Since we're determined to embrace British rule forever, I purchased a box of three Christmas crackers.The Christmas cracker is a tube-shaped box wrapped in pretty paper. It contains a gift to be 'won' by the one (of two persons pulling it apart...
When asked for the most important life lesson I've ever learned, I always answer, "Nothing is as it appears."For example, it appears the DPP has seen the light now brightly shining as a result of a process beginning with her legally weak ruling in...
A vote is a positive statement of personal support for someone or something. A vote is NOT an enforced choice between two evils. A vote is your personal right, NOT duty or obligation.No citizen should EVER be made to feel he/she must support...
What's to be done with Booklist Boyne?Every time I convince myself to stop trying the impossible, namely, to educate him, he writes something so hostile to logic, so religiously dogmatic that I'm obliged to correct the record for those who might've...
The secret to a happy marriage is for both parties to understand, accept, and commit to the philosophy, 'This is as good as it gets.'Everybody accepts nobody (else) is perfect. We all know we're perfect, but, otherwise, perfection is impossible. So...
There's hope. I recently experienced the sort of transparent, participatory, responsive and caring governance I'd thought was lost to Jamaica. On October 22, hand in hand with the Old Ball and Chain, I attended the first of an intended series of meet...
Friday's Senate sitting degenerated into a monumental farce.Farcical elements abounded, but the one cornering headlines in a lazy, under-researched and mainly sensation-seeking media was the cruel and unusual suspension of Senator Marlene Malahoo...
On Heroes Day, I watched with bemusement as Phillip Paulwell displayed what looked like his best Hercule Poirot impression (David Suchet's version, NOT Peter Ustinov's) mincing his way to the King's House platform to accept his Order of Distinction....
I suppose you live and learn.Until September 20, I thought I knew a thing or five about Jamaica's dysfunctional political system and the grief and destruction it was currently wreaking on the economy and on the society. On September 20, I found out...
Last Wednesday, fantasyland Apocrypha's Naughty News Network (NNN) was all cranked up as roving reporter Fritz Kebab announced a massive power cut on North Street, one of tiny Apocrypha's five streets. Apparently, systems were overloaded because of...
The past week marked 180-odd years of Emancipation and 50-odd of political Independence.Yet we still operate a corrupt system of government compounded by a corrupt national mindset; a generalised disdain for propriety; and a deep-rooted belief in...
Why do people 'confess'? People usually confess because they're guilty. Most confessions are 'coerced' (few confess 'voluntarily'). But 'coercion' is a complicated concept, despite the law recognising only confessions obtained under physical duress...
Gene Autry, the Beast, and I had given up raising a fourth for dominoes when we heard, away in the distance, "If a macca, mek it jook yu!"The Dunce! We greeted him with mixed feelings because his arrival interrupted Haemorrhoid's response (using one...
A recent United States Supreme Court judgment confirming gay marriage's legitimacy seems to have put the wind up local homophobes.Booklist Boyne, slithering around, panic-stricken, in a shipload of religious dogma, spent two consecutive Sundays...
So, a deal has been struck with Greece. EU leaders/lenders are desperately trying to save face by spinning the 'deal' as including tougher austerity requirements than Greeks rejected in the recent referendum. Maybe. But there were significant...
An updated version of this column was sent Friday, June 26 but an older version was published earlier today. Here is the correct version:Apparently, unless one has “significant prosecutorial experience”, one is disqualified from offering a valid...
Again, Jamaica's education ministry has it ass backwards.No, this isn't a sex-education column. Today's rant is about the monumental disaster called GSAT. Under different names, this example of national child abuse has been passed off as a '...
On Tuesday, June 16, I was filled with good intentions. I planned to watch Peter Phillips' much-hyped broadcast to the nation but, instead, I fell asleep. You see, Monday night, I'd been inveigled to play in a bridge tournament for the first time in...
I was disappointed with 'CVM at Sunrise's' June 3 discussion on age-appropriate sex.The topic was something like 'Older men with underage girls', although it was acknowledged that the issue was wider since many 50+ lechers take advantage of very...
Which sporting association, including FIFA, suffers as chronically from maladministration as the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)?Pundits expressed shock when Sepp Blatter, whose name alone conjures images of urological accidents, was re-elected...
Last Tuesday, my column ('Bloodsuckers') highlighted the latest example of taxpayer sacrifice on the altar of revenue cash flow, namely the 'new' 3% 'withholding tax'.Like any good lawyer, using 700 words where 70 would do, I eventually got around...
One Saturday afternoon long ago, Gene Autry and I sat down for a domino game against The Beast and The Dunce.The Dunce began, as usual, with his mantra, 'If a macca, mek it jook yu!', then smoothly segued into "A dis macca me a go jook yu wid" as...
It's time to find out if Cliff Williams, despite the ravages of anno domini, remains educable. It doesn't appear so from his May 10 article ('Gordon Robinson galloping above his handicap') in which he rambled; failed to address the issues; and, in a...
Why am I not surprised at Government attacking Jamaica's endemic child abuse problem like a Square One soca song?Square One's popular recording, Kitty Cat, urges fans to "attack it from the back", the popularity of which lyric in otherwise...
In the celebrated case of Arthur Williams v Andrew Holness, the Supreme Court declared:"1 ... the request for and procurement of pre-signed and undated letters of resignation and letters of authorisation by the leader of the Opposition from persons...
