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The Israeli Mind and the Ultra-Right
A few days of truce allows a few days to ponder events and examine apartheid Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attack. Engaging in talks and achieving mutual agreements that release captives prompts the question of why wasn’t this done much earlier, before the entire population of Gaza was subjected to brutal bombardments that killed […]
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Baseball Owners Blow Off Fans in Favor of Streaming Dollars
Major League Baseball adopted some significant rules changes this past season, the biggest by far being the introduction of a pitch clock—an electronic countdown limiting the time between pitches to 15 seconds with nobody on or 20 seconds with a runner on. The changes were aimed at speeding up the game and boosting attendance, and […]
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Hypocrisy Sours COP28
Hypocrisy runs rampant at COP28 even before the doors swung open to 70,000 delegates on Thursday, November 30th. This is the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (“COP”) held at Expo City, Dubai. It’s the big annual event for scientists to meet to decide on the fate of anthropogenic climate change, […]
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Daydreaming While Reading Jonathan Crary’s 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast. — Shakespeare, Macbeth People often laugh when I tell them that I go to sleep at 8:15 P.M. They laugh harder when I say […]
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The Evil That Men Do
Although I have never been anything but a professional dilettante, I have spent some time in a number of professions. One of these was political correspondent at the United Nations headquarters from 1985 until 1987. Another was as professor of English in Berlin after the GDR was annexed in 1989. In the accidents of my […]
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Battle for the Minds
During the first decade of the 21st century, a battle between the Religious Right and the New Atheists emerged. Both were gaining strength from charismatic leaders, able to articulate their beliefs and accumulate followers. Energized by George W. Bush’s faith-based presidency, the Religious Right, the most politically active of organized religions, attempted to direct local […]
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