President Mugabe challenges American ambassador to guess what he is holding in his hand.

And finally, concluding today's thematic presentation ...   more »

Continuing on today's theme, the Washington Post reports that French police have just discovered that much of the rioting throughout the country ...   more »

Richard Cohen made a historic trip to a desert and drove a car.

Almost pope-like in his self-regard is Washington ...   more »

Pope and project.

We'll begin with the new pope, who is supposed to be infallible on matters of faith, and so has be ...   more »

Jack's feeling under the weather today.

Today's theme, in honor of France, is the faux pas.  Not necessarily a literal socially unacceptable mistatement but a combination of that, and conceit, mindlessness and occassional ineptitute--at least as I see it, since it's my blog.  A brief scan of the morning paper provides several examples which I will address as the day progresses, and I have time to post; but in sum we expect to hear from, not necessarily in any particular order:  the pope, egomanical newspaper columnists, African dictators, French police...and we'll see.