Like everyone else, I worry about identify theft.  The stories I’ve read of what people have to go through to reclaim their personal information are harrowing.  Losing your identify  can happen to anyone.  Certainly, the recent stories about hackers stealing thousands of persona

Here’s a new phrase to add to your lexicon: “situational awareness.”  Situational awareness means being aware of the terrain — something I could use whenever I open my sock drawer.  The term takes on a new meaning when we’re discussing outer space, which, believe it or

In her review of two new books*, Laura Kipnis discusses the distinction between guilt and shame.  (“The Deep, Dark, Ugly Thing,” by Laura Kipnis,  Harper’s, May 2015, pg. 93)  Guilt is an internal standard of personal values. Shame results from a violation of group standards.

While Edward Snowden continues to live a productive life in Russia, he remains an outlaw in his own country.  If he were to return to the United States, he would be prosecuted for revealing government secrets even though a federal court has ruled that the National Security Agency (NS

Not long ago a blog reader unsubscribed because he was furious that I would write about investing in oil stocks.  (Blog 3/30/15)  I wrote back saying that I didn’t think a bet on whether or not a company’s fortunes would rise or fall had much affect on the melting of the polar i

“Next to oil, looting is the best-paying sector for Isis…” admits Michael Danti of the U. S. State Department Syrian Heritage initiative.  (“Syria’s Monuments Men” by Bryan Schatz, Mother Jones, May/June 2015, pg. 12.)   What the terrorists don’t destroy, they allow l

It read like a mystery thriller, the story one of my former students, now an attorney, related to me over afternoon tea.  During the Vietnam war, she had been active in the antiwar movement and had risen to the defense of several prisoners, calling for social reform.  Unfortunately

Checking my email this morning, I found a message from a blog reader which wasn’t his usual fare.  Instead of an article about writing, he’d sent me an ACLU petition in support of a state House Bill to secure a citizen’s right to film or take pictures of police actions.  The c

In a stunning amicus brief before the US Supreme Court, South Carolina’s state attorney general has used the 14th and 10th Amendment of the Constitution to argue that while racial discrimination may be illegal across the land, discrimination against women and gays is not. (Click) 

There’s a war going in  the United States against mothers and children.  This remark may pop a few eyes but let’s be honest, the model for the workplace in this country is based on the needs of men, not women who, according to writer Rebecca Traister, represent 47% the workforce