The sun had just set on New Year’s day when Adrienne and I decided we needed to take some candles and go downtown. The news had earlier reported that the 3,000th American had died in Iraq on Saturday, 30 December. We knew there had been a frequent, if not daily, vigil from 5-5:30 p.m. in […]
If you’re a long time reader of these commentaries, you may have noticed the recurrence of a limited repertoire of subjects – the Iraq war, global warming, the evisceration of civil liberties in the U.S. and peak oil. As detrimental as I believe the administration of George W. Bush has been to life on Earth, […]
I suppose a bit of melancholy is appropriate to the dark, bleak days of December. That, and the solstice, are probably the reason the ancients decided to celebrate the Yule holiday when they did; with wisdom born millennia before the invention of psychology or the identification of Seasonal Affective Disorder, they knew we’d need a […]
I’ll admit it; I’m a criminal of the modern age, a subversive in the Global War on Terror. I smuggle toothpaste. My work requires me to fly every five or six weeks. After last summer’s “liquid bomb scare” in the UK, travelers have been prohibited from carrying any but the smallest amounts of liquids and […]
On a December Saturday in the mid-60s – I must have been five or six – my parents took my brother and me for a walk in Seneca Park in Rochester, New York. Due to a freak warm spell, the weather was in the 70s and we were all wearing shorts. “Remember this,” my mother […]
Last weekend, despite misgivings, I shelled out $7.75 and saw “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” A mockumentary, the film purports to follow Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev as he travels across the U.S., hoping to learn enough to propel Kazakhstan from second to first world status. Reviews, both published […]
The “New” Iraq
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? George W. Bush announced his next phase plans for Iraq to the nation last night, sending “over 20,000” additional troops, many of whom will be dispersed in Baghdad neighborhoods. On its face, Mr. Bush’s plans seems likely to increase the pace of American casualties, unless all […]