Domingo Germán, seen here in 2019, pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees on June 28. Photograph by Keith Allison.
The Supreme Court made what critics would describe as some imperfect decisions in the week that New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán pitched a perfect game. While the two would seem unrelated, they both tell us a great deal about the unfairness and seeming randomness of life.
Read MoreLucas Cranach the Elder’s “Lady Justice” (1537), oil on panel. Collection of Fridart Stichting, a foundation in Amsterdam.
It’s hard to know where to begin with the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. The repercussions are that great.
For women who seek abortions, the 6-3 decision marks an eventual return to coat-hanger, knitting-needle days. If the pro-life crowd — which is generally pro-guns and pro-death penalty — thinks it has seen death, it’s hasn’t seen anything yet. Women have always sought abortions and will continue to do so, now less safely. But now death will come in other ways, too.
Read MoreAll hat and no cattle: Former President Donald J. Trump wants you for his Jan. 29 “Save America” rally in Texas.
Recently, a colleague of mine was invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to former President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 29 “Save America” rally in Texas, complete with VIP backstage access and a photo op with El Presidente.
Being a fellow connoisseur of human folly, as Mr. Bennet says of Lizzie in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” my colleague gleefully passed along the email….
Read MoreJohn Steell’s “Alexander & Bucephalus” (1882-84) in front of Edinburgh’s City Chambers. We could use some of Alexander’s leadership about now. Photograph by Stefan Schäfer, Lich.
Last week was another minefield in which we found ourselves treading carefully.
We begin with the state of Virginia, which seems to be collapsing like a house of cards with revelations of blackface and allegations of sexual assault against the governor and the lieutenant governor respectively. (The state attorney general and some Republicans have also admitted to having done blackface.) I have great respect for Mark Shields and David Brooks on “PBS NewsHour,” but I think they missed the point in saying that Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface experience is mitigated by his good work. The Buddhist principle of karma holds that what you put out in the universe returns to you. This is different from the vengeful, biblical “What you sow you reap.” It’s merely cause and effect. You do it, you own it, because it will come full circle, regardless of what else you have done.
Read MoreWith apologies to Mark Twain, reports of the Senate Health Care Bill’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
It’s like one of those horror movies in which you think the evil guy is dead, but then a hand rises from the grave or you hear a chainsaw.
They’re ba-ack. Those rascally Republicans – told to mush by President Trumpet – are going to try again with a vote on repeal or replace or repeal and replace, something with an r. They have to do something, anything, because, let’s face it, they’ve done nothing. Apart from Neil Gorsuch and a partial travel ban, Trump’s come up short. ...
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It’s interesting – and not entirely coincidental that Mika-gate exploded right at the end of Pride Month and in a summer that has seen the release of “Wonder Woman” and “The Beguiled,” a movie told from the female viewpoint. Culture continues to consider women even if President Donald J. Trump rarely does (though he did take a shine to blond Irish reporter Caitriona Perry.)
That he fails to take a shine to blond journalists who challenge him like Megan Kelly and Mika Brzezinski is more the material point. ...
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President Donald J. Trump’s decision to respond to the chemical weapons attack in Syria with a bombardment of 59 Tomahawk missiles was the most presidential thing he has done so far. He’s not the first president to use an air strike as a form of gesture politics and, sadly, he won’t be the last.
But it had to be done. It’s what a President Hillary Clinton would’ve done. It’s what President Barack Obama should’ve done. What does it accomplish? Maybe nothing. But you cannot let chemical weapons go unnoticed. This year marks the centennial of the United States’ entry into World War I, the Great War, in which millions were gassed. The response was “Never again.” And yet it has happened, again and again. ...
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