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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1418 )

• Film Review — “Conclave”

  

  The Pope is dead. Now to elect a new one. This is the movie “Conclave,” getting lots of buzz.It’s a sumptuous production, with a great cast, and much... Read more

  Posted on 11 January 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump Versus Birthright Citizenship

  

  Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen. Trump hates this, saying it’s “ridiculous,” and no other country has it. (In... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Transgender Again

  

  Clementine Breen was 12, with a history of abuse and family violence, feeling depressed, seeking counseling. Saying she might be trans — or maybe lesbian or bi ... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Human Reason Confounded by a Trumpian America

  

  My veneration of human reason might be mocked as itself contrary to reason. With so much unreason afflicting the world. Yet what I revere is the idea of... Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2025 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Georgian Dream — Georgian Nightmare

  

  Ukraine tests whether one country can snatch another’s territory by force. Like in olden times — but the world seemed to have progressed beyond that. Until Puti... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• 2024: The Year’s News in Review

  

  Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Is America Ready for Democracy?

  

  Churchill supposedly said democracy is the worst system, except for all others. I’ve said the problem of democracy is voters.Democracy has always been a pillar... Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• On Beauty

  

  There is no beauty in nature.Meaning that beauty is purely a human construct. If we see something in nature we call beautiful, that’s only because we see it... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump’s Rape . . . Of ABC News (Relax and Enjoy It?)

  

  This story might seem a mere blip amid a tsunami. But it’s actually highly portentous.Trump sued ABC News for defamation, and ABC has agreed to settle, handing... Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2024 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• 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