April 26, 2026

There is no doubt that this week's visit by Charles and Camilla will be filled with pomp and pageantry, with fancy clothes and all the trappings of wealth. But don't allow yourself to be taken in by this show. As Mark Twain reminds us, "Without our clothes and our pedestals we are poor things...our dignities are not real and our pomps are shams".

He puts the blame for this squarely on our shoulders, for we pretend, teach and believe the nonsense that these "royal" and rich people are somehow suns. In reality, they are candles, and just like us "any bummer can blow us out".

May 30, 2026

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller expressed an idea that I have always taken for granted. The idea that each adult gets to vote in elections based on his humanity, not based on the property that he possesses. Yet, this week I learned there is at least one town in Delaware

May 29, 2026

Over 100 years ago, Edith Wharton noticed "that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it". And in that vain, Governor Josh Shapiro came to South Philly to unveil a multimillion-dollar plan that aims to reduce the traffic woes

May 28, 2026

The pope not only apologized for the role the Catholic Church played in legitimizing slavery, but he also warned about the dehumanization that could come from our increasing reliance on artificial intelligence. He tells us of new forms of slavery and colonialism that the digital revolution is fueling. It seems

May 27, 2026

It was great to see the pope so clearly apologize for the role that the Catholic Church played in legitimizing slavery. Richard Wright reminds us that the countries of Europe "could not have built nations on so vast a scale had they not shut their eyes to the humanity

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May 30, 2026

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May 27, 2026