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The Huskies, the University of Connecticut’s winning women’s basketball team with President Barack Obama in 2013. Courtesy whitehouse.gov.

Women athletes as the main event

March 26, 2021

Self-professed feminist that I am, I must confess that I do not follow women’s sports.

I don’t know why. I support Title IX, which equalized sports opportunities in schools, the fruits of which have included higher medal counts for the United States at the Olympics, thanks to golden performances by our female athletes. I’m all for any civil rights initiative and am absolutely sick with worry about the Georgia Legislature’s most recent effort to restrict voting rights, especially for Black voters.

Still, I prefer to watch men….

Henry Fuseli’s “Odysseus In Front of Scylla and Charybdis” (1794-96) depicts the Homeric hero navigating between the proverbial rock and the hard place — kind of like the Republicans wanting to oppose former President Donald J. Trump yet retain popu… — Henry Fuseli’s “Odysseus In Front of Scylla and Charybdis” (1794-96) depicts the Homeric hero navigating between the proverbial rock and the hard place — kind of like the Republicans wanting to oppose former President Donald J. Trump yet retain popularity with Republican voters, who still support the former president.

Between a rock and a hard place: From Mitch (McConnell) to Meghan

February 19, 2021

We’ve moved on from the trial of the century — involving former President Donald J. Trump’s second impeachment— but the fallout continues. The “magnificent seven” Republican senators who voted with the 50 Democratic senators to convict have faced blowback at home. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who voted to impeach Trump and is crusading for a Republican Party devoid of him, has been shunned by family members, one of whom, a literal Karen, sent his father a $7 certified letter in which she stated that Kinzinger was “a disappointment to God.” (Does she have him on speed dial?)

Perhaps most interesting is the clash of those Homeric heroes (not), Trump and Mitch McConnell, a face-off four years in the making that began when the Senate Minority Leader, like Odysseus, tried to navigate between the proverbial rock and a hard place, voting not to convict to try to appease the Republican base but then offering a blistering rebuke of Trump’s behavior before, during and after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol to try to woo back skittish Republican donors.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) sends Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) a look Jan. 6 that encapsulates everything we feel about those who hold — wrongly — that the recent presidential election was fraudulent.

Say anything: The fantasy of 'free speech'

January 10, 2021

Among the many delusions that have characterized the last four years of the Trump Administration — culminating in the shocking Capitol siege whose continuing fallout includes the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick — none has been more pernicious than our misunderstanding of the First Amendment and its guarantees of free speech.

The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters has forced us all to put our cards face up on the table. It’s not a pretty hand. Photograph by Tyler Merbler. — The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters has forced us all to put our cards face up on the table. It’s not a pretty hand. *Photograph by Tyler Merbler.*

Barbarians at the gates -- the events of 1/6/21

January 8, 2021

The late comedian Red Skelton had a humble way with an audience but a wicked sense of humor about the rich and powerful. When tyrannical Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn — the man who turned Margarita Carmen Cansino into Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Novak into Kim Novak — passed away, his funeral was well-attended, to which Skelton remarked, “It just goes to show you: Give the people what they want and they’ll turn out for it.”

Jan. 5, the people of Georgia turned out to send two Democrats — Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock — to the United States Senate, giving the Dems a one-vote majority in that body.

Jan. 6, President Donald J. Trump’s cult followers turned out, too, taking four years of disproportionate white, working-class grievance to the Capitol, where they acted like thugs — disrupting the Electoral College vote counting that would once again certify Joe Biden as president-elect; running through hallways, banging on doors, stealing mail and podiums, breaking windows and furniture; and generally disrespecting the place and the people who work there as their actions led to four deaths and countless injuries. Of all the terrible images, the one I can’t get out of my head is of one of the MAGAts posing with his red MAGA hat on a statue. If someone did that in my house, I would say, “Hats are for closets. Yours will be handed back to you as soon as you leave.”

President Donald J. Trump, seen here at an Arizona rally days before the election that would signal the beginning of the end of his presidency, is not going “gently into that good night.” Photograph by Gage Skidmore.

How the Trump stole Christmas

December 25, 2020

Pardons for convicted murderers of Iraqi civilians and loyalists who declined to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s investigation. A veto of the defense bill. Threats to the bipartisan Covid relief bill that would provide the unemployed and small businesses with the help they desperately need.

This Christmas, President Donald J. Trump is locked and loaded for bear.

Churches like St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, seen here, would argue that they should not be discriminated against when it comes to Covid restrictions. And they shouldn’t but for the fact that indoor services lend themselves more naturally to … — Churches like St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, seen here, would argue that they should not be discriminated against when it comes to Covid restrictions. And they shouldn’t but for the fact that indoor services lend themselves more naturally to contagion than does a liquor-store run. Photograph by Peter K. Burian.

Right church, wrong pew: The Supremes and 'freedom of religion'

December 1, 2020

As a practicing Roman Catholic, i can’t tell you how upset I was with the dreadful United States Supreme Court decision to allow services in New York houses of worship to go on unrestricted.

The court ruled it was a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion when, after all, bike shops weren’t restricted. Here’s Justice Jimmy Stewart, uh, Neil M. Gorsuch in the concurring opinion:

“It is time — past time — to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques.”

Uh, Neil, I don’t think people who go into liquor stores are sitting in pews for an hour taking part in a service. I think the liquor store or bike shop is a 10-minute visit, tops.

President Donald J. Trump greets outgoing President Barack Obama on his inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2016, as former Vice President, now President-elect, Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer applaud politely. Thus far Trump has not shown… — President Donald J. Trump greets outgoing President Barack Obama on his inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2016, as former Vice President, now President-elect, Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer applaud politely. Thus far Trump has not shown Biden the same graciousness and cooperation Obama showed him. Photograph by Lance Cpl. Cristian Ricardo.

Trump and winning in loss

November 15, 2020

Recently, I went what seemed to be about 17 rounds with a publicist seeking to place an appeal for an arts organization who objected to my calling the organization small and struggling, even though it is. I shouldn’t have gotten testy about this. One of the casualties of the pandemic has been my minimal patience. But as a journalist, I always object to publicists trying to control the story, and I was particularly rankled by her waving the dictionary at me via e-mail, as if I were some recalcitrant schoolgirl.

In the end, we achieved a kind of detente, but only because I decided the story was more important than my ego. It always is. Still, I was this close to telling her she used another word incorrectly. Why? Because I wanted to score a point. I wanted to win.