A Simple Fact
“We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Justice Louis Brandeis
Sunbeam On A Fossil
One late afternoon in early April I was sitting at a table with my wife while we sipped wine and looked out the windows beside us to the falling sun. I am a life-long lover of the interplay between shadows and light as they share an infinitude of their own limitless variations with each…
Weasel Words
Three years ago I posted the following article. A lot has changed in three years. And nothing has changed at all. In fact, it’s easy to claim now that how we use words and how we understand what we hear is more important than ever as communication accelerates at warp speed and the tools of…
Fate Can Do This to Any of Us …You Never Know
After being absent from the publishing business for quite a few years, I’ve recently published a new, Fate Surprised Her. It is available only as an eBook for now. Although it’s been available on my website for a couple of months, I’ve neglected to say anything about it here until now. So, here it is!…
Who Does Congress Really Work For?
After the elections in November I’ll back off the politics, but for now I can’t resist. Here’s an article from Politico Magazine back in May. “The 401 (k) industry owns Congress.” It still makes my ears smoke. Read it. You need to know what this very savvy investigative journalist reveals, because it’s right in front…
The Power of Authoritarianism … Two Sides of the Same Coin
Here are two quotations I’ve used before a few years ago. But they are exceptionally important at the moment in our history. Not only in this country, but globally. “. . . in obedience to figures they see as ‘authoritative,’ people will do ‘to others’ what they would otherwise do to nobody.” …
The Responsibilities That Come With Our Knowledge
Detail from The Crucifixion of St. Peter, by Michelangelo, from the cover of Forbidden Knowledge Twenty-eight years ago, in October 1996, I bought a book so full of knowledge and food for thought that since then I have returned to it again and again and keep it on the bookshelf behind me as I sit…
The Rules of Grammar . . . Or Not
“i” before “e” except after “c” . . . EXCEPT . . . . . . when your foreign neighbor Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters. Weird.
While We’re All Focused on the Middle East
The following snippets are from Back to the Cold War: Russia uses Mexico as a Hub for Spying on the U.S. in today’s NBC News. “Russia has added dozens of personnel to its embassy staff in Mexico City in the past few years, even though Moscow has only limited trade ties with the country.” Russia’s…
How the Authors Guild Is Fighting Censorship in Texas
I’ve been an Authors Guild member for 33 years. The following is a communication from todays Guild mailing. The Authors Guild and a coalition of bookstores, booksellers, authors, and publishers filed a lawsuit on July 25, 2023, challenging Texas House Bill 900, the ironically-titled “Reader Act.” The law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of…