South Bronx to South Bay

It was a big surprise to both of us that The Hurt Locker swept the Oscars last Sunday. Now venues nationwide will multiply, and people will go just to see what they’d ignored all these months.

by Roger Repohl
Poor Haiti. It almost makes you think the country has been cursed by God, or by some voodoo spirit, or by the ghost of Papa Doc. The first modern Black nation, independent of colonial rule in 1804, Haiti was born in hope but for most of its history has been battered both by the elements of nature and by human avarice.

Damn it. Just when I was ready to book my winter getaway, some blockhead with a bomb in his boxers tries to blow up a plane.

It took President Obama months to decide what to do next in Afghanistan; he finally presented his plan at West Point on December 1. Last Sunday, the New York Times ran a lengthy examination of his decision-making process — days and nights of meetings with his advisors, many of whom held widely divergent views. He displayed a comprehensive grasp of the issues, the article recounts, prodding the participants with questions and comments, resembling both “a college professor and a gentle cross-examiner,” as one of them put it.