Most of us who grew up in the mid-20th century are accustomed to talking about political issues as if they only amounted to differences on policy. Consider the issue of the minimum wage. Republicans and Libertarians would argue for a low or nonexistent minimum wage and refer to Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” metaphor to ...
Twenty-two years ago, allied armies led by the United States thundered into Iraq with “shock and awe,” aiming to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and take away weapons of mass destruction he supposedly possessed. We quickly learned he had no such weapons — our intelligence was bad — but we stayed on in ...
Twenty years ago President George W. Bush was running for a second term against Sen. John Kerry. The US was a year into our invasion of Iraq. Casualties were high, especially for Iraqi civilians caught in the crossfire between the invaders and the invaded. I remember how I felt about the election as if it ...
Regular readers might recall that I’m not a fan of the PGA, the men’s professional golf organization. I prefer the more modest LPGA, partly because I resent the fact that women earn 5-6 times less prize money per week than the men. It’s been years since I watched a men’s golf tournament and that includes ...
You haven’t heard from me since Easter, partly because I’ve kept my head down after a few readers chided me for being mired in negativity. OK — I’m not often effervescent. But it’s hard to fake cheer when contemplating things that seem emblematic of our times. So, despairing of finding a feel-good story, here’s a ...
You don’t need a Ph.D. in ethno-botany from Harvard and have authored a dozen deep-think books to know that problems in our country runneth over. Being a Brainiac would help, though, if you had to boil down what ails us in one cogent essay. I couldn’t possibly do it, but I think I’ve found someone ...
There are many good reasons not to sit down and write when you are extremely frustrated and angry. But this is my release, so I’m ignoring all those reasons to hold back and going ahead to spill my guts here on June 2, 2020. Last evening all the damage that Trump is doing ...
I’m writing this on the morning after, so please be gentle with your criticism of what I have to say. After all, I am hungover . . . from watching the Democrats debate in Las Vegas. While I’m sure there are varying reactions to the ugly scene mis-labeled as a debate, my personal take-aways are ...
My October Fun About a month ago, I had back surgery at Tufts Medical Center. I’d been warned repeatedly that this was “major surgery” and that recovery would be long. But I didn’t really need to be warned because my dear sister Gracie underwent similar surgery in June and I’d watched her recovery. So ...
Author’s note 1: This will be the last blog you will receive for a while as I am going to have some mechanical imperfections of my lower spine corrected surgically on October 1st. My sister, Gracie, recently had similar surgery and I got to watch some of her recovery from a ringside seat in New Orleans. ...
