An employee at my retirement center belongs to a religion that prohibits men and women from touching one another unless they are family members.  I was warned of the taboo through the grapevine not as official written policy.  Still, I have respected the stricture, though I  balk a

Female genital cutting (khatna) is alive and well in the United States, even though it was outlawed in 1996. (“It Happens Here,” by Tasneem Raja, Mother Jones, July, August, 2017 ,pgs. 13-15.)  It survives because women, largely of the Muslim Bohras sect, (Click) protect the

At a party years ago in Tanganyika, (Tanzania) a newly elected Nigerian official sat to my left at dinner.   During the course of the meal, he leaned in my direction with a furrowed brow. “Tell me, in a democracy, when one party wins an election. why does it tolerate the e

Understand, there are decades between me and the new arrivals to feminism. I’ve welcomed the Baby Boomers, the Gen Xers and now the Millennials.  Each generation interprets the movement according to its values.  For a time, there were those who thought being called a “fe

Recently, I came across a line in a news report that gave me pause.  “Mexican drug cartels earn some $25 billion selling drugs in the U. S.A.” (“The World at a glance…” The Week, May 19, 2017, pg. 8.) Add the profit from the Middle East drug trade and the sum doubles, e

During the North Korean famine  between 1994-1998, the government, unable to feed its people, allowed private markets to spring up so that individuals could buy, sell or barter among themselves for basic goods.  This small, capitalistic experiment, called jangmadang, was so

Chatting over coffee, a friend told a joke that not only made me laugh, but also made me think:  “Donald Trump dies and finds God peering down at him from his golden throne.  ‘Well Donald,’ God asks in a booming voice.  ‘What have you to say for yourself?’&nbs

I wrote a blog recently (1/16/17) that mentioned Planned Parenthood favorably.  The next day a man remarked he could never support a group that sold baby parts.  Surprised, I considered my two choices.  I could attempt to educate a man with the grammar of a two-year-old

A while ago, I wrote a blog suggesting that while oil stocks are depressed, it might be a good time to invest in them, because the economy isn’t going to eliminate fossil fuels any time soon. The observation irked one reader enough to drop his subscription to my blog, and I got a co

The other day a friend was gossiping about a party his daughter threw for a few friends after their final year of college.  Much of the conversation was about how to pay off their student loans.  One young woman volunteered she had no debt.  Her grandparents had provide