Remembering my friend, Alan Scherr, murdered in the Mumbai massacre, and explaining how to use the Maharishi Effect to kill hate

Today is my debut at Newsreal, the blog magazine founded by David Horowitz to expose bias in the media and fight totalitarianism in all its forms. My first post there begins as follows: A year ago, on November 26, my friend, Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, were murdered in the restaurant of …

'Please fire Kathleen Parker'

Dear Stacy asks today, “Is Kathleen Parker’s evil under-rated?” and provides his 2009 Evil Top 10 rankings. First — regarding Kathleen Parker: yes, Stacy. Yes, it is. My headline has quotes because one of the very first indications to me that I was becoming a fiscal conservative was that after one of her more egregious …

'Still Life' at the Penguin Cafe

In the late spring of 2004 I was driving and listening to the radio when the most amazing music came on. I got to my destination and just stayed in the car for at least 20 more minutes to hear it all the way through and get the name. It was “‘Still Life’ at the …

How Art Buchwald explained Thanksgiving to the French

The late Art Buchwald wrote the following column to explain Thanksgiving to the French while he was a correspondent in France and it became an instant Thanksgiving tradition: One of our most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant. Le Jour de Merci Donnant was first started by …

Gingerbread cookie ice cream

… is teh awesome. It’s a seasonal flavor that Safeway is carrying as one of its house brand ice creams. I put the chocolate fudge topping on it that turns into a hard shell and it is scrumptious. This is the first year that Safeway has carried one of my favorite flavors of ice cream …

The sanctity of marriage

So, if I understand this correctly, the current primary rationale against same-sex marriage equality is that the spouses involved cannot directly conceive children with one another, but straight people can marry ANYONE of the opposite sex, whether or not they intend to have children together, up to and including a person of the opposite sex …

Ignoring Sarah Palin's job record versus ignoring Obama's

Daniel Blatt, aka Gay Patriot West, saw Gov. Palin being interviewed this week and discussing her interview in 2008 with Katie Couric. Gov. Palin said that Couric never asked her any questions about her record in Alaskan government as a mayor, commissioner and governor. Instead, Couric badgered Gov. Palin by asking the same questions on …

Absolutely Fabulous — 'I'm chanting as we speak'

Margaret and I loved watching “Absolutely Fabulous” over and over. We saw its American debut, which included this music video of the Pet Shop Boys. I hoped it would be shown again in the reruns, but it never was, so this is the first time I’ve seen it, except from my own VHS recording, since …

Happy birthday, George Eliot

Gay Patriot West, Daniel Blatt, and I share a love for the English novelist, Mary Anne Evans Cross, who wrote under the nom de plume, George Eliot. He has a lovely post today in honor of the 190th anniversary of her birth. Eliot’s greatest novel, Middlemarch, is regarded as one of the best novels in …