Gene Lyons

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The UVa story: More than basketball

Gene Lyons 4/9/19 11:24pm

As we went to bed last Monday, I told my wife that maybe it was time I retired as a sports fan. It was never going to get any better than this. The Virginia Cavaliers had just won the national championship in a nerve-wracking overtime game against a tenacious Texas Tech team, and I was feeling jittery and euphoric. I can’t think when a ballgame has made me happier.

Kisses from Biden

Gene Lyons 4/3/19 4:47pm

If you didn’t know Joe Biden was of Irish descent, you might think he was French, or Italian. The man exudes personal warmth. He touches people, leans in close, pats their shoulders, whispers in their ears, and plants unsolicited kisses. Upon women, that is.

'Exonerated'

Gene Lyons 3/26/19 11:02pm

So President Trump says the Mueller Report proves his innocence: “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION.” As usual, he’s making it up.

Buying way into the Ivies: What else is new?

Gene Lyons 3/20/19 6:04pm

If it’s news to you that social climbers see buying their children’s way into fancy, name-brand colleges as the functional equivalent of wearing Rolex watches or driving Maseratis, then I don’t know where to start.

How to speak cat

Gene Lyons 3/12/19 11:51pm

Many people find cats aloof and mysterious, so much so that a small academic/journalistic industry has sprung up to explain the animals to their owners.

The end isn't clear

Gene Lyons 3/6/19 5:01pm

Anybody who predicts how the Trump administration will come to an end is begging to have his soothsayer’s license revoked. “Surprisingly,” is as far as I’m willing to go. NPR ran a story the other day about a 93-year-old World War II veteran whose dying words were “S***, I'm not going to see the Mueller report, am I

Trump, Epstein and Kraft: Rich men groping

Gene Lyons 2/27/19 12:44am

In the Age of Trump, it often seems that powerful, entitled men have taken to imitating the behavior of the great man himself: forcing themselves upon reluctant women (and sometimes girls), relying upon their power and money to protect them from the consequences. So go ahead and grab them, boys, because "when you're a star, they let you do it."

Print pundits falling for foolishness

Gene Lyons 2/20/19 10:13pm

“Post Pundit 2020 Power Ranking!” is supposedly based upon the hopefuls’ “holistic viability to trounce Trump,” a jokey bit of alliterative jargon seemingly intended to make light of the whole enterprise.

Northam, Virginia and the benefit of the doubt

Gene Lyons 2/13/19 12:33am

It’s not astonishing to me that a Washington Post poll reveals that Virginia’s African-American voters favor giving Gov. Ralph Northam the benefit of the doubt by 58 to 37 percent. They’ve been dealing with history’s brutal ironies for 400 years

Too old

Gene Lyons 2/7/19 1:13am

Whenever I encounter words like “Boomer,” “GenXer,” and “Millennial” used to explain political behavior, it’s normally my practice to quit reading. Cant invariably follows. As anybody old enough to remember the Kennedy assassinations and the Vietnam War understands, so-called “Boomers” have been bitterly divided about every significant issue in American politics all their lives.

The Trump show: unreality TV

Gene Lyons 1/30/19 1:34am

Recent events in Washington inspire nothing so much as sheer disbelief. Is this a government or a sitcom? Impeach Trump? Why not offer him a prime time gig on Fox News instead?For the right price, he might take it.

Putin in charge

Gene Lyons 1/25/19 12:00am

So the world’s greatest negotiator has taken 800,000 hostages and threatens to shoot himself in the foot unless he gets his wall. Too bad the Democrats can’t subcontract the job of confronting his demands to Vladimir Putin. Faced with the Russian dictator, our bold leader rolls over on his back like a puppy dog.

Of Freud and foolishness

Gene Lyons 1/15/19 5:23pm

I’ve been suspicious of psychologists bearing theories ever since my graduate school "Eureka!" about Freud and Dostoyevsky.

It's too early for the i-word

Gene Lyons 1/9/19 12:43am

What an outrage! A Democratic woman talking like a Republican man! President Trump should march right into the House of Representatives, grab this Muslim wench by her [expletive deleted] and deport her to whatever bleep-hole country she came from.

Trump's wall blocks real immigration reform

Gene Lyons 12/24/18 2:37pm

As the new year begins, it’s unclear how well President Trump grasps the altered political reality he faces. Indeed, using the words “reality” and “Trump” in the same sentence is a misnomer. One reason world’s biggest fabricator is also the world’s worst negotiator that he appears constitutionally incapable of recognizing the other side’s point of view.

Closer to the end

Gene Lyons 12/20/18 3:00am

Is it possible we're witnessing the beginning of the end of Donald J. Trump's presidency? The signs and portents are coming so fast that it's hard to keep score.

No leash

Gene Lyons 12/13/18 3:00am

Living as I do in the remote provinces, I often find myself fascinated by the cultural advances of America's great metropolises. Last week, for example, The New York Times featured an entertaining column urging people to walk cats on leashes. If I tried that, I'd definitely have a fight on my hands.

Herd shifts

Gene Lyons 12/6/18 3:00pm

Some years ago, I watched a herd of nine mares stampede across a pasture on a friend's farm. It was an impressive spectacle, like that seen from the rail at a racetrack.

Dems on deck

Gene Lyons 11/29/18 3:00am

Much of what I know about politics I learned from sports. If you want to know what's going on in a baseball game, for example, you've got to know not only the score, but the inning, number of outs, what runners are on which bases, who's batting, who's pitching, who's on deck, and who's warming in the bullpen. I could go on.

Embarrassed

Gene Lyons 11/15/18 3:00am

Perhaps you recall the last time a French politician angered a certain kind of hairy-chested American nationalist. In February 2003, Dominique de Villepin, France's conservative Minister of Foreign Affairs, cautioned the United Nations General Assembly about the sheer folly of invading Iraq.

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