If I’m representative of the American state of mind, then the nation is suffering from fatigue.  Frankly, I’m unable to cope with technology’s rate of change.  News seems to travel at the speed of light. I learn about bombings in Paris faster than I do about what’s on the lu

Replacing Anton Scalia on the U. S. Supreme Court is going set off some sparks.  As a conservative, he dismissed the notion of a living constitution and believed that idea risked warping original intent.  (Click)  I understand the intellectual purity of his position but what has th

The Overton Window is the current term for moving the inert political middle to the right or the left.  It refers to “the range of policies on any given issue that are, at the moment, popular enough for a politician to campaign on successfully.” (“A Theory of Everything,” by

Sitting down to coffee with a woman who runs a small non-profit organization, she began our conversation by thanking me for my recent contribution. Her remarks were gracious and allowed me to imagine I’d given significant assistance to her cause.  Later, however, she let slip that

Over the years, collecting art has brought me much satisfaction.  As I mentioned in a recent blog (1/6/2017), the pieces I have acquired feel like members of my family, and I am saddened to realize one day they will be sold off, piece by piece, or possibly end up in a landfill.  My

J. K. Rowling’s criticism of Donald Trump is raising hackles on the internet. His loyal fans, once her loyal fans, are behaving like jilted lovers and threatening to burn their Harry Potter books in retaliation. Rowling says, “Go ahead. I’ve still got your money.” (Click)  Pr

To admit these are confusing times is a statement of the obvious, like saying water is scarce in the desert.  I’m confused when I read lawmakers in Mississippi are crafting legislation that will require schools, including those with primarily black attendance, to fly the Confederat

A reader sent me a thoughtful article about Donald Trump’s strategic plan while in office. (Click)  Bit by bit, the article dismantles the president’s false assumptions and explains why they will fail.  But the assumption that Trump has a plan is, in my opinion, false. I see him

In a blog entitled A Polemic (1/20/17), I wrote about an artist’s duty to comment upon events of the time.  In a similar vein, the editors of Harper’s devoted their February edition to “A Resister’s Guide”: 11 writers stop to consider the impact of Donald Trump’s 2017 pre

Donald Trump’s truth varies minute by minute.  It’s like listening to Variations of a Theme of Paganini but less pleasant. Trump doesn’t seem to worry about these variations, which his critics call lies. Rather, he twists the truth, I suspect, to convince his subjects that one