The One-Eyed Man Is King

Barry Blitt
By FRANK RICH
Published: January 22, 2011

A month before John Wayne won the 1969 Best Actor Oscar for “True Grit,” Richard Nixon wrote him a “Dear Duke” fan letter from the Oval Office: “I saw it in the W.H. with my family and for once we agree with the critics — you were great!” Some four decades later, his rave was echoed by another Republican warrior, this time in praise of the “True Grit” remake with Jeff Bridges in the role of the old, fat, hard-drinking, half-blind 19th-century United States marshal Rooster Cogburn. Shortly after New Year’s, Liz Cheney told The Times that her parents saw “True Grit” at the Teton Theater in Jackson, Wyo., and gave it “two thumbs up.” More

NY Times Editorial

Saner Gun Laws
Published: January 22, 2011

It is widely believed in Washington that there is no chance the gun lobby and the new Republican majority in the House would ever permit passage of the modest ideas for tightening America’s absurdly lax gun laws that have surfaced since the massacre in Tucson.

That may be true, but it is no reason for supporters of reasonable gun regulation not to put up a fight. Nor is it an excuse for the lack of principled presidential leadership on this issue. We are still waiting for President Obama to fulfill his promises on gun safety. More

A Simple Proposal

A Gay Agenda for Everyone
By DAN SAVAGE
Published: January 22, 2011

I’m not an idiot: Now that the Republicans hold the House, only wishful thinkers and the deeply delusional expect to see any movement on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legislative agenda this year or next. Nevertheless, President Obama should address gay rights in his State of the Union speech this week, and he should tackle the biggest, most meaningful right of them all: the right to marry. More

Watergate?

Watergate? What’s That?
Published: January 22, 2011

In the Republicans’ thumbs up-or-down version of lawmaking, the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, is targeting for extinction the publicly subsidized presidential campaign finance system adopted in the wake of the Watergate scandals.

Mr. Cantor wants to kill off the program — rather than update its limits to meet the costs of modern campaigns. He says it is necessary for budget cutting. We suspect his real motive is to give an even bigger voice to big-money contributors in presidential campaigns. More

The Black Swan

If you've ever wanted to see Queen Amidala masturbate and sprout feathers, this is your movie.

Plains Giants Have Foothold on Tables

Bison awaiting judging at the National Western Stock Show in Denver on Friday.
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: January 22, 2011
DENVER — The nation’s buffalo ranchers have no catchy marketing slogan about what’s for dinner, and no big trade association budget to pay for making one up. More

Legacy of a Fence

I fell in love with Janet Napolitano before I ever met her, back in 2005, when she was governor of Arizona and had this to say about the proposal in Washington to build a fence along the Mexican border:

“You show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder.” More

Nobody Tell

David that today is National Pie Day. Please.

Somewhere

The last time I upgraded the firmware in the wireless router, it apparently went awol. I screwed around with it today, going so far as to switch out the cable that connected the router to the main router, and switching the internet connection, all to no avail. I finally upgraded the firmware, first to the wrong version, which crashed, and then to the right version. Suddenly, it works.