"Joyce set out to create life in all its fullness without heroic scenes or gestures or declamations but through a fully realized expression of a city and its people on one typical day-and through ironic puncturing of human pomposity and pretense. Despite its reputation as a difficult read, many of the chapters or important passages in Ulysses are accessible to a regular reader who is not a candidate for a PhD."

"After World War II, Armistice Day became Veterans Day to honor the dead from another tumultuous conflict. But many people were still of an age when World War I was a living memory. Then, over time, Memorial Day, which had its origins in the American Civil War, became the main national holiday commemorating all our fallen soldiers. Today, Veterans Day is an excuse for merchants to hawk their wares. "Veterans Day Sale, 25% to 50% Off Storewide" shouted the Macy's full-page ad in The New York Times."

Addressing governance and corruption in a failed state like Afghanistan would be enormously challenging if they were "just" issues of development, but the "development" of Afghanistan, of course, takes place in the midst of a fierce civil war and intense regional rivalries and interference under what most experts consider a wholly unrealistic deadline (progress by next summer).

"So,for me, one of the more interesting questions raised by the film is whether works of entertainment or art presenting themselves as real accounts of contemporary events owe fidelity, not just to story-telling, but also to a search for truth in a journalistic or historical sense. Certainly some of Sorkin's own statements suggest that he didn't want The Social Network just to be story-telling. And, if that is so, then he had an obligation to get closer to the facts."

"The most striking aspect of the ECJ decision is its failure to understand the reality of contemporary law practice and its failure to adduce any facts to support its sweeping conclusions. Let me focus on its most egregious failings."

"Bob Woodward's new book on the Obama White House portrays a president so frustrated with top military advisers for their refusal to provide what he considered a reasonable exit strategy from Afghanistan that he devised one himself. How should leaders reconcile the laudable instinct to rely on the advice of experts with the sometimes urgent need to force them to think outside the box?"

"The ever more conservative Republicans want to slash government programs (and the increased coverage) over the dead bodies of the Democrats. And the Democrats want to constrain insurance premiums and profit-maximizing in the private sector over the dead bodies of the Republicans. A bipartisan attempt to find the right combination of systemic productivity gains, meaningful competition and appropriate budgeting has receded far over the horizon."

"The recent internal BP report on the Deepwater Horizon accident described eight causes of the explosion and fire, taking relatively little blame for itself. But, although most of the news stories focused on the "causes," the report also contained 25 recommendations for future action (buried at p.181) which are, in fact, a searing indictment of BP."

"As with General Stanley McChrystal, Governor Elliot Spitzer, golf icon Tiger Woods and so many others, we are once again scratching our heads and asking about personal indiscretions, not major crimes or core institutional failures, that brought a person low. How could he do something so self-destructive and stupid?"

"The big casino of unlimited and hidden election expenditures by corporations and unions will be open for business in this fall's pivotal Congressional elections due to the Senate's failure on Tuesday to shut off a GOP-led filibuster on financial disclosure legislation."