So, I had this outrageous fever starting Wednesday and really hitting its stride on Thursday, when it was closing in on 104 and I told my caretaker I was losing my train of thought a bit and to call an ambulance if I got delirious. The standard, I told her, was if I started . . . → Read More: A hunnert and three in the shade

ever to grace a presidential debate. We may as well require the guys to show up in bikini briefs while we’re at it. At the start of Sunday’s presidential debate, the four Democratic candidates were asked “in terms of your own spirituality, if you prefer religiosity” to complete the sentence, “This I believe…”

Ooh! . . . → Read More: I believe this is the stupidest question

It’s a sin when popular music captures the complexity of our times better than the people who are supposed to capture the complexity of our times.

Elizabeth Drew, whose writing and perspicacity I admire, has written an awkward analysis of the Democratic primary system and its results to date. While I agree with much . . . → Read More: Some come out in sympathy, some come out in spots

Richard Perle, the genial-looking vampire at left whose litigious instincts have been well and entertainingly documented by Slate’s Jack Shafer, has resigned from his position on the unpaid but influential Defense Policy Board so that, according to his lawyer, he can sue everybody who done him bad. I’m really looking forward to Shafer’s take . . . → Read More: You lookin’ at me? You lookin’ at me?

By quite a margin, too — more than 100%. It’s just amazing.

After all we’ve done for them, the Iraqis are still doing business with people who declined to help us distribute cluster bombs hither and yon throughout their country. Hey kids, what’s your favorite color?

The US has a problem: we’d like to threaten Iran with an Iraq-style ass-kicking, or at least what an Iraq-style ass-kicking was supposed to be like, but we can’t because the bulk of our combat troops are in Iraq or just leaving or getting ready to go, a situation that’s likely to obtain for . . . → Read More: You guys hold the fort for a minute; we’ll be right back.

The woman who was charged under Britain’s semi-draconian Official Secrets Act after spilling the beans on a US request to the Brits for assistance in bugging our UN allies has been found not guilty after a bloody court battle. Well, not really: she pleaded not guilty and the prosecutor said, “The prosecution offer no . . . → Read More: There’s no “there” there?

This doesn’t quite measure up to Finnegan’s Wake, but it’s close enough for government work. The guy who wrote the article either got royally screwed by the copy editor or was working on about 30 cups of black coffee, and the primary subject was in the world but not of it. The upshot is . . . → Read More: Joycean excess in government

A month or two ago there was a brief flurry of reporting about the rate of suicides among military personnel in Iraq. At the time, the confirmed number was 21, which doesn’t seem like that many (too many, certainly) but turns out to be about 50% higher than the rate among the military at . . . → Read More: Look Away