The essence of democracy is free speech, and the essence of free speech is assertion. For instance: Privately owned firearms should be confiscated. Everybody should own a firearm. No Republican’s any good. No Democrat’s any good. “The current president ……
The best thing about Bernie — need I explain, in the year of grace 2020, which Bernie ? — is how a frosty-haired old coot old enough to have been a high-school classmate of mine fires up kids who never…
If you … intend to be first in, and hit your enemy in the belly, and kick him when he is down, and boil your prisoners in oil (if you take any!), and torture his women and children, then people…
So. Another decade behind us, another in front. Journalists love nothing more than the opportunity to gaze analytically in either direction. “Fills up the paper,” we used to say, back when newspapers needed constant filling to complement the ads on…
Memorizing the Middle English of Geoffrey Chaucer — as required in the senior English curriculum of long ago — I found sheer repetition the ticket to success. Whan that Aprille … whan that Aprille … whan that Aprille … over and over…
Pretty much every American lacking a cemetery address understands the purpose of the rhetoric of the House Judiciary Committee’s report this week on impeachment: “betrayed the nation,” “threat to the Constitution,” “engaged in a pattern of misconduct.” And so on….
A history professor I once studied under tended to offer a weary response to technical, and highly dispensable, questions of the sort that arise in weary seminars. To wit: “But what’s that got to do with the price of eggs?”…
The Anglican Church of Canada clutches its throat at the prospect of — Lord have mercy — shutting down its ministries and works 20 years from now. You know — putting up the “Closed” sign, the public demand for said…
Beyond the Trump impeachment mess, which is due to be settled one of these days — I think in Trump’s favor, but what do I know? Beyond the impeachment mess, I was starting to declare, sprawl before us … what,…