Race and sex
If gender can be entirely dependent on feeling rather than on biology, why can’t race? That’s what I’ve been wondering as I’ve observed the furor over Rachel Dolzal, the white woman who passed herself...
View ArticleThey fought for our liberty
I spent the Fourth of July weekend reflecting on those men and women who sacrificed so that the rest of us might have liberty, reminding myself that this liberty we are so proud of was not bestowed...
View ArticleFantasy customers for Sch’dy casino
As for the latest design for the proposed Rivers Casino in Schenectady, let me say right off the bat that in my humble opinion a casino of any design is a lousy idea not only for Schenectady but for...
View ArticleShimmy, shimmy, shimmy
As for the Confederate flag flying or not flying in South Carolina, The New York Times reported a while back, “On June 27, officers with the South Carolina Department of Public Safety arrested a...
View ArticleNuke talk (and non-talk)
Here is something I wonder about, if I may stray ever-so-briefly into foreign policy: How come in all the palaver about the nuclear deal with Iran and all the reporting on the heated opposition from...
View ArticleCops on video
I have just finished watching the video of the black woman in Texas, Sandra Bland, being arrested by a white state trooper for failing to use her turn signal when changing lanes, and my first thought...
View ArticleLion killers & selfie-takers
Have you ever noticed that even intelligent people look like idiots in selfies? I mean those photos that people take of themselves with cellphone cameras held at arm’s length. The only people who come...
View ArticleThe Clark goes Bauhaus
Looking to both entertain and culturally uplift my grandchildren, I packed them up and trundled them over to Williamstown the other day to see the Van Gogh exhibit which is up at the Clark Institute....
View ArticleLiberals and conservatives
From time to time I get vilified as a liberal in the comments department of this blog, and it dismays me on two counts. First, I don’t think of myself as a liberal even if I agree with Bernie Sanders...
View ArticleThe Travers: no more “Pharoahtoga”
I have not been a horse-racing fan since my Saratoga childhood, when I used to sneak into the track by squeezing through the iron bars of the Union Avenue fence — children weren’t allowed in back then...
View ArticleMindful or mindless?
I knew we had reached a critical point when I spotted “The Mindfulness Coloring Book” in a bookstore the other day. Mindfulness, whatever it might be, has had a pretty steady run in this country ever...
View ArticleThe Republican debate
I watched the Republican debate last night, or at least most of it, and all I can say is, what a repulsive bunch of people. What a gaggle of mean-spirited, small-minded, self-promoting, demagogic...
View ArticleResisting occupation in the West Bank
If you haven’t seen the video from which the above photo is taken I urge you to watch it by clicking HERE. It shows a gun-toting masked Israeli soldier taking down a 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose...
View ArticleLittle boy shoots little girl
The following story is from The Associated Press, published Oct. 6: WHITE PINE, Tenn. (AP) — An 11-year-old boy has been charged with murder after he killed his 8-year-old neighbor, police said, and...
View ArticleTerror on top of terror
There seems to be no end. I had just attended a presentation on America’s drone warfare when I got word of the horrific attacks in Paris, and that’s what I thought. One thing feeds another, and then...
View ArticleGun buy-back
I see that Amsterdam is undertaking a gun buy-back program. Turn in your firearm and get a $100 gift certificate good at any store in Crossgates Mall, no questions asked. Sure, Crossgates is a bit of a...
View ArticleWho’s a terrorist?
Following on my facetious comments about gun buy-back programs as opposed to gun give-aways, we have the shoot-‘em-up in Colorado, at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Three people dead, including a cop,...
View ArticleReading the Quran
I deplore and condemn the anti-Muslim fervor that is being whipped up by Donald Trump and that was exacerbated by the San Bernadino massacre, recognizing as I do that fanatical jihadists are only a...
View ArticleDon’t make fun of my prophet!
That’s what the Iranian-American speaker angrily declared the other day at the Saratoga Public Library when I challenged him on the Quran: Don’t make fun of my prophet! From my possibly depraved...
View ArticleDon’t make fun of my Prophet! (cont.)
Have you ever noticed that no scientist, as far as I know, has ever threatened to kill someone for insulting Charles Darwin or for ridiculing global warming? No gang of atheists has ever burst into a...
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