We’re running out of meaningful things to say. I can remember when Tom Brady was derided as a “system quarterback” that benefited from the excellent schemes of the legendary coach Bill Belichick. Now, his place at the top of the NFL mountain is assured. He became the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had not even qualified for the playoffs for some half-dozen years, and they are now the champions of the NFL. Brady now has more Super Bowl rings than all NFL franchises. His 10 appearances in the Super Bowl, to go along with the seven victories, is unfathomable.
Associate Editor Jason Kettinger looks back on the career of “the Great One,” Wayne Gretzky, just after his 60th birthday.
I suppose I should start with the bad news. No leader at this present time can deliver unity to a people, when the basis for that unity is not known, and agreed upon in common. This is the basis for the skepticism among many concerning the possibilities for actually working together to form a more perfect union.
Tommy Lasorda died yesterday at the age of 93. It’s almost hard to say anything that matters. I only know that he was the manager of the Dodgers in 1988, when the Dodgers had an improbable victory over the feared Oakland A’s, led by Tony LaRussa. When I looked back over the dates that Lasorda was the manager of the Dodgers – 1976 to 1996 – I realized that it encompassed my entire life, up to the age of 16.
On the release anniversary of one of my favorite Robin Williams films, I want to revisit that film and two other underappreciated films in his career. These films may have been missed by large portions of the viewing audience and so I commend them to your viewing.
In terms of civility, style, and substance, this debate was light-years ahead of the presidential contest last week. I suppose we should be thankful, but it feels perverse to reward those who have lowered the bar enough to finally step over it.
You know, I don’t agree with Joe Biden about abortion, the redefinition of marriage— and it’s important to call it that— and so-called “religious liberty”. I voted for George W. Bush twice. I’m voting for Joe Biden.
I thought it should be her long ago. I thought that if I were Biden, I would choose Harris. I also believed that Joe Biden would have to do something to placate moderates, and while Senator Harris is not a moderate in any coherent sense, she runs in that lane, especially with regard to presentation.
I read with great interest the latest column by our esteemed Editor-In-Chief. There ought to be a theoretical neutrality, at least with regard to the government, and the potential regulation of speech. We would like to believe that the cure for bad speech is not less speech, but more and better speech. We would like to believe that in a theoretically pluralistic society, the true, the good, and the beautiful will eventually win out over the false, the bad, and the ugly. The most profound question is whether these things we would like to believe have ever been true.
Firstly, don't believe the polls. President Obama is not leading, or building a lead, or any such thing. He's in a fight for his political life, and he knows it. It has never been obvious that an incumbent president is going down, and it won't be all that obvious if it happens this time. I doubt Clinton's people knew they were going to win in 1992 until they did. Oh, sure, they believed they had a shot. And you have to have a ludicrous amount of confidence to be a candidate. But let's get one thing straight: it will never be an easy thing to beat a sitting president, and I've never, ever, seen an incumbent behind in most polls in the summer, even when they lose.