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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1017 )

• Kurt Vonnegut’s Last and Worst Novel

  

  Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was one of my favorite writers. One short story really resonated: Harrison Bergeron, who lives in a society so egalitarian that... Read more

  Posted on 12 June 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Republicans’ Deranged War on Fauci

  

  Just when you thought Republicans could not get more insane . . . .Now they’re rabidly focused on demonizing, of all people, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of America’... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Manifesto for a New Political Party

  

  We have a two-party system. Except that one is no longer a responsible legitimate party. After 53 years as a Republican, I became a Democrat as the only sane... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Crimes and Brains

  

  In Maryland, not long ago, a boy of 13 was riding in a car involved in a gang-related shooting. The state is one of many with the “felony murder” doctrine —... Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Transgender Wars: Revisited

  

  My 4/29 essay, “Transgender Wars”* basically said transgendering is right and good for many people, while caution is needed when pre-teen and teen kids... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Are Child Car Seats Contraceptive?

  

  The average U.S. woman birthed 2.12 children in the early ’70s but only 1.73 by 2018. And whereas car safety seats were first required only for tots under three... Read more

  Posted on 25 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Power Imbalance Between Good and Evil

  

  I literally wrote the book on optimism. Seeing people, and the world, improving over time. But that seems to have gone into reverse.The power of good is... Read more

  Posted on 21 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• What’s the Big Deal with Wittgenstein?

  

  I was tickled when my publisher’s catalog displayed my book opposite one by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. As if we’re on a par. Just name-drop Wittgenstein t... Read more

  Posted on 18 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “2034: A Novel of the Next World War”

  

  It starts with an incident in the South China Sea — in this much remarked 2021 novel by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis (head of the prestigious... Read more

  Posted on 15 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• About Those Meal Delivery Service Fees

  

  Not long ago, my local paper editorialized about supposedly exorbitant fees charged by meal delivery services. With many people still using this option, its... Read more

  Posted on 13 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• My Optimism Reality Check

  

  When I wrote The Case for Rational Optimism in 2008, that case was powerful. My innate optimism intensified by observed reality. The big global story seemed to... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Covid and the Social Contract

  

  Covid will eventually be, more or less, history. Life will renormalize, more or less. But something big has changed in government’s role in people’s economic... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Transgender Wars

  

  Changing gender wasn’t even a thing till the 20th century. This new concept discombobulated many minds, with hostility toward trans people. But now, happily,... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Vaccination and Evangelical Trumpers: The Enemy Within

  

  Since January 20, we finally have a rational national plan for Covid — to vaccinate as fast as possible, to achieve “herd immunity.” That’s when the virus peter... Read more

  Posted on 26 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Police Brutality Shocker in Albany, NY

  

  Faced with protesters against police brutality, how did the Albany police respond? With brutality.I supported Mayor Kathy Sheehan when she first ran, against... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Goodbye, Afghanistan

  

  She’d gotten a new job offer, our daughter Elizabeth said on the phone from Jordan. Asking our opinion. A nice surprise, that she’d ask. “It’s in Afghanistan,”... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Tucker Carlson and “replacement” Racism

  

  United Airlines announced a program to get more diversity in its pilot training. Fox’s Tucker Carlson went on a rant saying all that should matter in the cockpi... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Our Gal in the New York Times

  

  My daughter, Elizabeth Robinson, has made her debut in the august pages of The New York Times. A letter to the editor, signifying serious chops. Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How to Create a Mind

  

  Humans try to understand our reality. Including how our minds do that. “Futurist” Ray Kurzweil has posited a coming “singularity” when artificial intelligence... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Guns and Republicans: Soft on Crime

  

  “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Biden is ‘soft on crime’ but tramples Second Amendment rights.”Reading that line in the paper turned my... Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2021 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY