Right now even though it’s almost April, and technically the last day of winter, there are huge mounds of snow here, as well as the occasional sidewalk of ice. Soon that will be followed by what’s known as mud season. … Continue reading →
A succinct headline in the Washington Times summed it up nicely: “Anti-war protesters echo Vietnam.” The accent is on the word “echo”—as in “a distant, fainter, repetition.” The anti-Iraq War demonstrations in DC over this weekend were self-consciously and purposefully … Continue reading →
Confession: now that I’m the proud owner of an ipod, I’ve been buying headsets like Imelda Marcos bought shoes. It’s a futile search for listening perfection of the noise-cancelling variety. But I’m different from Imelda; I return all the pairs … Continue reading →
This week was a two-podcaster for me. I was kindly invited by writer, Colonel, and all-around Renaissance man Austin Bay to be on the Blog Week in Review along with the insightful and articulate Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom (yes, … Continue reading →
I’m still on a bit of a Leonard Cohen kick, as well as a YouTube fling. Stay with me here, though; this isn’t just about Cohen. As Gerard Vanderleun has noted, Cohen has an even darker side than the one … Continue reading →
[See Part I.] After Proctor’s turnaround speech, more and more former naysayers came on board in support of war with Spain for the liberation of Cuba. But still, McKinley tried his best at negotiations to avoid it, machinations that ultimately … Continue reading →
Remember the Spanish-American War? You probably learned about it in your history classes–which was a long time ago, perhaps. If you were anything like me, you only remember a few key phrases: “yellow journalism.” “Remember the Maine.” The American people … Continue reading →
I keep reading (slowly, ever-so-slowly) the Robert Kagan book Dangerous Nation, his take on the history of what he contends was a non-isolationist United States from its very inception (and yes, you might call him a neocon historian.) I plan … Continue reading →
In a clever turn on the phrase “Stockholm Syndrome,” Dr. Kenneth Levin, author of The Oslo Syndrome: delusions of a people under seige and the Sanity Squad’s guest in its podcast this week, offers some answers to the question of … Continue reading →
I’ll be posting today later in the afternoon, or perhaps in early evening. Busy day.
Continue reading →I reacquainted myself with the music of singer/songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen recently, as a result of this post by The Anchoress. It links, not to the lugubrious Cohen himself, but to a YouTube video of John Cales singing Cohen’s much-covered “Hallelujah.” … Continue reading →
Here’s an article from the NY Times that I came across through that “most frequently e-mailed articles” function the Times has. The title caught my eye, “Journey From a Chinese Orphanage to a Jewish Rite of Passage.” It’s not a … Continue reading →