So... the New Yorker cover... Barack Obama's wearing the Somali garb, Michelle Obama has a huge afro, donned in black militant fatigues and, uh-oh, they're giving each other that strange greeting called "dap." Hey, it's the New Yorker. They do satire. Of course Obama's campaign said it was too much ...

When Barack Obama discussed fatherhood and, specifically, black fatherhood on Father’s Day, he was, of course, opening a can of worms. As he rattled off the grim statistics about how many African-American children are being raised without their fathers and the effect that absence is having on their lives, I could almost feel large sections of the black community tightening up.

The world is looking like it’s about to end at any moment, there’s no zeitgeist that seems to suggest anyone is that worried. What’s the deal with that?

When I was in high school, I had an English teacher that I think about when issues of language arise...

Well, now that we’ve finally moved on from the Pennsylvania primary, and all of the media attention paid to the white working class, the most important bloc of voters, like, ever, to Pennsylvania, we’re moving on to North Carolina. And I can’t wait to have the same lavish, dare I say, slavish attention paid to me, the black voter.