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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1469 )

• What This Election is About: America’s Soul

  

  This election is not about issues or policies. It’s about character – America’s character.Trump’s America would be a different country from the one I’ve known... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2016 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Green-Weak: Poems by Therese L. Broderick

  

  I like the idea of being married to a poet. She takes it seriously; went back to school in her forties to get a master’s degree. Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2016 CULTURE

• Local Election Endorsements

  

  I have always normally voted against incumbent office-holders, as a matter of principle, because power corrupts, and rotation in office is democratically... Read more

  Posted on 31 October 2016 POLITICS

• The Turd Artist: David Foster Wallace Revisited

  

  Wallace“But it’s s**t.”So begins The Suffering Channel. Its author, David Foster Wallace (who committed suicide in 2008), is an epic American literary figure. Read more

  Posted on 27 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How to Reduce Crime

  

  Our prisons are called “correctional facilities.” Social science writer Daniel Goleman says this is “a tragic misnomer: nothing gets corrected.”Indeed, prisons... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump Descends Deeper into the Heart of Darkness

  

  He’s the gift that keeps on giving. In the debate, Trump was asked a question that can have only one answer. His running mate had given that answer. So had... Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• David Gelernter and the Ideology Trap

  

  David Gelernter is a well-known computer scientist, whose talk I wrote about previously. Afterwards, I wanted to speak with him, but didn’t want to buy the new... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Our Gal in Iraq

  

  In the last episode (“Our Gal in Kabul”), daughter Elizabeth (now 23) was headed to a job with a humanitarian organization in Afghanistan, to sort out the... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Does Science Prove Rich People Are Jerks?

  

  Left wingers obsess over inequality partly because they hate that others are rich and they’re not. It’s more than just envy, but a sense of injustice: they... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Trump: No More Mr. Nice Guy

  

  Now he says the shackles are off him.I’ve watched political debates for 56 years. But Sunday’s featured the most shocking and frightening thing I ever heard in... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• La Commedia è Finita

  

  “Believe me . . . this much.”He said, “These words don’t reflect who I am.”Oh yes they do, you creep. They reflect perfectly who you are. Some of us saw it... Read more

  Posted on 09 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Book Groups and “the Good Old Days”

  

  I’m in two book groups. One, for about 25 years, originated among PSC co-workers. (The story goes that it began with two guys expecting two gals at a restaurant... Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Simultaneous Pleasures

  

  MeIt is sunny, the sky a vivid blue. It’s in the seventies, with a gentle breeze. The warmth, modulated periodically by caresses of air, feels delicious on my... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Pakistan: Shooting Polio Doctors

  

  Dr. Zakaullah Khan was shot dead on September 11 in Pakistan. He was a leading figure in the push for polio vaccination. A huge global effort has nearly... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• World Leaders Admirable and Loathesome

  

  Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson was embarrassed the other day being unable to name a foreign leader he admired. At first I winced – it seemed... Read more

  Posted on 30 September 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Debate

  

  I sat down with a sense of dread; and a bowl of popcorn to medicate the pain. Conventional wisdom said Clinton had to tread a lot of fine lines, some mutually... Read more

  Posted on 28 September 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Tattoo Nation

  

  Going to the beach nowadays is to visit a tattoo exhibition.Tattooing used to be tantamount to sticking a label on yourself saying “low class” or “no class.”... Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Syria

  

  So by mistake a U.S. airstrike killed sixty-odd soldiers of Bashar Assad’s Syrian army.Boo hoo.We abase ourselves with apologies, while the Russians (who bomb... Read more

  Posted on 22 September 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ban the Box?

  

  Since 2007, eleven states have enacted bans on checking a job applicant’s credit score. The aim is equality and fair hiring – since someone with low credit woul... Read more

  Posted on 20 September 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bible Babble

  

  The Massachusetts Bible Society is conducting “The Great Bible Experiment” – discussion forums in “America’s least Bible-minded cities.” Strangely, Albany tops... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2016 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY