Author Archives: Tony

Osama: A Preemptive Obit

The revolution is just a T-shirt away… Before leaving for a vacation in South Africa in December of 2001, my editors asked me to prepare an obituary for Osama bin Laden on the assumption that he might well be killed … Continue reading

Posted in From Tony's Archive | 8 Comments

Dosunmu’s African Game

My friend Andrew Dosunmu has done an extraordinary book of photographs of African football, capturing the almost subversive joy and exuberance it brings to the global game, and its place in the urban African social fabric. “For me, it was … Continue reading

Posted in Shameless Cronyism | 46 Comments

A Whiff of Sulfur…

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez may be an authoritarian-populist demagogue (Winnie rather than Nelson Mandela) who embarrasses more serious Latin American leftists, but he clearly has had the foresight to hire a comedy writer. That much was apparent in his UN … Continue reading

Posted in 99c Blogging | 11 Comments

Children of a Lesser God?

Birth pangs of a New Middle East? Imagine, on September 12 2001, Condoleezza Rice had jetted in to town to tell New Yorkers that the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center and the two thousand lives lost there represented … Continue reading

Posted in A Wondering Jew, Situation Report | 66 Comments

Memo to Madonna: It’s a Buyer’s Market

A couple of months ago, it was credibly reported that Madonna was looking for a house in Rosh Pina, a northern Israeli town overlooking the Sea of Galilee where, so we were told, she believes the Messiah will arrive. He’ll … Continue reading

Posted in 99c Blogging | 15 Comments

Fidel +10

Looks like another marketing triumph by Adidas over Nike: The first photographs of the ailing commandante supremo aimed at showing that he’s on the mend showed that Fidel Castrol has lost none of his inimitable sense of style. That certainly … Continue reading

Posted in Annals of Globalization | 12 Comments

Why Lebanon Should Make You Fear a President Hillary

Ethan Bronner in the New York Times asks the question “what would Ariel Sharon have done?” in response to Hizballah’s raid that captured two soldiers. And his answer seems to be, very little: A few air strikes, and then a … Continue reading

Posted in 99c Blogging | 4 Comments

Israel Disappoints the Neo-cons in Lebanon Proxy War

Hear, Oh Israel! Charles Krauthammer is disappointed. Very disapppointed. And he clearly speaks for the rest of the neo-conservative fraternity that has worked so hard to destroy any distinction between U.S. interests and Israeli interests. That’s because, as we pointed … Continue reading

Posted in Featured Analysis, Situation Report | 62 Comments

Letter from San Quentin

Some months ago, I posted a piece titled “Are Jews White” that used the case of Stephen Liebb, a Jewish convict in San Quentin who is seeking to have himself racially reclassified from “White” to “Other,” to explore the question … Continue reading

Posted in A Wondering Jew | 14 Comments

Is Israel Fighting a Proxy War for Washington?

Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said a curious thing Saturday: Israel has recognized reality and is ready for a cease-fire in Lebanon, Nasrallah claimed, but it is the U.S. that insists that it fight on. And if you read the … Continue reading

Posted in 99c Blogging, Situation Report | 6 Comments