Friday , July 17 2026

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Tim Robbins Nuked From HOF Presentation

The president of baseball’s Hall of Fame canceled a 15th anniversary celebration of the movie Bull Durham scheduled for April 26-27 at Cooperstown. Dale Petroskey, a former assistant press secretary in the Reagan administration, wrote a letter Monday to actor Tim Robbins, who played rising star pitcher Nuke LaLoosh in …

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Babatunde Olatunji Dead: The Drum Stops

The legendary Nigerian drummer has died at 76: Babatunde Olatunji, 76, the Nigerian drummer whose 1959 Columbia Records album, “Drums of Passion,” helped introduce African music into the American mainstream, died of complications of diabetes April 6 in Salinas, Calif. He taught at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., …

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Hitchens Gloats

I have felt such kinship and respect for Christopher Hitchens since 9/11 that I may decide to hate Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger as much as he does – I may start smoking, and take up heavy drinking again also. Or maybe I’ll just enjoy him gloating a bit: So …

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Sexism May Be Islam’s Biggest Problem

Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris think so, and fear it may be a huge impediment to democracy: A comparison of the data yielded by these surveys in Muslim and non-Muslim societies around the globe confirms the first claim in Huntington’s thesis: Culture does matter—indeed, it matters a lot. Historical religious …

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The Best Revenge Against France? Ignore It

Michael Lewis says ignore the vain, obstructionist pansies (the men, we still like the women): We detest only a certain breed of French male, particularly the French male who lives in or near Paris and who realized, at a sickeningly young age, that the way to get ahead was inside …

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Americans Vote Themselves Stupid on Idol

Well, it doesn’t rank up there in news value with the Fall of Baghdad, but I am still in shock that America – or at least the portion who vote for the show – voted Ricky Smith off the show Tuesday night. Were they watching the same Ricky Smith, whose …

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Music to My Ears

A lot of really terrific things happened yesterday in and around Iraq, but in the long run THIS may be the most important of all: Arabs responded Thursday to the sudden collapse of Saddam Hussein’s government with anger, shock and even disbelief. One newspaper refused to acknowledge that Baghdad had …

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What’s In a Picture?

In this case, everything: as Saddam Hussein’s regime crumbles, the Iraqi president’s images are falling, too. The instigators are twofold: U.S. military forces and, at times, Iraqis themselves. Sometimes they do it together. “Every time we tear down a picture of Saddam, they cheer,” said Cpt. Peter McAleer, commander of …

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