May 7, 2022 — May 7, 2022 The word “grooming” has exploded into our culture wars, a cudgel for the right to bash Democrats. The word has been used to describe a sexual predator (usually a gay male) cultivating someone (usually underage) for potential molestation. We heard the word in the Jerry Sanduskycase. …

May 5, 2022 — May 5, 2022 As is typical for me with such books, I was far more engaged with the story of Michelle Obama’s early life, when she was an ordinary normal person, than with the too-familiar chronicle of her time in the spotlight. Particularly striking was the portrayal of her mother…

May 1, 2022 — May 1, 2022 The backstory: In 2014 Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed through a constitutional amendment supposedly ending gerrymandering. This involves legislative district maps, with one party packing the other’s voters into a few districts — so they lose everywhere else. Cuomo’s reform was a sham. Ostensibly establishing an independent redistricting…

April 28, 2022 — April 28, 2022 Hell of a Book — that’s the title — by Jason Mott — is actually two different novels coexisting uneasily within one cover. One is a semi-comical first-person account of the author/narrator’s book tour. He’s Black, but that seems only incidental. There’s a segment with a grotesque…

April 24, 2022 — April 24, 2022 Jay Garfield’s book, Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live Without a Self, argues that the “self” is an illusion, and letting it go enables living better, more moral lives. He discussed this with James Shaheen (editor of Tricycle: a Buddhist Review) in a podcast. …

Trump Blames Dems, Declares Martial Law — Trump Blames Dems, Declares Martial Law January 22, 2025 By James Thornton, Devon Sharp, and Julie Montalbano Associated Press _____________________________ Washington Flames engulfed the United States Capitol building at 1:20 PM Eastern Time, just two days after President Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration. House and Senate members, with numerous staffers…

April 15, 2022 — April 15, 2022 Governor Andrew Cuomo was loathsome. Seemingly redeemed in the pandemic’s beginnings, we soon learned he’d fudged nursing home death numbers, to cover an apparent policy blunder, compounded by a cover-up of the cover-up. Compounded further by his smelly $5.1 million deal for a book about his…

April 12, 2022 — April 12, 2022 February 1977 — Dan O’Connell is finally dead. So begins Sharr White’s play, The True, performed at Capital Rep, directed by its leader Maggie Cahill. (Runs through April 24.) O’Connell, 91, was still boss of the political machine he’d built more than half a century earlier. I…

April 9, 2022 — April 9, 2022 Emails between Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Ginni (Mrs. Clarence) Thomas, recently revealed, strategized to overturn the 2020 election. Meadows called it “a fight of good versus evil.” Did he really believe that? He’s a very intelligent man. Moral judgments can differ. Today’s two American…