Last week I took issue with Rush Limbaugh’s verbal attacks on law student Sandra Fluke and as a result I received a number of reader e-mails. Suffice it to say, the column stirred a hornet’s nest.
An axiom in advertising is that sex sells. True enough, Kate Upton, the current Sports Illustrated cover girl, is literally everywhere. (Except my bedroom.
As the joke goes, a conservative, a moderate and a liberal walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “What’ll you have, Mr. Romney?” Apparently Willard’s style works because this week he won primaries in Arizona and then barely in his birth state of Michigan.
As the years seem to fly by I’ve concluded that getting older has very few advantages. Forget “maturity” and “wisdom,” all I can think of are the senior discounts at movie theaters and Norms restaurant.
The late J.D. Salinger’s 1951 coming-of-age novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,” is among my favorite books, although I’m hardly alone. Through Holden Caulfield, his troubled teenage protagonist, Salinger’s portrayal of lost innocence still sells an amazing 250,000 copies annually.
Perhaps I’m a tad paranoid because today I’m writing about the 50th anniversary of one of the most controversial moments in the Cold War. And one that the CIA had its greasy tentacles all over.
Being a UCLA alum, I planned on selecting a fellow Bruin grad at random and writing a “where are they now” column. But with the Super Bowl, a de facto national holiday, just 48 hours away, I figured I’d better make some comment.
If you think you had a rough week, look at the one Mitt Romney just experienced. At a debate he was booed when he hesitated about his tax returns. Then the GOP announced that Rick Santorum was the official winner in Iowa, despite the fact that Romney outspent him by a mere 50 to 1.
These days, sadly, America has become a highly polarized society. It may trace back to the Vietnam era or the Civil War or even the Revolutionary War when the Tories wanted to stay under British rule (which might have precluded the Beatles though I’m not sure the two are related).
For the new year, I resolved that in 2012 I wouldn’t wait until the last minute to write these columns. Here it is a few hours before my deadline and all I have so far is a title.
America’s foremost humorist, Mark Twain, considered the Spanish-American War ironic. (Actually he considered it borderline criminal.) Our forefathers had come to America to escape tyranny and yet we became imperialists.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2012 is to avoid waiting until the last minute to write these columns. (Another is to lose 10 pounds.) Unfortunately, it takes a deadline for me to focus on the writing (and to avoid chocolate for the weight).
