The Simpsons: While reading The Day of the Locust, a novel by Nathanael West written in 1939, skewering the Hollywood culture of the times and earning praise from F. Scott Fitzgerald, I came across a character named... Homer Simpson. Seems at least reasonable to guess that Matt Groening read this book once and hence, we might have an origin to the name of one of the 90s greatest characters. I always thought the 90s were a lot like the years of the Lost Generation and if West's Homer Simpson is the prototype for Groening, there's a good point of connection between those two times that were far apart but quite similar.

Long live the politics of personal destruction: As she removed herself from consideration as President-elect Bush's Labor Secretary, Linda Chavez whined about the "politics of personal destruction." Never mind that Republicans employed such tactics against numerous Clinton appointees and even Clinton himself over the last eight years. Never mind that a prospective labor secretary shouldn't be paying a Guatemalan immigrant less than minimum wage for housework. Now that the Republicans have the White House they want the Democrats to play nice. Ha. Remember Gingrich? The Republicans deserve worse than they'll get.

The Borking of Chavez wasn't too big a win, anyway. Bush will never appoint a secretary of labor who would want to increase the minimum wage or encourage union formation.

Get Ashcroft! Seriously, the guy is scary. John Ashcroft, who lost a senate race to the late Mel Carnahan is anti-choice on abortion, anti-birth control, anti-alcohol, and even anti-dancing. He is a right wing Christian nut job bent on dismantling gun control laws and trampling the civil rights of the accused. I hope the Democrats can beat him, but it's doubtful. They probably wasted too much ammo on little-fish Chavez. Besides, Ashcroft was a senator, and has buddies on the Democratic side of the aisle.

Foreign policy: With Condoleeza Rice as National Security Advisor, Colin Powell as Secretary of State, Dick Cheney as veep, and President Bush confused on basic issues of geography and history, expect frequent use of our military over the next four years as we whomp tiny regional powers into submission while Powell demands more military funding so that "we can overwhelm 12 regions at once should the need arise."

Dubya actually said: That he wanted America to be a "more literate and hopefuller nation."

We'll miss you, Clinton: While discussing the Clinton years with my friend Jon I told him how fun it was to watch Clinton outclass his enemies at every step, demolishing foes like Newt Gingrich and Kenneth Starr to the annals of obscurity. Jon pointed out that while it was fun to watch, it was also a bit annoying -- he likened Clinton to an army that purposefully stumbled into dangerous ambushes just for the thrill of fighting his way out, and points out that Clinton wasted a lot of time fighting when he should have been leading. We both agreed, however, that he wasted a lot of Republican time as well. In the end, we didn't get near what we wanted from Clinton but we like him and will miss him.

If Michael Maiello wrote more frequently he wouldn't find his thoughts scattered into briefs. Or maybe he just watches too much television.