Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Putin clearly has no use for Snowden. But, as a perfectly understandable matter of form, he must avoid any appearance of caving in to American demands to return him immediately… There seems little doubt that Putin will eventually hand Snowden over to his ‘American partner.’ And I assure you, he has every intention of doing so… Read more.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been so lampooned for using staged heroics to boost his He-Man (Master-of-the-Universe) reputation that you’d think he would seize any opportunity to display a genuine human touch and, no less important, a self-deprecating sense of humor. An ideal opportunity presented itself in February 2012 when his thought police arrested three… Read more.
I took a lot of flak (as I seem to be doing a lot lately) for writing the following about Hannah Anderson, the teenager a family friend allegedly kidnapped after murdering her mother and younger brother: Friends will attest to my abiding belief that there was/is much more to this story than a murdering, psycho-obsessed,… Read more.
I believe it is a self-evident truth that not allowing gays to marry is an even greater violation of the fundamental civil rights all citizens should enjoy than not allowing Blacks to vote. (“Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal in New York,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 27, 2011) Yesterday New Jersey became the 14th state to allow… Read more.
Here is what I wrote six years ago after South Africa’s ruling ANC dumped Thabo Mbeki in favor of Jacob Zuma as party leader, thereby ensuring an ignominious end to Mbeki’s tenure as the country’s second democratically elected president: It’s an insult to Mbeki’s distinguished career of public service that he’s being so unceremoniously upstaged… Read more.
Sportscaster Bob Costas threw fuel on the fire that has been simmering for years over calls by the Oneida Indians (Native Americans) for Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, to change the team’s nickname. Here, in part, is what he said on Sunday during halftime of NBC’s very popular Sunday Night Football: Objections to… Read more.
Many people (including a surprising number of women) called me patronizing and naïve for writing, among other things, the following about women making better politicians than men. I just believe a great deal of public good would be derived from a reversal of gender participation in politics at this point in the (his)tory of (man)kind… Read more.
It seems fitting that a British paper, The Daily Mail, summed up better than any American paper the events that played out, like a Shakespearean tragicomedy, in Washington today: Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Texas Senator Ted Cruz have dramatically caved in to pressure, paving the way for a Democrat-led bill to pass and… Read more.
During October 2013 the BBC’s 100 Women season will seek to shine a light on life for women in the twenty-first century – the risks, challenges and opportunities they face every day, in every country. And we want our global audiences to tell us what they think. (BBC, October 4, 2013) Well, I’ve already chimed… Read more.
I have duly commended the mission of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to bring perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes to justice. But I have also questioned why ICC prosecutors appear to be racially profiling African leaders. After all, Africans are the only ones who have been indicted since… Read more.
