed her first test in standing up to the left. When a walking human embodiment of sheer vileness Representative Robert Wexler (of Florida or Potomac, Maryland, depending on whom Wexler is speaking to) identified... Read More

I’m no great fan but certainly Barack Obama gave a strong speech on Thursday night that reassured an edgy Democratic Party that he is ready to trade blow for blow with John McCain, his Republican opponent. His tone of decorous pugnacity calmed those fearful that the Party had saddled itself not just with a black... Read More

As it is almost certainly true that no one actually knows what the Governor of Alaska looks like, are we absolutely sure that it was not Joe Lieberman speaking falsetto while wearing a dress and a wig?