Category: Political Rants

…would a man bicycling around the world spreading a message of peace be detained as a criminal. He received warm welcomes, free food and medical care, even police escorts, in six continents and 54 countries, before experiencing US hospitality in the form of an INS detention facility. (Well, at least we’re giving him food and… Continue reading Only in the USA …

I know I’ve said this before, but I really regret throwing away my leftover “Lick Bush in 92” bumper stickers. Being frugal (and supporting recycling), I could just chop off the “in 92”. But since never in my wildest nightmares would I have foreseen the need to reuse them, I need to buy a fresh… Continue reading Lick Bush in 04

One of the most popular arguments in favor of annihilating Iraq is that Saddam Hussein is a monster who used chemical weapons on his own civilians. One problem with this logic is that, although such action is indefensible, it doesn’t make much sense to rush into a war that will result in the deaths of… Continue reading Who gassed the Kurds?

“Leave no child behind” was one of the favorite slogans of the Bush 2000 campaign. They “borrowed” it from the Children’s Defense Fund, who weren’t very happy about it, according to a report from Ralph Nader. Since his election, Bush watchers have been pointing out the huge discrepancy between the slogan and the actual policies… Continue reading Leave no child …

I was informed today that the link I provided to John le Carré’s column in an earlier article no longer worked. I apologize if you followed that link to a dead end. The London Times apparently changed their links after I posted that. I found the column again and updated the link in my article… Continue reading Editorial Administrivia

Almost anybody with an email address has probably received a message similar to one of these, asking for your assistance in laundering a large sum of money from Nigeria in exchange for a substantial cut. The variations on the same old scheme seem almost endless, but I recently saw this one which is similar, but… Continue reading New Twist on Old Scam/Spam

Sometimes you just gotta wonder why the current occupant of the White House doesn’t fire his speechwriters. Then you realize that he thinks they make him sound good. I’m sure he fails to see the irony in his recent sabre-rattling about Iraq: “This looks like a rerun of a bad movie, and I’m not interested… Continue reading W’s War Two

This is a belated expression of a thought that occurred to me earlier this week. I participated in two marches on Monday to commemorate Martin Luther King and his ideals. One was in Lexington, the moderately enlightened college town where I work; the second was in Paris, a smaller, more rural town which is as… Continue reading More MLK Musings

As our nation designated today to honor the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, it seems appropriate to reflect on how far we have come since his time, and yet how far we still have to go. Although the blatant institutionalized segregation challenged by Dr. King has disappeared, much of what he tried… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Dr. King

That headline is on an excellent column by John le Carré in The London Times. As one who often shares these doubts about the sanity of my fellow Americans, I’m not sure whether to be embarrassed for my country by the way we appear to the rest of the world, or relieved that at least… Continue reading The USA has gone mad