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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1483 )

• Iraq Revisited — Rising from the Ashes?

  

  Iraq holds parliamentary elections today.Conventional wisdom calls the Iraq War an unmitigated disaster rooted in lies about weapons of mass destruction.I had... Read more

  Posted on 12 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Malaysia’s Election Shocker: Good Defeats Evil

  

  In today’s world, with democracy eroding in so many countries, it’s great to see one go the other way. To see some voters, at least, stand up for democratic... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The War Between the Scouts

  

  Poor Boy Scouts. First they struggled over whether to allow gays in. Now they’re allowing girls too, and changing their name, from Boy Scouts of America to... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Good and Evil — Khizr Khan’s Book

  

  Good and evil. Such black-and-white Manichaeanism is so unfashionable. Isn’t everything shades of grey — the color of sophisticated thinking?Not always.This is... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• A Nobel for Trump?

  

  Some credit Trump’s bluster with getting Kim Jong Un to negotiate (hence the Nobel Prize chatter). Or did Kim, instead, see Trump’s behavior as creating an... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi — Not the Best Book I Ever Read

  

  The blurbs: “powerful,” “blazing,” “devastating,” “spellbinding,” dazzling,” “epic,” “luminous,” “spectacular,” “hypnotic.” This debut novel by Ghana-born Gyasi... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• China: the Dragon Breathes Fire

  

  Diocletian reformed the coinage tooThe Roman Empire had a chaotic patch in the Third Century; most reigns were brief and ended violently. Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Visiting Sunny Tropical Iceland

  

  Years back we made the mistake of visiting Washington, D.C., over Christmas. It was bitterly cold. I vowed no more icy vacations!My wife’s windblown selfieSo... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “Without God Everything is Permitted”

  

  My wife and I have been reading, aloud to each other, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky’s 1880 novel. A key motif is whether “without God everything is... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Pecha Kucha Night – My Love Affair with Numismatics

  

  The Opalka Gallery at the local Sage College has a great event called “Pecha Kucha Night;” they’re held all the world. A bunch of presenters each shows and talk... Read more

  Posted on 17 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Fake News and Government Propagandists

  

  Researching my 1973 book on Albany politics, I pored over early 20th century local newspapers. I was astonished how partisan they were, openly touting... Read more

  Posted on 08 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America’s War on Refugees

  

  Way back in 2015 (a different epoch), when I wrote here comparing America unfavorably with Germany regarding refugees, my daughter (working in the Middle East... Read more

  Posted on 05 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Words You Can’t Say on TV — Or Can You?

  

  The late great comedian George Carlin’s most famous routine was “The seven words you can’t say on TV.” That was in 1972.My wife and I are longtime devotees of... Read more

  Posted on 03 April 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Children’s Crusade

  

  The recent student marches about guns spotlight how America’s civic culture has gone off the rails. It’s not the marches — it’s the reaction to them. Read more

  Posted on 30 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Stephen Hawking

  

  had a horrible illness, given only a few years to live.He lived them, and then fifty more. He had ALS (motor neuron disease) which destroys muscle control. Ther... Read more

  Posted on 28 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• It’s Your Economy, Stupid

  

  Presidents are usually judged mainly on the economy, which most voters care most about. (“It’s the Economy, stupid.”) Yet in truth a president’s economic... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• My Humanist Collage

  

  My local humanist group recently had an arts-and-crafts afternoon. It was actually fun, a chance to be kids again. There was a pile of magazines, so I decided... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America Trumped (my “Trolley” Article)

  

  The wonderful New York State Writers Institute (founded by William Kennedy; headed by Paul Grondahl) has published a very interesting online magazine, The... Read more

  Posted on 21 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump Ascends to Meta-lying: Making Stuff up About Making Stuff up

  

  Trump now feels he’s hit his stride as president. Now he’s really strutting his stuff, feeling his oats, his instincts comfortably in the driver’s seat. Read more

  Posted on 19 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Andrew Cuomo and Corruption

  

  CuomoWhen first running for governor, Andrew Cuomo actually made tackling Albany corruption a campaign theme — pointedly declaring his candidacy in front of... Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2018 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY