[NOTE: Part I can be found here.] I can’t find the quote right now, but Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi—who wrote Survival In Auschwitz, which I consider the single most definitive and brilliant book on the camps from the … Continue reading →
[Hat tip: Open Blogger at Ace’s.] [NOTE: Part II can be found here.] Here is a fascinating interview with an elderly concentration camp survivor. If you’ve read or heard many camp survivors’ tales, the horrors he faced will not surprise … Continue reading →
A recent YouTube distraction of mine has been to watch videos about situations in which airplane passengers in small private planes were faced with the frightening necessity of landing the aircraft when the pilot of the planes suddenly died. Pretty … Continue reading →
I can’t say I ever expected to be writing a post in 2016 defending Paul Tsongas. But here it is. Tsongas was one of the very few politicians I’ve ever really liked. Here’s a post I wrote about him in … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I’m not becoming Tolstoy-obsessed, although I’ve written two days in a row on him. However, I think that the topic of both posts is not really Tolstoy per se, but larger philosophical questions about the good life, politics, and … Continue reading →
I’ve had many an argument—um, discussion—with my son on the topic of artificial intelligence. How far can it go? Could it ever include consciousness? Suffice to say we have not answered the question. Nor have scientists, although there is no … Continue reading →
The purge in Turkey continues: Turkey’s authorities have issued detention warrants for 42 journalists, local media say, as part of an inquiry into the failed coup on 15 July. Prominent commentator Nazli Ilicak is said to be on the list. … Continue reading →
…and goes to live with his elderly mother: John Hinckley is now 61 years old, and as the judge wrote, “suffering from arthritis, high blood pressure, and various other physical ailments like many men his age.” That’s irrelevant, IMHO, although … Continue reading →
Most people today have some idea who the Ayatollah Khomeini was: the scowling guy with the beard who created and/or exploited the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and brought Islamic theocracy to Iran. But I’m not at all sure how much … Continue reading →
In one of my first posts on the coup attempt in Turkey, I mentioned that Daniel Pipes had written a 2015 article asserting that Erdogan’s 2014 electoral victory was bogus. Many people in the west who have championed Erdogan against … Continue reading →
I usually don’t watch convention speeches or speeches in general, but I was curious about two last night and decided to watch them. Neither was so very long, and both were interesting. The first was Guiliani’s fiery anti-Hillary pro-Trump shoutfest, … Continue reading →
Booker T. Washington was a towering figure. Born in slavery, he become a leader of early post-Civil War black advancement and in particular emphasized the value of education. You can read about his manifold accomplishments here, as well as the … Continue reading →