On a rainy day last week in Long Branch, NJ, Bob Dylan, wearing a hood, was peering into a for-sale home when a neighbor called the police fearing he might be a burglar. Two young officers arrived on the scene and neither of them knew who Bob Dylan was. They asked for I.D. – he had none but explained he was a musician on tour with John Mellencamp and they were set to play at a nearby stadium in Lakewood. Without fuss or anger, Mr. Dylan was escorted back to his tour bus where he produced I.D.

That was that. End of incident. (more…)

By this time, I’m sure we’ve all heard more than we care to about Professor Henry Gates.  Still, I can’t let it go without tossing in my two cents.  Admitting he didn’t know the facts of the case didn’t prevent President Obama, allegedly our first post-racial chief executive, from siding with the black professor and admonishing a white Cambridge policeman.  Nothing too surprising about that, inasmuch as he appears to be far more concerned with the health and comfort of the Islamic terrorists down in Gitmo than he is with America’s elderly citizens. 

I also have a bone to pick with the media’s portrayal of Prof. Gates.  The way they kept describing him, you might have thought the guy had cured cancer or invented the microchip.  His field happens to be black studies.  Even at Harvard, that’s tantamount in academic terms to basket weaving. 

My own field of study is liberals.  As I see it, the major difference between Prof. Gates and me is that he gets paid a lot of money, gets to eat in the faculty dining room and when he acts like an egotistical jerk and swears at a cop doing his duty, he’s the one who not only gets the apology, but gets the President of the United States to defend his boorish behavior.  (more…)