You are, perhaps, already familiar with the Republican List of Things You Cannot Say. If not, here’s a quick refresher: 1. “Vagina.” That’s a definite no-no. Three years ago, Republicans in the Michigan statehouse banned Democratic Rep. Lisa Brown from speaking after she used the v-word. 2. “Condom.” The Bush administration sought to ban sex-ed […]

This is for Gigi, who can’t figure out why I don’t like Bill Maher. Gigi, a reader in West Palm Beach, wrote me last week noting that I agree with the star of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on most political issues. Yet I have, on previous occasions in this space, expressed distaste for […]

Every once in a while the universe arranges itself to make you look smarter than you are. Lucky me, I am having such a moment now. Last month, when NBC News anchor Brian Williams’ career imploded as he was caught in a high-profile, self-aggrandizing lie, I suggested in this space that there would be much […]

First, they sang “God Will Take Care of You.” Then they walked out of Brown Chapel to a playground where they organized themselves into 24 groups of 25 each and set out marching. Their route out of Selma took them onto Highway 80, which is carried over the Alabama River by a bridge named in […]

There are sounds it feels like you’ve known forever, sounds that have been in your ear so long, it’s hard to believe they were ever new. One of those sounds is this: James Jamerson thumps a heartbeat on the bass. Robert White’s guitar corkscrews out in reply. And the immortal David Ruffin sings, in a […]

I am not insane. For this, I have Jon Stewart to thank. Thirteen years ago, it felt like I was in a front row seat on the express train to Crazy Town. That, you will recall, is when the wheels began to come off the Bush administration’s argument for invading Iraq, i.e., to find the […]

“Unbelievably sad.” That was the subject line of an email a colleague sent me last week. In it, she forwarded a link to a story that had Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst telling a Des Moines radio host that Congress should outlaw vaccines because they “manipulate brains.” According to the story, the host asked Ernst […]

In June, it will be 52 years since George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. It happened at the University of Alabama, where two African-American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, were attempting to register. In facing down three federal officials demanding that he stand aside and honor a court order allowing the registration to […]

There’s this speech I give my students. Distilled, it goes like this. “Your primary asset as a journalist is not your dogged curiosity, your talent for research or your ability to make prose sing on deadline. No, your one indispensable asset is your credibility. If you are not believable, nothing else matters.” Which brings us, […]