Edward Snowden’s leak about NSA data collection has raised a question for Americans to consider:  “In a technological world how do we defend our right to privacy?” But Sarah Ellison’s article, “The Man Who Kept The Secret,” raises a more pertinent one. “Are we fools to

I came across another example of the way our government parses words to obscure rather than clarify meaning.  In the past, readers may recall I had an exchange with a former staff member for Under Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, who served in the George W. Bush administration.�

On Tuesday, I quoted the comment of a Muslim woman who felt western commercial interests had enslaved women, convincing them to use their bodies to sell products.  “And they are made to believe that this is freedom.” (Blog 4/7/15)  Certainly, there is more than a grain of truth

The cliché is that “fact is stranger than fiction.” It isn’t, of course.  Fiction is unbounded by place, time, space and the laws of physics.  Yet when truth presses against the limits of reality, the effect can seem larger than fiction, overturning what we think we know.  M

Last Friday, I wrote about the importance of solitude in an artist’s life.  Today, I’m following up with a similar theme based on a review of  H. J. Jackson’s,  Those Who Write for Immortality.  (”Immortal Beloved,” by William Giraldi, The New Republic, March 2015, p

Though it was a belated recognition, Rosalind Franklin is acknowledged to have determined the overall B-form of the DNA helix (Wikipedia) for which Francis Crick and James Watson were awarded the Nobel Prize.  Men taking credit for women’s ideas isn’t new.   But a new book by M

Several years ago, I bought an oil stock that ended up a gusher and pumped up my portfolio nicely.  Later,  I sold it at its peak which made me and the IRS happy.  Since that time, the company has lost value because there’s an oil glut around the world.  In fact, the United Stat

Not long ago, a reader sent me an article from The New York Times, “Among the Disrupted,” by Leon Wieseltier.  He was writing about the many ways  technology invades our culture, calling the effect a tyranny of technology. (Click)  Below are two examples of recent advances.  I

Islam Yaken is a middle class Egyptian youth who gave up his dream of becoming a professional trainer when the economy in his country tanked.  As his alternative, he chose to became an Isis terrorists. (“The Deadly allure of jihad,” reprint from The New York Times in The Week, Ma

Today marks my 6th year as a blogger, writing 5 days a week (M-F) on the writing life and what other writers have to say about life.  Social commentary is the way I guess you’d categorize what I do,  for those who care about categories.  I don’t.  But I do care about my reader