Weaponizing anger is a dangerous game.  Bernie Sanders tried it in the last Presidential election and so did Donald Trump.  Trump did it better and he remains a beacon for those who feel disenfranchised.  What both candidates did was tap into the residue loathing still with us from

Is America becoming more conservative or more liberal? That depends upon how you read the demographics.  Four out of five Americans live in urban areas, (“Notes” The Week, August 17/24, 2018, pg. 16), and if your believe  a report in the Washington Post, urban areas tend to vote

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for 65 million years.  They may have managed it because they had  small brains.  They didn’t possess enough grey matter to imagine how to tinker with their environment.  Homo sapiens used theirs  to disrupt the planet.  So many changes are  far f

Recently, I got entangled with a company’s phone representative for whom English was a second language. Both her grammar and her accent made communication difficult.  Finally, she brought her supervisor on the line.  His, too, was hard to understand.   “Do you live in the Unit

Recently, House Representative Maxine Water’s exhorted right-minded  people to  confront President Donald Trump’s cabinet members in public places to protest his unconscionable policy on immigration.  (Click) Several Facebook friends agreed.  One man remarked if others weren�

In her essay, “Musical Chairs,” Rebecca Solnit parses the numerous splits in American politics. I  particularly like her description of the Republican party.  She charges it “preaches the gospel of austerity while running up deficits,” and extols individual rights, “except

In 1936, Aldous Huxley observed that if democracy is to work, one must govern with the consent of the people.  (“Modern Despots,” by Aldous Huxley, reprinted for a 1936 article in Harper’s, February 18, 2018, pg. 37.)  Thanks to gerrymandering and the Electoral College, who co

I joked  with a friend, recently, that if religious conservatives have their way, abortions will be illegal at the point of coitus.  We both laughed.  But I’m not laughing anymore.  Iowa’s woman governor, Kim Reynolds, has signed a bill that makes abortion illegal at the first

President Donald Trump will probably appoint a Supreme Court Justice during his presidency.  That appointment will tilt the current balance between liberal and conservative justices on that bench.  His choice will be of great concern and keep journalists up to their elbows in ink fo

I confess I’m a fan of the television series, Big Bang Theory.  The 30 minute program centers on scientists who are captivated by comic book heroes.  Sexual gags aside, the program exudes a childlike innocence, not dissimilar, I suppose, from the curiosity a scientist feel