ON MATTERS OF DUBIOUS INTEREST
Jay Inslee has a radical plan to phase out fossil fuel production in the US Writer David Roberts of Vox has as his subtitle: “This is going to make some people mad.” Jay Inslee, as you may know, is the only Democratic candidate to base his whole campaign on the issues of climate change. His …
The present heat waves here and in Europe are not just a warning but a forecast. I started writing this blog about climate change in 2019 and after a time gave up on it. Few were listening, and the topic was just too complex and intimidating. Now many everywhere are dying from intense heat and …
The President is king of the witch-hunt. He loves to accuse his enemies of pursuing that activity to harass him. But in fact, “far from being the victim of witch hunts, he is the orchestrator of them.” Thursday he outdid himself in orchestrating the indictment of James Comey. To do that, he illegally pushes the …
I’ll call in my valet to brush my teeth. Then my makeup man will give me my golden tan. Get my hairdresser in; he’ll be busy for half an hour. I’ll have my diaper changed, and my valet will dress me in my proper blue suit and red tie. He also polishes my elevator shoes.
Thursday night’s State of the Union showed the President bantering about his age and at times not taking himself too seriously. After the speech he worked the room and said, “I kinda wish sometimes I was cognitively impaired,” meaning, I think, that it would be a good way to deflect the outrageous charges against him. …
I’m going to rest up like my friend here. I’m going to eat well and play some music. And I’m going to remember our military dead—which is what the holiday used to be about. For many it’s become just another day off from work, an excuse to shop the many sales, a big weekend for …
“Reality,” says Haruki Murakami in a novel, “is just the accumulation of ominous prophecies come to life.” Indeed, you don’t have to be a total pessimist to agree with that judgment. The world is presently so full of ominous prophecies that we’re simply incapable of taking action in critical areas. The greatest conundrums and quandaries …
In my life I’ve been very lucky to spend time and live in some desirable places: venues like Greenwich Village, Martha’s Vineyard, Little Compton Rhode Island, Chesapeake Bay, the coast of Maine. I took vacations to rare places like Tortola, the Leeward Islands and, years ago, Cozumel. Now we learn that Cozumel, home to great …
There has been so much written about “woke” that I hesitate to add to the glut. And so I will. It’s probably gotten to the point where most black people would just as soon avoid the term. When language gets so loaded that it incites cultural warfare it’s time to unload it. But since woke …
I beg to offer up some half-baked fallacies that many people still find plausible. On serious inspection, they are either unworkable, unattainable, or ill-conceived. Still, our society is often moved to accept, even welcome them. Gun control. Many Americans are up in arms about the recent mass shootings, growing in numbers each year. Feckless proposals …
The NY Times recently published a piece in which a 41-year-old doctor in Boston muses about advances in the science of anti-aging. She is pregnant with her first child and wonders whether aging is really inevitable. Her dad does pull-ups at age 70 and pursues studies on “how he might slow the ticking clock.” Aging …