Suzanne Fields

Suzanne Fields

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The Social Medium, Not The Message

By Suzanne Fields (Dec 30, 2011)

This is the week that pits the old fogies against the rising generations in determining "what's in" for 2012 and "what's out" for 2011. Fashion and political opinions have... more

Grave Thoughts on Grim Reaper

By Suzanne Fields (Dec 23, 2011)

  This has been a busy week for the Grim Reaper, slashing out at friend and foe, winning each battle fought against clay-footed humans who earned obituaries on... more

Newt the Historian

By Suzanne Fields (Dec 16, 2011)

Newt Gingrich is a fat target for everyone. So easy to hit. He makes the others in the race jump up, down and sometimes leap sideways, like it or not. He shakes things up.... more

Blaming the Victim Again

By Suzanne Fields (Dec 09, 2011)

This has been a bad week in Israeli-American relations -- more accurately, Israeli-Obama White House relations. Three White House players who should know better (and probably... more

Sex, Lies and Politics

By Suzanne Fields (Dec 02, 2011)

Once upon a time, they called it "the double standard." Women were held to higher virtue than men. Then women learned to stoop to conquer. In a sex-saturated world, women... more

Filling in the Generation Gaps

By Suzanne Fields (Nov 25, 2011)

Thanksgiving is the holiday that pulls families together, squeezing them around a table for a feast of turkey, tradition and togetherness. We encourage conversations meant to... more

When Manly Virtue Died

By Suzanne Fields (Nov 18, 2011)

These are difficult and perilous times for boys. A distorted culture has robbed them of virtue to measure themselves against. The good once associated with masculinity in a... more

Digging for Gold

By Suzanne Fields (Nov 11, 2011)

The war between the sexes will never be easy to win because there are too many incentives for men and women to lay down their arms and call for a truce, if not a tryst.... more

The Morass of Harassment

By Suzanne Fields (Nov 04, 2011)

The accusations of sexual harassment against Herman Cain are so far small potatoes, and badly baked at that. On a scale of 1 to 10, they're hovering around 2. An accusation... more

Sexual Politics at the Movies

By Suzanne Fields (Oct 28, 2011)

"The Ides of March," the slick new movie with George Clooney as an unethical presidential candidate, is a morality tale for our time. It lacks tragic dimensions, it's... more

Turkey's About-Face Toward Islamist East

By Suzanne Fields (Oct 21, 2011)

ISTANBUL -- A young American man with black hair and dark brown eyes checked into a small hotel in Cappadocia, where visitors to Turkey flock to see the famous lava... more

At Last, Fun on the Hustings

By Suzanne Fields (Oct 14, 2011)

Some of the Republican candidates wanted to audition for Comedy Central the other night, aiming their one-liners at Herman Cain. But the pizza man is no joke. Cain is... more

Germany Comes of Age

By Suzanne Fields (Oct 07, 2011)

BERLIN -- A united Germany turned 21 this week. Families celebrated a three-day weekend, with the children waving black, red and gold national flags in the bright sunlight of... more

Mahmoud Abbas Is No Anwar Sadat

By Suzanne Fields (Sep 30, 2011)

It's the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is followed by Yom Kippur. We listen to that strange instrument called the shofar, made of a ram's horn, with long... more

Nations United in Annual Israel Mugging

By Suzanne Fields (Sep 23, 2011)

It's gang-up time on Israel again. Right on schedule, here come the huffers, puffers and pipsqueaks. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, arrives... more

Camelot Revisited: Jackie Spins the Kennedy Era From the Grave

By Suzanne Fields (Sep 16, 2011)

Jackie Kennedy is back, but the world she knew as first lady is gone forever. The woman Mamie Eisenhower said looked "younger than Barbie," the fashion icon who didn't want... more

Rising From the Rubble

By Suzanne Fields (Sep 09, 2011)

When the twin towers tumbled from the skyline of New York 10 years ago this month, the terrorists figured they had won a great battle. They were right. The two enormous... more

God, Politics and Rick Perry

By Suzanne Fields (Sep 02, 2011)

God will not be mocked, as the Scriptures tell us, but the pundits and politicians keep trying. Rick Perry is bringing out both the believers and the scoffers. This is a... more

Back to School: Helping Boys Man-up in Reading

By Suzanne Fields (Aug 26, 2011)

Once upon a time, women complained that everything in the culture favored men, that it began when men and women were boys and girls. Boys got the advantage in kindergarten... more

Wanted: Ideas That Work

By Suzanne Fields (Aug 19, 2011)

If all politics were truly local, Tim Pawlenty might still be in the race. The former governor of Minnesota made the best offer to Iowans, promising to cook their dinner or... more

Remembering the Shame

By Suzanne Fields (Aug 12, 2011)

We're all children of our histories. Some of us become victims, others reactors and rebels. Some of us just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Commemorations,... more

The Evil Mind of the Mass Murderer

By Suzanne Fields (Aug 05, 2011)

Nothing so focuses the mind on the nature of evil like mass murder. The numbers magnify a singular horror, and become collectively unfathomable. Josef Stalin, who knew... more

In Praise of Tabloids

By Suzanne Fields (Jul 29, 2011)

What would a world without tabloids look like? Not as much fun, for sure, if the tattletales and snoopers and others of irreverent ilk lost their voices on the printed page.... more

Bachmann Inside the Ring at Last

By Suzanne Fields (Jul 22, 2011)

Like it or not, Michele Bachmann is a contender. She triumphed over low expectations in the opening Republican debate. She advanced from flaky to crusty, from outlandish to... more

Republican Courtship of the Jews

By Suzanne Fields (Jul 15, 2011)

"The Merchant of Venice" is back and plays for relevance, just in time for 2012. The Shakespeare drama is staged in the nation's capital, set in a troubled America struggling... more

Shaping Citizens, Saving Souls

By Suzanne Fields (Jul 08, 2011)

A neighbor of mine, age 15, left the picnic on the Fourth of July expecting to set off fireworks in the family. He had a declaration of his own: "I'm off to play... more

Video Violence v. Free Speech

By Suzanne Fields (Jul 01, 2011)

Children can do terrible things. They can bully and maim, even murder. In our lifetime, we've seen young people arm themselves and shoot down classmates and teachers. We... more

Don't Know Much About History

By Suzanne Fields (Jun 24, 2011)

First, the good news: The nation's eighth-graders are doing better in history class. Now, the bad news: They're not doing much better. Gains in test scores are small, made by... more

Return of Bad Times for the Jews

By Suzanne Fields (Jun 17, 2011)

In the wake of the celebrated Weiner roast, Jewish jokes are in. The congressman's surname doesn't help. Some of our funniest comedians are Jews, in a long line stretching... more

David Mamet Turns Right

By Suzanne Fields (Jun 10, 2011)

Conservatives have a new celebrity spokesman-writer-thinker-philosopher. David Mamet, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, movie director and sometime essayist,... more

The Frenchman Has No Clothes

By Suzanne Fields (Jun 03, 2011)

The war between the sexes is never-ending, but the battleground is dotted with the white flags of uneasy truces. Men and women have embraced such a truce when discussing what... more

An Unhappy Landing for Daniels

By Suzanne Fields (May 27, 2011)

In his campaign mode running for governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels referred to his marriage as something of a romantic comedy, in the tradition of Shakespeare's "All's Well... more

Defining Deviancy Down, Way Down

By Suzanne Fields (May 20, 2011)

NEW YORK CITY -- The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan caught the decline of the culture two decades ago, observing that we're "defining deviancy down" -- lowering the bar... more

Memory and Celebration in Israel

By Suzanne Fields (May 13, 2011)

The line between life and death is always a thin one, and never more, literally and symbolically, than in the tiny state of Israel, which celebrates its 63rd birthday this... more

Snapshots From a Watershed Weekend

By Suzanne Fields (May 06, 2011)

What a weekend. A wedding and a funeral. Love and war. A duchess anointed, a terrorist assassinated. It's the stuff of epics: Of arms and the lady, we sing. Of Navy SEALs and... more

Eichmann's Evil No Longer Banal

By Suzanne Fields (Apr 29, 2011)

BERLIN -- Angela Merkel is losing her edge. Her party reacts to setbacks in local elections and is sidetracked by France's assertion of leadership toward the Arab Spring. But... more

A Melting Pot Gone Cold

By Suzanne Fields (Apr 22, 2011)

Our British and European cousins are wrestling with a problem we don't have -- yet. How far can the state go to require religious beliefs to conform to basic law? You don't... more

Women's Work Is Never Done

By Suzanne Fields (Apr 15, 2011)

Nancy Pelosi was howlin' mad, eager to lead the charge on behalf of women everywhere (whether they want her to or not) against the Republican congressional regiments "at war... more

Crashing Into College

By Suzanne Fields (Apr 08, 2011)

The college acceptance letters have landed. Hysterics have subsided. No more time tearful sessions of "what if?" Parents have come to terms with their disappointments that... more

Texting Teen Sex

By Suzanne Fields (Apr 01, 2011)

Revolutions are always unpredictable, depending on the way always unpredictable people adapt to them. That's true of high-tech revolutions as well as revolutions in Tunisia,... more

Dressing Like Little Hookers

By Suzanne Fields (Mar 25, 2011)

Many Americans were disappointed when President Obama devoted a Saturday radio address to a celebration of the progress of women in society. Most of us were more interested... more

The Media are the Messages

By Suzanne Fields (Mar 18, 2011)

Conservatives love to hate Frank Rich, the New York Times columnist who wrote his last political column on Sunday. But they owe him an accolade or two for recognizing what... more

Tina Misses the Story

By Suzanne Fields (Mar 11, 2011)

Tina Brown wanted to create a big splash with the first issue of the "new" Newsweek -- the magazine Sidney Harmon bought for a dollar and put her in charge of returning it to... more

Bargaining Over a Flawed Product

By Suzanne Fields (Mar 04, 2011)

If the teachers unions would use their collective bargaining rights to do good for their students rather than doing well for themselves, they could make a stronger case for... more

The King vs. The Geek

By Suzanne Fields (Feb 25, 2011)

"If you want to send a message," Samuel Goldwyn famously told his screenwriters, "go to Western Union." He was determined that his movies would be about entertainment, not... more

Superstar Meets Supermom

By Suzanne Fields (Feb 18, 2011)

It's not easy to perfect a formula to encourage human aspiration, but two very different women in the headlines think they've done it. Lady Gaga, who just won a Grammy for... more

Not for a Faux Democracy

By Suzanne Fields (Feb 11, 2011)

Democracy is more than a word. The protesting Egyptians and the watching world are learning that between the Egyptian army and the Muslim Brotherhood stand a lot to... more

Good Writing Needs a Tiger Mom

By Suzanne Fields (Feb 04, 2011)

We're moving swiftly into post-literate America, and more's the pity. Many of us can't write a coherent, straightforward, easy-to-read sentence. Nobody but a Tiger mother... more

A New Flavor of Tea

By Suzanne Fields (Jan 28, 2011)

Rep. Michele Bachmann, founder of the tea party caucus in the new Congress, gave more than a response to President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night. We got a... more

Would James Madison Play Video Games?

By Suzanne Fields (Jan 21, 2011)

If we've learned one lesson from the massacre in Tucson, it's that cause and effect are poor guides to explain human behavior. "Let us remember," President Obama said at the... more

Changing How We Think

By Suzanne Fields (Jan 14, 2011)

We mourn, we weep, we wonder why. How could such things happen? Smart phones and online libraries constantly feed us information, but we don't get any wiser. We blame others... more

Boomers Back to the Future

By Suzanne Fields (Jan 07, 2011)

The baby boomers who wouldn't trust anyone over 30 now must rely on young clerks to get their Social Security and Medicare checks in the mail. This is the year the first of... more