Obsession may be a necessary but not sufficient requirement for success in the arts (and perhaps even elsewhere). I know quite a few people who later became famous—some a little famous, some more famous. Having known these people in childhood … Continue reading →
Two promising chess-playing siblings [from Iran] have been banned from [national chess] tournaments…after the sister failed to wear a hijab and her brother played an Israeli. Dorsa and Borna Derakhshani, two of the country’s leading youth chess players, were told … Continue reading →
Milo Yiannopoulos has been uniformly excoriated for some remarks he made about sex between older men and teenage boys, in which he indicated that in some cases consent is possible. He’s lost a book deal, a speaking gig at GPAC, … Continue reading →
I saw this a while ago in an article at the LA Times by Melissa Batchelor Warnke: Philosophy 101 introduces us to Kant’s categorical imperative ”” the first formulation of which is “Act only according to that maxim whereby you … Continue reading →
So, first thing that happened was that Trump made an ambiguous and poorly-worded remark about Sweden’s crime and how it relates to immigration: …[T]here’s also a problem with Trump that I see in [his statement] “you look at what’s happening … Continue reading →
The headline in USA today announces “Homeland Security unveils sweeping plan to deport undocumented immigrants.” When I first read that, I assumed that this represented some sort of blueprint for going after “undocumented” (people who arrived here illegally) immigrants all … Continue reading →
This sounds excellent: General McMaster is a former commander of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, my old unit. I served in Iraq with a host of guys who’d served under McMaster in the Battle of Tal Afar in 2005, and … Continue reading →
Apparently there’s an eighth continent in the southwest Pacific. A huge landmass, mostly submerged beneath the ocean, bears all the hallmarks of a continent, according to a new study published by the Geological Society of America. You may have heard … Continue reading →
Despite the epic amount of Trump derangement syndrome expressed in this article (and the fact that it’s written by none other than Robert Fisk, the British journalist whose last name turned into a verb), Fisk actually has a point [in … Continue reading →
Today is Presidents’ Day. Or is it “Presidents Day”? Or even “President’s Day”? You can find all those variations online, although if you parse them they mean very different things. It was significantly easier before 1971, the year they consolidated … Continue reading →
Anyone seen this movie? It’s up for a gazillion Oscars, and it’s a musical (of all things). So last night I went to see it. I liked it more than I’d expected to. One of the more astounding things about … Continue reading →
Here’s an article about a woman whose complaint was feet that were hot and red: Melissa Curley Bogner was baffled: Why did her feet feel suddenly hot – in January? The article goes on to describe her doctors’ befuddlement, their … Continue reading →