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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1469 )

• Let Women Go Topless in Public?

  

  I recently wrote (disparagingly) about Muslim craziness with covering up women. Shortly after, I heard a radio discussion about public breast-feeding and, more... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Inquiring Minds Want To Know

  

  Last year, when President Obama was mulling limited air strikes to punish Syria’s chemical weapons use, he stopped and decided it would need a Congressional... Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Injustice To Muslim-Americans

  

  The other day I did something I hadn’t done in over 20 years: marched in a demonstration. The previous time was a protest against the acquittal of officers who... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “Her” — A Love Story

  

  The plot: boy meets girl. They fall in love. Boy loses girl.Theodore works for an agency writing gooey personal letters for clients. Samantha is a computer... Read more

  Posted on 07 August 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Muddle East

  

  Columnist David Brooks recently opined (quoting Richard Haass) that the Middle East may be entering its Thirty Years War. The reference is to the cataclysm... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• How Hillary Can Be Beaten

  

  Not in recent memory has one presidential prospect, so far in advance, been so pre-emptive a front-runner. To be exact, not since Hoover in 1928. Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The World Until Yesterday – What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies?

  

  Jared Diamond authored Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, tackling big questions of the human story. His latest is The World Until Yesterday: What Can We... Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Peter Watson: The Age of Atheists: How We Live Without God

  

  The other day I presented a review, at the Albany Public Library, of Peter Watson’s book, The Age Of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ukraine Plane Shame

  

  The world knows perfectly well who did it. All talk of investigation and forensic evidence just muddles moral clarity. This isn’t a criminal trial requiring... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The New Gaza War: What Is The Point?

  

  I am no pacifist. Some say war never solves anything; I say it sometimes does; and there are things worth fighting for. But about this latest round of... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Female Genital Mutilation and Islam (WARNING: Graphic Content)

  

  Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s beautiful and inspiring memoir is titled Infidel. Born in Somalia, she escaped to the Netherlands from an arranged marriage; became a member o... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Mexico and India: Some Good News For a Change

  

  The world is always full of bad news, but here’s something in line with this blog’s title.Background: Mexico had a big revolution/civil war a century ago. Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Social Safety Net Or Bed of Nails? It’s Costly Being Poor

  

  Being billed for room and board in jail might sound like a joke. It is not. In fact, it’s increasingly common in America, among cash-strapped local governments. Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Hateful Jews

  

  The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity — W. B. YeatsI almost titled this, “I Hate Those Jews. Read more

  Posted on 06 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

  

  A book group can expose one to hidden treasures and unforeseen pleasures. Here’s a great example.Harold, 65, recently retired, lives with longtime wife Maureen... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• I’m Going to Die

  

  (A version of this appeared on the Albany Times-Union’s “Faith Values” page, June 21)America’s deaths are projected to rise (baby boomers being mortal) from... Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Why Both Left and Right Are Wrong

  

  The Left’s calling itself “progressive,” while in some ways annoying, isn’t entirely wrong. A key element is caring about other people, including those outside... Read more

  Posted on 27 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Lawn Fetishism Revisited – “I See Nothing”

  

  Behind my property is a small tract stranded between houses, apparently unsuitable for siting another. So, unattended, it grows into a mini-jungle. Behind that... Read more

  Posted on 24 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Superbugs and Evolution: Losing the War on Germs

  

  A recent PBS Frontline documentary spotlighted “Superbugs” – bacteria resistant to antibiotics, a growing menace. Despite some great victories in our war agains... Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Iraq’s Tragedy: “Nothing Is Written”

  

  Iraq’s civil war is a metastasizing of a 7th century religious dispute over whether Ali was the first caliph or the fourth.Now, obviously, the “firsters” are... Read more

  Posted on 17 June 2014 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY