Category: Uncategorized
-
Closing In On–Well, What?
I haven’t written much about politics lately. I guess my writing urges have been worn down by too much political use. But I need to speak–briefly, anyway–about what is going on now. It appears that Trump has slightly closed the gap between himself and Harris and it now appears, at least for the moment, one…
-
Fall and Mysteries– a Good Match
G M Malliet, “The Haunted Season,” St Martin’s Press 2015 Richard Osman, “The Bullet That Missed”–Viking –2022 To a real mystery fan anytime is a good time to start reading one, but fall, my favorite season, and the one most given to Mystery is, it seems to me the best. I’ve got two I want…
-
Nothing Before to Match This
It is less than two months now until election day. Of course, many votes will be cast before that, so the process has, to some small extent, already begun. I am always excited and awed by national US elections, especially Presidential ones. For one who follows public affairs it nearly always seems to be the…
-
Debate Reflections
We’ve all had a day or two to reflect upon The Debate and to form opinions about it. The ones I’ve read or heard on TV tend to be fairly, though not absolutely, predictable. For the most part people on each side think(or say that they do)that their candidate won. Though I am admittedly not…
-
Israel and Hamas-a Very Difficult American Issue-But Also Very Important
By now nearly everyone who is the slightest bit interested knows all the basic facts. Hamas is a terrorist organization which has brutally run Gaza for more than a decade and has never shown mercy or understanding, or any “give” except the opportunistic kind, in their dealings with others. They are as brutal with the…
-
Time to Make a Choice
I have already communicated the fact that I watched the debate last week with increasing depression and disappointment as it went on. The President, far from being at his best, was closer to his worst. He looked haggard and worn, he spoke slowly and somewhat indistinctly at times and worst of all, he sometimes made…
-
A Debate and an Election, Then(Maybe)Three Big Messes–a Brief Lecture on British and American Politics
The next British Parliamentary Election is set for July 4. No, I don’t think it was done as a joke or an exercise in irony. Nonetheless the date is striking. Our(ostensible)date of Independence may become Britain’s date of dependence on a new kind of politics. First Past the Post(FPTP) voting may yield, eventually, to something…
-
And It’s Still The Case
More than half a year ago, on the day Hamas launched its murderous attack on Israelis, I did an article I entitled “The Biden-Blinken Nightmare–Two Foreign Crises, One Domestic One and No Apparent Solution.” Now we have a very similar situation. We still have the two foreign crises, the same ones in different stages. We…
-
A Reflection Upon Tragedy and Inspiration
Elaine Pagels, “Why Religion? A Personal Story” Harper Collins, 2018, 216 pp I first read this book sometime ago and for, well, awhile, had thought to make it the subject of a blog. I knew it would not interest all and might offend some, but it was such a book, both excellent and important, that…
-
New and Exciting(for mystery fans)
It is always a pleasure to introduce your friends to a new writer or musician, etc with whom you are taken. Well, I have one for you, although many of you may already know him. But he’s new to me. This is Richard Osman, who I have learned is a well-known and much liked TV…
john's thoughts 