Carlo | July 23, 2012
James Holmes looked like Bozo the Clown in his court appearance today. No wonder, since he was the easily and well armed Joker who mutilated the nation’s innocence—again—in a crowded theater in suburban Denver Friday night. Colorado seems to be a magnet for crazy. Gnashing of teeth, words of sobriety and comfort, nuanced posturing, and […]
Carlo | July 10, 2012
I’m worried that Mitt Romney will oust Barack Obama in November. For the second month in a row, Romney has outraised the president. The GOP ad buy will probably swamp the Dems, signaling a takeover of the country by Fox News. This is alarming. I’ve contributed to the Obama campaign, but not as much as […]
Carlo | June 13, 2012
Missed my blog entry yesterday. Woke up midway through the night anxious about it, so here it is. Just read a story about how Romney is seizing on Obama’s misspeakings, painting the president as out of touch. No matter that gaffemeister Romney is genetically out of touch himself. What matters is that Romney’s turning the […]
Carlo | May 8, 2012
Last week’s blog was about a Facebook friend who posted a “billboard” likening President Obama to Ronald McDonald. Today’s Plain Dealer recounts a Romney campaign stop in which Ohio auditor Dave Yost makes the same comparison, quoting from the same playbook. I didn’t argue with the Facebook friend, though that side of him infuriates me. […]
Carlo | May 2, 2012
Last night, an acquaintance posted a “billboard” on Facebook comparing President Obama to Ronald McDonald, the hamburger clown, saying Team 6 should get the credit for killing Osama bin Laden, not Obama. The post ticked me off. It’s another kneejerk, far-right attack on Obama, who has been far more effective militarily and diplomatically than his […]
Carlo | November 7, 2010
Musings of a peripatetic thinker. Ponderings without a point. Catching up. Intellectual laziness. Call it what you will, I figure I should capture some mind wanderings, given the week past, last night’s entertaining Cleveland Jazz Orchestra concert “The Cleveland Scene,” and upcoming travels. I’ve never been great at headlines. I’m depressed about the elections, though […]
Carlo | October 23, 2010
Nearly two years into the presidency of Barack Obama, the country seems ready to backpedal. It looks Dubya Lite John Kasich will be governor of Ohio despite decreasing unemployment and glimmers of creativity. Rand Paul might be governor of Kentucky, Sharron Angle the senator from Nevada. The mind reels. The country—hell, the world—is rocky. England […]
Carlo | May 25, 2010
I miss my parents lately, particularly now that I’ve read The Orientalist, Tom Reiss’ biography of Lev Nussimbaum, a tortured intellectual and prolific writer who lived while the great empires—the Ottoman, the Hapsburg, the Russian—died and totalitarianism took over. Nussimbaum was also known as Essad Bey and Kurban Said; he was a Jewish Orientalist whose […]
Carlo | May 7, 2010
I’m staying in the Dolce Sitges north of Barcelona and Barcelona just outscored Milan, Italy in soccer. I’m in a bar in a beautiful hotel in a sunny suburb of a gorgeous city that nevertheless just lost its grip on a contest that rivets this continent like football does in the United States. Good to […]
Carlo | March 6, 2010
The headline is a pun I use as an excuse to catch up with my blog, woefully unattended to for nearly a month. Seriously, it’s a pleasure to write this at my living room window as I watch snow mounds on the deck finally melt. It’s still cold but it’s bright, the snow crunching less […]
