In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
William Kristol/The Jewish State at 60
The Short Version: Happy Birthday, Israel. You are surrounded by crazies.
In his words: “Still, even though the security of Israel is very much at risk, the good news is that, unlike in the 1930s, the Jews are able to defend [...]

In which The Gay Recluse provides an update on a beehive of activity at 573-579 West 161st Street.
So it’s official, if “official” means by way of an unnamed receptionist at the architects’s office: 573-575 West 161st Street is going to be a 6-story condominium. We’re trying to scrounge up a rendering, but in the meantime, [...]

In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer.
Time of Photographs: May 10, around 8:30.

The oily black smoke of 100-year-old boilers disperses daily across the rooftops in Washington Heights, heedless of those who suffer from pneumonia, asthma and tuberculosis. Officials and politicians? Not even footnotes in this story, which is about the aggregation of [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Frank Rich/Party Like It’s 2008
The Short Version: Friends, thank you! I, Frank Rich, have won the Democratic primary!
In his words: “This is not 2004, when another Democrat from Massachusetts did for windsurfing what the previous model did for tanks.”
Score: B- (Blather)
Given that we endorsed Obama [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Bob Herbert/Seeds of Destruction
The Short Version: Hillary’s message about “electability” and “white voters” is racist.
In his words: “The Clintons have been trying to embed that gruesomely destructive message in the brains of white voters and superdelegates for the longest time. ”
Score: B (Bitter)
Herbert’s right on [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Paul Krugman/Thinking About November
The Short Version: Obama’s probably going to blow it because whites don’t like him!  
In his words: “In recent decades, Democrats have had little trouble unifying after hard-fought primary campaigns. ”
Score: F (Failure)
This is a depressingly cynical (but untruthful) column that implies that Clinton should have won [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Gail Collins/The Torch en Route
The Short Version: Hillary wants to run. So what?  
In his words: “South Dakota wants its turn. It wants to have Chelsea visit its community colleges and refuse to answer questions about Monica Lewinsky. ”
Score: A- (Amusing)
Collins continues to strike the perfect balance between [...]

In which The Gay Recluse documents the sunset of a dream.

Today the tide seemed to finally turn against Hillary Clinton.

We felt bad about it, but mostly on behalf of our mother. She’s in her seventies now and really wanted Hillary to win.

She’s spent the better part of four decades fighting for women’s “equality.” As people [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Thomas Friedman/The Democratic Recession
The Short Version: Thanks, oil! You’ve caused democratic government to wane around the world.  
In his words: “I’ve long argued that the price of oil and the pace of freedom operate in an inverse correlation — which I call: “The First Law of [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
David Brooks/Combat and Composure
The Short Version: Hillary is a monster!
In his words: “But, as Sunday’s contrast made clear, Obama still seems like a human being.”
Score: B (Basic)
We’ve also been put off by Clinton’s completely over-the-top (and hilarious) attempts to distance herself from “the elitist,” but we’d [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Paul Krugman/Success Breeds Failure
The Short Version: Don’t get too excited about the financial markets.
In his words: “[T]he next crisis will probably be worse than this one.”
Score: B- (Been there)
Krugman describes an entrenched cycle of boom/bust/haphazard regulation in the financial markets that is oddly reflected his column, [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores OMG four wtf!? selected opinions in The Times.
Franck Rich/The All-White Elephant in the Room
The Short Version: The Maverick’s preacher is just as crazy as Obama’s!
In his words: “But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled ‘homosexual parade there [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Bob Herbert/Overkill and Short Shrift
The Short Version: Why can’t we get a grip?
In his words: “The challenge for the working press right now is to see if we can force ourselves past the overwhelming temptations of Wright and race and focus in a sustained way [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Paul Krugman/Party of Denial
The Short Version: I still love Hillary even if she supports that stupid gas-tax holiday.
In his words: “But if the Democrats really want to pin the denialist label on John McCain, health care is the place to focus.”
Score: D+ (Desultory)
Krugman delivers a very [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Gail Collins/How Will It Play in Apex?
The Short Version: It’s hard to say who’s worse: Blabbermouth Bill or The Reverend Wright.
In her words: “On the other hand, young voters who have yet to have their hearts broken by a politician find it wicked (sic?) depressing.”
Score: A (Applause)
We like [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Thomas Friedman/Dumb as We Wanna Be
The Short Version: We need higher gas taxes and more $$$$ devoted to clean-energy R&D!
In his words: “At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.”
Score: A (Applause)
We completely agree with this column.  Hillary Clinton should [...]

In which The Gay Recluse lives in an alternate reality.
For a long time we’ve kept an eye on the triple vacant lot at 573-577 West 161st Street, which we walk by  every day on our way to the 163rd Street subway station. In January, we were pleasantly surprised to see two of the three lots [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Bob Herbert/The Pastor Casts a Shadow
The Short Version: Oh nos! The Reverend is going to wreck everything!
In his words: “Faster than anyone could have imagined, the young Mr. Obama became Senator Obama and then the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.”
Score: B- (Bit much)
This column unfortunately [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times.
Paul Krugman/Bush Made Permanent
The Short Version: The Maverick is a Loser!
In his words: “Mr. McCain proposes making almost all of the Bush tax cuts, which are currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2010, permanent.”
Score: B- (Basic)
We already know that the Maverick is not [...]

In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Frank Rich/How McCain Lost in Pennsylvania
The Short Version: We’ll see who’s laughing in November!
In his words: “On the way to the finish line, the prolonged primary race, far from destroying the Democratic candidates, may do more insidious damage to the Republican nominee, lulling his [...]