With yesterday's announcement by the Pentagon that they will livestream a firing squad execution it seems we have now ticked off all the things on Orwell's list. I guess this shows that the decay of civilization is complete. Imprisonment without trial (we did him one better
Watching an obviously racist and fascist government disappearing people to uncertain fates abroad makes me want to do everything in my power to halt it. The problem is, I am lost as to what power I have to push back. I see people angry over gas and food prices, but
Malala tells us that not a day goes by that we don't see or hear something about the horrors that women and girls are living through. But no matter how painful these stories might be, we should never scroll past them. For, if nothing else, we can be
At some point we all start getting a little freaked out about the number we have to say when telling someone our ages. At 70, Ben Franklin decided to start counting backwards. I am not going to be that extreme, but today I turn fifty-ten. I will continue this
The next book I wanted to highlight during this year's banned book week is Bag of Bones by Stephen King. One of the lines that resonated with me when I read it was the one that mentioned how important it is to try to find a career where
Today is the first day of "Banned Book Week" and recently The Conversation had a story about banned books that focused on Vonnegut's Slaugterhouse-Five. It has been on banned book lists almost since it was first published in 1969. It is banned in spite of
Once again I am positively highlighting the words of Leo. This time he mirrors what Emma Goldman wrote over a hundred years ago. He reminds us that people are special because of the spark of humanity that will never exist in machines that are only generating "art" through
Almost sixty years ago, Harper Lee tried to teach us that calling someone a bad name, like "total dirtbag" is not really an insult to the target of the attack. Instead, it shows the poor character of the speaker. It is even worse when the person leveling the
I have always been opposed to the death penalty, and cases like this just strengthen my opposition. I understand that this women did a horrific act, but just one look at her upbringing makes you think "what would this women have been like if she had grown up unmarked
Not almost, it is exactly like the constitution, in that nobody will have the guts to actually stand up and enforce it. These last years show us that our own constitution means nothing if Congress and the courts will not hold the powerful to account.
It seems crazy that the federal government can add regulations to college sports, while removing regulations to protect our national parks, endangered species, water and air, and workers' safety, among others. It also makes no sense that it will cap the pay and mobility of the athletes but not
Richard Wright tells us that one of the unintended consequences of "rampant capitalism" is the destruction of the lives of men. He writes that many of these men "are so lost that they no longer even know" they are lost. These victims of capitalism turn to