Joseph Lindsley

Irish Travellers

All of Washington is divided into four unequal parts, and in just over two years I've lived in all of them. I acquired that distinction when I moved to an apartment complex in Southwest once occupied by a crack-smoking former mayor.

WHETHER YOU'RE A NEW ENGLANDER who is forced to wear two pairs of longjohns in the winter to keep warm or a Londoner who has trouble ponying up bus fare for the daily commute, worry no more: You can look to the leader of the Bolivarian revolution for succor.

DURING THE FIRST weeks--or, in Pelosi time, 100 hours--of the 110th Congress, the word "comity" spewed from Capitol Hill like the ash that came out of Krakatoa in 1883. But old ways remain. Consider the continued role of "fact-checking squads" in the House of Representatives. Both the Democrats'…

THE BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP Series formula often seems as absurd as medieval alchemy: A combination of two human polls and six computer algorithms spit out the college football rankings, from which are determined the teams that will play in the top bowl games and which two teams face off in the…

ON ELECTION NIGHT, many of Washington, D.C.'s disaffected peace activists and self-styled illuminatis gathered to watch the Democratic takeover of the House in their place of refuge, "Busboys and Poets," a restaurant and bookstore for lefties and greens. According to a window sign, it offers "food,…

On a trip to Ireland last month, I began every morning with a dose of whiskey before enjoying some great crack during the day. Don't be alarmed, though: The whiskey was mixed in my porridge, along with some cream--a legitimate Irish delicacy--and "crack" (actually spelled craic) is Irish for good…

AS THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR BEGINS, parents will give, as they always do, lectures about studying hard and attending class. But nonetheless many collegians will devote time to chugging pints, throwing darts, and doing just about anything that doesn't involve cracking the books. This seems a gross…

EVER SINCE THE SOCIALISTS came back to power, the Spanish government has been monkeying around with some venerable traditions--not only the institution of marriage but also the definition of "person." Last month, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Socialist Workers' party introduced a…

IMAGINE a Republican congressman defending traditional marriage by saying, "I am inspired in my public service by St. Paul's admonition against sodomy in his first letter to the Corinthians." Surely, many liberals would raise the alarm of impending theocracy. But House minority leader Nancy…

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, the Department of Labor is seriously enforcing its financial reporting requirements of unions and disclosing the results online. As a result, union members--and the public at large--now have the means to examine union finances in extraordinary detail and to learn about the…

TOWARD THE END of St. Patrick's Day, I often wonder why Americans, whatever our creed, use this religious holiday as an opportunity to morph into libertines. Sure, we all celebrate the merry holidays, such as Christmas and St. Paddy's, but you don't see nonbelievers fasting on Yom Kippur or Good…

"EVERY IDLE WORD that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment," warns the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is referring to eternal judgment, though his words apply equally to Supreme Court nominees appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Inspired by the example of…

OVER SOME OBAN SCOTCH RECENTLY, a college friend lamented that Americans are averse to the notion of a wet lunch. I recalled the Sam Adams ad in which two guys at a business lunch order water until an enterprising fellow--clearly destined to be a leader--orders a Sam Adams. Then a gray-haired man,…

KATRINA STILL RAGES METAPHORICALLY, and this time she's battering Capitol Hill in the form of budget struggles over everything from entitlement programs to casinos. Members of Congress, aided by lobbyists, are duking it out over what to cut and how to spend, in the face of already bloated federal…

IN 1993 the village of Valmeyer, Illinois, after suffering its fourth major flood in 50 years, voted to migrate to higher ground. They gave up their perilous location, but their attitude was not defeatist: On the contrary, calling their move "Operation Fresh Start," they picked up and ventured to…

IN 1993 the village of Valmeyer, Illinois, after suffering its fourth major flood in 50 years, voted to migrate to higher ground. They gave up their perilous location, but their attitude was not defeatist: On the contrary, calling their move "Operation Fresh Start," they picked up and ventured to…

LAST WEEK, ON THE terrace of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, a crowd of demonstrators from around the country held aloft catchy signs saying things like "Rescue Taxpayers from Floods of Red Ink" and "Deficit Spending is Disaster Pending." Members of the conservative Republican…

PATRICK HENRY WAS ONE OF the most passionate and fearless orators of his day. Now, a similarly named politician is ruffling feathers with a variation on the great man's battle cry: Says Patrick McHenry, a self-described "hard-core conservative" representing the 10th district of North Carolina,…

IN PRAGUE RECENTLY FOR A journalism course, I made a point of conversing with locals over many pints of pivo (Czech for beer) so as to expand my knowledge of the ancient capital of a young democracy. As luck would have it, the program that sent me to Franz Kafka's hometown also proffered an…