Fsrcoin

LATEST ARTICLES ( 1396 )

• Republicans and the “Grooming” Lie

  

  The word “grooming” has exploded into our culture wars, a cudgel for the right to bash Democrats. The word has been used to describe a sexual predator (usually ... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Michelle Obama’s Memoir, “Becoming”

  

  As is typical for me with such books, I was far more engaged with the story of Michelle Obama’s early life, when she was an ordinary normal person, than with th... Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• NY High Court Ruling May Doom America

  

  The backstory: In 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed through a constitutional amendment supposedly ending gerrymandering. This involves legislative district maps... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Hell of a Book

  

  — that’s the title — by Jason Mott — is actually two different novels coexisting uneasily within one cover.One is a semi-comical first-person account of the... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• A Life in Poetry

  

  There was a nice piece in today’s Times-Union about my wife Therese Broderick’s poetry life. Written by the inimitable Paul Grondahl (head of the NY State... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Is the Self an Illusion? What Can That Even Mean?

  

  Jay Garfield’s book, Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live Without a Self, argues that the “self” is an illusion, and letting it go enables living better, more... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Capitol Burns

  

  Trump Blames Dems, Declares Martial LawJanuary 22, 2025By James Thornton, Devon Sharp,and Julie MontalbanoAssociated... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Kathy Hochul’s Double BB Boo-boos

  

  Governor Andrew Cuomo was loathsome. Seemingly redeemed in the pandemic’s beginnings, we soon learned he’d fudged nursing home death numbers, to cover an... Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “The True” — Machine Politics and Sex

  

  February 1977 — Dan O’Connell is finally dead. So begins Sharr White’s play, The True, performed at Capital Rep, directed by its leader Maggie Cahill. (Runs... Read more

  Posted on 13 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How Do We Know Right From Wrong?

  

  Emails between Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Ginni (Mrs. Clarence) Thomas, recently revealed, strategized to overturn the 2020 election. Meadows calle... Read more

  Posted on 09 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ukraine: The War for Civilization

  

  This is huge. Our most fundamental values are on the line. Russia must lose, and be seen to lose. No plausible pretense of victory. No ambiguity.Ukraine is... Read more

  Posted on 05 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• 1619, Critical Race Theory, and America’s Story

  

  (This appeared recently as a commentary in the Albany Times-Union)The “1619 Project” aims to highlight a key aspect of history — 1619 being when slavery... Read more

  Posted on 02 April 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• My Greatest Celebrity Sighting Ever!

  

  I’m in an elevator in New York with several others. One a tallish woman, in dark glasses, and some kind of concealing headgear. Yet I detect something vaguely... Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ketanji Brown Jackson Versus the Republican Slime Squad

  

  Republican senators in the Jackson confirmation hearings were an abominable disgrace. I am shocked, shocked.An Exceptional Merit award goes to Lindsay Graham. Read more

  Posted on 26 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Being You – The “Hard Problem” of Consciousness

  

  What is it Like to Be a Bat?” was a seminal paper by philosopher Thomas Nagel. Implying bats experience their battiness. Like we experience our own existence.... Read more

  Posted on 21 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ukraine Versus Russia Versus the West

  

  Issues are not usually black and white but shades of grey; not good versus evil. Not so with Russia’s Ukraine atrocity. There’s talk of the International... Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Dalai Lama: Ethics for the New Millennium

  

  This 1999 book says nothing remarkable. That’s what’s remarkable about it.The Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) is known as a religious or spiritual leader. Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Espically Stupid

  

  As a lover of language, I’m always pleased to encounter a fun new word. So it was with a recent column by economist Paul Krugman, writing that a Republican... Read more

  Posted on 12 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ukraine – The Nuclear Option

  

  I’ve written about the power imbalance between good and evil. It’s because the good are constrained by moral scruples, while the evil are not. I was writing... Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Rational Pessimist

  

  My blog, “The Rational Optimist,” was started in 2008 while writing my book The Case for Rational Optimism. That now seems long ago, in far-away galaxy. Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2022 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY