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Author Archives Howard Portnoy

Comic Depictions of Mohammed: Knowing When to Hold and When to Fold

Did you hear the latest knee-slapper about Moses? Actually, I don’t have a joke about Moses to share, though if I did and chose to, I wouldn’t need to go into hiding. If the joke were sufficiently tasteless or insulting, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League might issue a statement. Beyond that I know of no organized [...]

¶ Posted 24 April 2010 § International Relations ‡ Comments Off °

New York City Announces that “Rubber Rooms” for Teachers Will Close

According to the New York Post, New York City’s infamous “reassignment centers” for controversial teachers will be closed. The centers, known as “rubber rooms,” cost taxpayers $40 million in salaries alone last year, according to the Department of Education. Ironically, the topic of rubber rooms was addressed on Glenn Beck’s program yesterday, where he recounted [...]

¶ Posted 15 April 2010 § Schools ‡ Comments (1) °

Another Liberal Effort to “Save Us from Ourselves”

New York’s liberal politicians have been busy little automatons lately, working tirelessly to fix the city’s unbroken restaurants. First came Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s edict that the amount of salt used in restaurants be constrained by rigid Health Department-imposed guidelines. Then came a ruling from the Board of Health last week that restaurants be required to [...]

¶ Posted 20 March 2010 § Legislation ‡ Comments (42) °

Democrats, the Party of Rugged Noncomformist Adults

“If Johnny jumps off a bridge, are you going to do it, too?” When I was growing up, this question, whose clear underlying intent was to reinforce the importance of critical thinking and sound decision making, was asked at one time or another of every child by his parent. Usually, it was in response to [...]

¶ Posted 19 March 2010 § Health Care § Legislation ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: Congress

Obama on FOX: 11 Minutes I'll Never Get Back

Last night in case you missed it (in which case, consider yourself lucky), Barack Obama appeared on FOX News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.” Yes, this is the same FOX News that Obama and his cohorts dismissed as a non-news organization. That would seem to make the president look like something of a sap, [...]

¶ Posted 18 March 2010 § Barack Obama § Health Care ‡ Comments (24) °

Obama on FOX: 11 Minutes I’ll Never Get Back

¶ Posted 18 March 2010 § Barack Obama § Health Care ‡ Comments (24) °

The Latest from the Conniving Person

It takes one to know one—a weasel conniving person, that is. And there is no more conniving weasel person than Barack Obama. Perhaps the fault of not recognizing Obama for the slimy creature conniving person he is belongs to the American electorate, who refused to look before they leapt. He did after promise to change [...]

¶ Posted 17 March 2010 § Barack Obama § Politicians ‡ Comments (15) °

Regulating School Recess – and the Hits Just Keep on Coming

Great news today from the New York Times—if you happen to believe, that is, that every minute of your waking life requires intervention of one kind or another by the government or quasi-government forces. An article, by Winnie Hu, assures parents of enrollees at Broadway Elementary School across the river in Newark that there’ll be [...]

¶ Posted 15 March 2010 § Media § Schools ‡ Comments (4) °

An Assault on FOX News by—Howell Raines??

It sounds like something straight out of The Onion: A critique of FOX News by one of the most biased, least open-minded individuals ever to sully the profession of journalism, Howell Raines. If the name is unfamiliar, Raines (whose mugshot appears at the left) is a former executive editor at the New York Times, another [...]

¶ Posted 14 March 2010 § Health Care § Media ‡ Comments (4) °

A Day at the Theater

With apologies to the Marx Brothers, whose hilarious movie A Night at the Opera was the source of this post’s title, today the nation was treated to a comedy of a different sort — a comedy of errors, all from Barack Obama and his band of misfits from Congress. The first came from Speaker of [...]

¶ Posted 25 February 2010 § Barack Obama § Health Care § Legislation § Politics ‡ Comments (19) °

You’ll Never Guess Who’s Responsible for the Caustic Tone in Washington

According to a Gallup poll conducted in February, 2009, shortly after Barack Obama’s coronation, a whopping 74 percent of Americans felt the tone and level of civility in Washington were the same or worse than they had been under George W. Bush. That was a year ago, and while I was unable to unearth more [...]

¶ Posted 24 February 2010 § Barack Obama § Politicians ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: Partisanship

ObamaCareless

Scott Brown was elected a month ago, but one wouldn’t know it judging from the erratic stumble-bum behavior Barack Obama has exhibited since, staggering from one position to another, like a man drunk on his own power. The question that arose at the time of Brown’s stunning upset victory was whether Obama would and could [...]

¶ Posted 23 February 2010 § Barack Obama § Health Care § Media § Politicians ‡ Comments (11) °

It Would Be a Wonderful Life

As Obama’s poll numbers sink below the horizon, the folks on the left are scratching their heads (or worse) and asking “Wha hoppened?” As an example, take this column (please!) by Ed Kilgore titled “The World Without Obama.” (I know it’s not how Kilgore meant the title, but what a lovely ring that has.) What [...]

¶ Posted 19 February 2010 § 2010 Elections § 2012 Elections § Barack Obama § Politics ‡ Comments (34) °

When You’re Running Neck-and-Neck with No One in Particular, You’ve Got Problems

Le plus ça change, le plus c’est la même chose. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Maybe that bit of wisdom courtesy of Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr should have provided fair warning to voters who supported the hope-and-change candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but apparently at least some of them [...]

¶ Posted 18 February 2010 § 2012 Elections § Politics ‡ Comments (10) °

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Lose: Just Ask Lawrence O’Donnell

Let’s face it, Lawrence O’Donnell never was the brightest bulb in the sign, but yesterday he suffered a complete meltdown on television. He was on Morning Joe on MSNBC opposite Marc Thiessen, former speech writer for George W. Bush and author of the book Thiessen is the author of Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept [...]

¶ Posted 16 February 2010 § Media ‡ Comments (54) °

The Wall (4827)
- narciso: Moved on to the last of Larsson, the reason for Sljander’s rather idiosyncraticpersonality, her father is a Soviet GRU defector protected by the evil Swedish state security,...
- Howard Portnoy: Wow, it’s my first time here since your remodeled, Czar. Looks great! Kudos.
Roman Polanski: The Other War (Culture, That Is) (35)
- narciso: He’s printed up his whining statement, from the office of his chateau, no doubt, it’s hard to see someone more vile, then again he telescoped the water wars of the 00s,...
New York City Announces that “Rubber Rooms” for Teachers Will Close (1)
- Zoltan Newberry: It would be better if these hard working and badly misunderstood teachers were put to work, I say! They could raise money for education as targets in pie throwing daily fund...
RECOMMENDED BROWSING (132)
- narciso: You missed who that line was directed at Sully, it wasn’t Obama
- Sully: @ fustotten: I didn’t like the baby campaign prop either, which actually caused me to wonder whether it was productive as a prop. And, on the subject of the presidency. There is...