Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
To every thing there is a season, a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die … a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. (Ecclesiastes 3) Mourners from all over the world gathered at the Freeport… Read more.
Yesterday afternoon, after 48 hours of political theater, the Bush administration and congressional leaders finally agreed on the $700 billion rescue plan, which they touted as a “Wall Street bailout to save Main Street.” This, despite ideological carping by a few nutjob Republicans who, after leading the charge to double the national debt to over… Read more.
I appreciate that many of you probably knew Paul Newman more as the philanthropist whose face is the logo for a variety of food products (from “Newman’s Own” salad dressing to popcorn) than as an actor or political activist. But, to get a sense of who Newman was, just imagine Leonardo DiCaprio someday being… Read more.
Despite all the media hype, presidential debates have very little bearing on how people vote on Election Day. Instead, they tend to merely reinforce voters’ pre-existing feelings about the candidates. This means that who won the debate is invariably in the eye of the beholder. That said, there’s no denying the suspense inherent in watching for a… Read more.
This year, for the first time, I not only made a New Year’s Resolution but also published it here on January 3. I did so because I thought reporting on my efforts to fulfill this particular resolution might inspire others to fulfill theirs. Accordingly, here’s an excerpt from that original article, followed by today’s update:… Read more.
Senator John McCain made quite a show yesterday of announcing that he is suspending his campaign and withdrawing from the first presidential debate so that he can return to Washington to join the gaggle of those negotiating terms of the $700 billion financial bailout legislation now pending in Congress. And, to demonstrate his much-vaunted leadership,… Read more.
I officially declare the coalition of democratic forces … in Ukraine’s parliament dissolved. This has been long expected, but for me it is extremely sad. I would not call this a political apocalypse, though it is true that it is another challenge of democracy. I hope we can overcome it. [Arseny Yatsenyuk, Speaker of the… Read more.
President George W. Bush of the United States and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran will join a queue of world leaders in New York this week to deliver canned speeches before the Annual Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. And even though none of them will say anything of any consequence (Do they ever?), it would… Read more.
In a truly extraordinary development, Gwede Mantashe, the secretary general of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), called a press conference on Saturday to announce that: [T]he party’s top-level National Executive Committee [NEC] has decided to recall the president of the republic before his term of office expires. Then, in a bit of political doublespeak… Read more.
In 1929, the government did nothing and the fall led to the Great Depression; whereas today, it has moved over one trillion dollars (i.e., $1,000,000,000,000.00) in place to cushion the fall, hoping to stave off an even greater depression. But don’t worry, many of the erstwhile masters of the universe are so disoriented by the sudden loss of… Read more.
