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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1389 )

• Yuval Noah Harari’s “Nexus” — The Challenge of (Earthly) Alien Intelligence

  

  (A condensed version of my Nov. 26 Albany Library book talk)Historian Yuval Noah Harari’s 2024 book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Lunatics Take Over the Asylum

  

  American politics has long harbored a subculture of crazy. Historian Richard Hofstadter wrote a famous 1964 essay about its “paranoid style. Read more

  Posted on 15 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Fall of the House of Assad

  

  When the “Arab Spring” exploded in 2011, my high schooler daughter was fascinated (setting the path for her career). I recall our discussing Syria’s civil war... Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• President Biden’s Final Report Card

  

  First, disclosing my biases: I was a lifelong Republican, opposing Biden’s sort of politics, but then became a Democrat, contributing heavily in 2020 and ’24... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• MAGA as an “Alternative Morality”

  

  Columnist David Brooks has addressed the idea that Trumpism isn’t exactly “morally challenged” but rather “represents an alternative moral system.” Which... Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Feh

  

  At the New York State Writers Institute’s annual Albany Book Festival, a panel discussion on “girls coming of age” was cancelled. Read more

  Posted on 04 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How Low Can America Sink?

  

  Trump has tapped Charles Kushner as ambassador to France. Father of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Apart from the garden-variety nepotism, I will quote... Read more

  Posted on 02 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What Now for Democrats and Republicans? The Purple Banana

  

  “Telling the Truth 2024” was the fifth in a series of public forums hosted by the New York State Writers Institute since the 2016 election, with our “post-truth... Read more

  Posted on 30 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump and Rule of Law

  

  The Daily Show’s John Stewart recently mused that Republicans play chess while Democrats . . . “are in the nurse’s office with their balls glued to their... Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Congressional Penis Crisis

  

  South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is crusading on one of the Great Issues of Our Time: bathroom admittance.Pushing legislation that would bar... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “Speaking Truth to Power” — My Conversation with Gov. Hochul

  

  “Speaking truth to power” is a cliche I hate. But then New York Gov. Kathy Hochul phoned me. I’d been given advance notice for this fund-raising call.She began... Read more

  Posted on 23 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Kakistocracy and Kolosocracy

  

  The word du jour is kakistocracy. From the Greek, the opposite of aristocracy, it means rule by the worst.Certainly applicable to Trump’s appointees like... Read more

  Posted on 21 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Global Big Picture

  

  Henry Kissinger is supposed to have said that nations have no permanent friends, only interests. However, even interests can change; the world is never... Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America Being Made Great Again

  

  Two centuries ago, one U.S. party died out, and a new opposition hadn’t yet gotten going. So that strifeless interval was called “The Era of Good Feelings.”... Read more

  Posted on 15 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Cri De Coeur *

  

  My gosh how I’ve loved you!Beautiful, exalted, noble,I loved you all my life,With a flame burning pure;My gosh how I’ve loved you,Like a shining city on a... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Why Harris Lost

  

  A seeming political realignment, shattering the Democrats’ longtime coalition. So now the reckoning, soul-searching, backbiting, finger-pointing.If only... Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “We Carry Their Bones” — A Florida Horror Story

  

  This book by anthropologist/archeologist Erin Kimmerle relates her authorized official investigations at the site of the Dozier School, a “reform school” in... Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Stranger in a Strange Land

  

  “America.” How redolent a name, laden with import and meaning. Being part of America meant so very much to me, at the core of my soul. Read more

  Posted on 08 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America: The Once and Future Country?

  

  For years I’ve repeatedly warned that America — as a democracy — its ideals and values — were not ordained forever by some god. And could not long endure if... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Final Election Wrap-up: Keep America Great

  

  I am writing this out of love for America, and for all who share it — of whatever party.Voters say their top concern is the economy. Many think it’s bad, and... Read more

  Posted on 04 November 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY