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Putin and Assad Are Ahead of Us Again
The Russians are busy building what looks like a major airbase inside Syria. The claim it's "strictly for defensive purposes", which is about as credible as our assurance that Nebraska would always be Indian land. But what exactly is it for? Fighter aircraft with air-to-air missiles mounted have been spotted going there, and now there are anti- ( Read more... ) -
Atticus Finch No Longer Such a Hero
There has been much chatter on the Internet and off about "Go Set a Watchman", the sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird". It was actually written as a first draft of Harper Lee's famous book, and it shows a considerably different side of Atticus Finch. Many people are disappointed, and indeed it's hard to think of Gregory Peck's interpretation of the ( Read more... ) -
Posting the Ten Commandments
Once again, the Supreme court has decided that a display of the Ten Commandments on Government grounds violates the Constitution. And once again, the real problem has not been widely addressed. This isn't about needing to give the Satanic Temple the right to display a demonic statue to give them equal time. The Constitutional issue is that the ( Read more... ) -
Incorrect Memory on Memorial Day
Charles M. Blow has a disappointing column in today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/opinion/charles-blow-restoring-memoriam-to-memorial-day.html
He quotes losses of various wars that America has fought, but his figures of Confederate war dead total only 133,821. This is clearly in error: for a century the most widely ( Read more... ) -
Christmas Truce Grinch
We are two days away from the 100th anniversary of the 1914 "Christmas Truce", when the British, French and German soldiers on the Western Front agreed to stop shooting for a day and commingle. (And even played football AKA soccer.) A number of well-meaning writers have penned essays on this, saying it shows that enemies can "recognize their common ( Read more... ) -
A.I. the Boogeyman
No less than Steven Hawking has added his voice to the worry that "the robots are going to wipe us out". It's an interesting point that the first coining of the word "robot" was for a play where just that happened. And the fear never seems to have gone away: "Colossus; the Forbin Project", the Cybermen, the Cylons, Skynet, etc, etc. , the list just ( Read more... ) -
The Immigration Uproar
If I may, a little non-partisan math: at a best estimate, there are a little over 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. It is also estimated that from 4 to 5 million of them will be protected from deportation by the executive actions announced by President Obama on Thursday. That leaves over 6 million who are not protected. We are currently ( Read more... )