Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Last year, News Corp, the global media empire headed by Rupert Murdoch, was the target of worldwide condemnation (and more than a bit of schadenfreude). This all stemmed from truly shocking revelations that one of its London tabloids, News of the World (NOTW), had routinely hacked the phones and email accounts of everyone from celebrities to… Read more.
Just as it is with the Occupy Wall Street protests, one of the seamier aspects of the Arab Spring protests has been the sexual assaults against female protesters that have gone unreported. The glaring exceptions of course were those occasions when a member of the American media was the victim. Such was the case last… Read more.
According to a national survey published this week by Travel + Leisure magazine, New York City was voted the rudest city in America … again. But, frankly, I think reports about this city’s rudeness are greatly exaggerated. I lived in NYC for many years and have either lived, worked, or spent time in many of the other major cities in America (and around… Read more.
The world is reacting with shock (and some derision) today at the sight of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard being dragged to her motorcade by a scrum of bodyguards and riot police who were protecting her from jeering Aborigines. In fact, they whisked her through such a frantic, chaotic, and jostled path to safety that… Read more.
Anyone who knows anything about football knows that the most exciting day of the NFL season is Conference Championship Sunday, not Super Bowl Sunday. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this day of football revelry was undermined by the fact that my team, the Philadelphia Eagles, did not even make it to the playoffs this season. All… Read more.
Ever since 1934, when the modern version of State of the Union Address became an annual feature of Washington politics, every president has used it in an election year to frame the issues and rally support for his presidency. Yet to listen to Republicans carp, you’d think President Obama is the first one to do… Read more.
It’s simply impossible for any Westerner to fully appreciate the significance of the son of Jomo Kenyatta (1889-1978) being indicted yesterday by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of “organizing a campaign of rape and murder” against political opponents. The closest analogy I suppose would be if Prince William were indicted on similar charges for… Read more.
I know many will consider it punishment enough that Paterno is resigning in disgrace. The outpouring of support by misguided students for whom football is a religion and Paterno is god is testament to this fact. But, here again, just as decades of pastoring is not sufficient mitigation to grant leniency to a Catholic bishop… Read more.
It’s regrettable that so much more is known about the Tuskegee Black laborers who were used as guinea pigs in syphilis experiments than about the Tuskegee Black pilots who fought as heroes during World War II. But that’s about to change with the release this weekend of the epic movie Red Tails – so named… Read more.
