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LATEST ARTICLES ( 1395 )

• White House Down: Movie Review

  

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  Posted on 30 June 2013 ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES

• Round Lake Library Storm: There is Some Justice

  

  As this blog’s title proclaims, I’m an optimist; while being rational requires recognizing how dumb even smart people sometimes can act. Read more

  Posted on 30 June 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Great 2013 Death Ray Plot

  

  FBI: DEATH RAY PLOT FOILED. This was the supersized headline screaming atop the Albany Times-Union’s front page  Thursday, followed by further breathless lead... Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2013 CULTURE, DEBATE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• “Unreasonable Searches and Seizures” and DNA Privacy

  

  Concerns about privacy are growing in our high-tech age, when governments and businesses are able to know ever more about you. Read more

  Posted on 20 June 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Infinite Jest—All Too Finite

  

  Readers may recall my recent post about hunting for David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel, Infinite Jest, finally snagged at a used book sale. I have now attempted... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2013 BOOKS

• The Feckless Poor Versus the Selfish Hogs

  

  A 2012 worldwide Pew survey asked whether success is due to hard work or forces beyond one’s control. Most Brits, Germans, and Czechs agreed that success can... Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Proof That Heaven IS Real!

  

  I’ve written – quite critically – about people who claim to have seen Heaven. Well, lo, now I’ve had my own visit. And it IS real!I won’t bore you with medical... Read more

  Posted on 05 June 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Bill McKibben, Climate Change, and Who’s the Real Enemy?

  

  Bill McKibben (leading climate change activist) now decrees that a cause needs an enemy to mobilize against. Apparently climate change deniers are not a big... Read more

  Posted on 01 June 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• The Social Animal

  

  Many is the novel that seeks not so much to tell a story as to make a point (Atlas Shrugged for instance). David Brooks’s 2011 book, The Social Animal, tells th... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Benghazi – “What Difference Does It Make?”

  

  My most vivid impression, from the days after 9/11/12, was the State Department official testifying to Congress, blandly mouthing the repeated mantra that... Read more

  Posted on 24 May 2013 CULTURE, DEBATE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• A Wonderful Roman Coin

  

  My main life is not blogging but numismatics; I’m a full-time coin dealer and still a collector too. What I probably love most is Roman coins; and recently... Read more

  Posted on 20 May 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Death

  

  None of my 300+ past blog posts directly tackled the biggest fact of human existence: that it ends.First let’s be clear: death is death. There’s nothing... Read more

  Posted on 16 May 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Sonia Sotomayor and Affirmative Action

  

  My wife gave me Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir as a Valentine gift – with a catch. I had to read it on her e-reader, which she wanted me to try. Verdict: I like its... Read more

  Posted on 10 May 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Welcome, New Followers!

  

  This blog, since WordPress featured it recently, has many new followers. Welcome aboard! People gaining success or recognition  often say they’re “humbled” — th... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America on Meds: Our Future

  

  According to a report in the New York Times, almost one in five U.S. high school boys has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD),... Read more

  Posted on 03 May 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• In Quest of Infinite Jest: A Non-Book Review (A Post-modern Post)

  

  David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel Infinite Jest is a literary/cultural icon, a sprawling phantasmagoric landmark of modern – or should I say post-modern or... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2013 CULTURE

• Syria’s Red Line – Or Is It Merely Pinkish?

  

  Reuters, March 23, near Aleppo. (Humans died too)There is good evidence (soil samples, victim images) that Syria’s regime has used chemical weapons (Sarin, and... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• Alexei Navalny and the Kremlin Kriminals

  

  Mikhail Khodorkovsky was one of Russia’s richest men, and among them all, possibly the most above board. Yet Putin’s Kremlin Kriminals, in 2003, used trumped... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2013 POLITICS, SOCIETY

• America on Disability

  

  NPR’s “This American Life” broadcast a report by Chana Joffe-Walt about the Disability system. It’s a real eye-opener. (click here; or, for a text version, here. Read more

  Posted on 21 April 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY

• This is Who I Want Here

  

  Immaculee Ilibagiza, survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and author of a best-selling book about it, pledging allegiance at her U.S. citizenship ceremony... Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2013 CULTURE, POLITICS, SOCIETY