Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Members of the China Philharmonic Orchestra play during a rehearsal in Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 12, 2015. The visiting China Philharmonic Orchestra will jointly perform with Tehran Symphony Orchestra. (Xinhua, August 13, 2015) This is China using soft power to supplant the United States as the preferred superpower patron throughout the developing world. By contrast,… Read more.
In light of the recent trend set by Angela Merkel of Germany and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Bachelet’s election would be encouraging to those of us who welcome the seepage of womanpower through the crevices of political and corporate governance around the world… Here’s to ‘the fairer sex’ – not only as indispensable guardians of home and… Read more.
No heterosexual was prouder than I was last year when Michael Sam became the first openly gay player drafted into the NFL. He made history, but I had misgivings almost immediately. Not least because he signed with the Oprah Winfrey Network to turn his Football career into a Kardashian-style reality show even before he signed… Read more.
It’s hardly surprising that the U.S. media are providing obsessive coverage of Donald Trump’s egocentric campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. After all, nothing attracts today’s ratings-driven media quite like a freak show or impending doom. Trump’s campaign offers both. Meanwhile, the media are providing relatively little coverage of Bernie Sanders’s holistic campaign for… Read more.
Too often women enable bad behavior in men, Too often women are their own worst enemies. How did you celebrate Women’s Day … in SA? Don’t get me started on Bic’s chauvinistic decree that, in order to be successful, a woman must: Look like a girl Act like a lady Think like a man… Read more.
The U.S. Army’s outgoing chief of staff warned Wednesday that reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq is becoming harder and that partitioning the country ‘might be the only solution…’ General Raymond Odierno, who once served as the top U.S. commander in Iraq and retires Friday after nearly 40 years in uniform, said the U.S.… Read more.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, a time to build up… A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace… [But above all… Read more.
My socialist affinities are such that I used to be a big fan of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez: His critics argue that Chávez is merely expropriating property in a Robert Mugabe-style land grab. (No doubt Mugabe is flattered by the allusion.) But Chávez has declared it a ‘war on the latifundio’ (or rich estate owners),… Read more.
A Watchman An independent bookstore in Michigan is offering refunds for customers who were unhappy with Go Set A Watchman, the recently released controversial novel by Harper Lee… ‘It is disappointing and frankly shameful to see our noble industry parade and celebrate this as ‘Harper Lee’s New Novel’. This is pure exploitation of both literary… Read more.
The end of Jon Stewart’s sixteen-year run as host of The Daily Show on Thursday got relatively little media coverage. The reason for this is that the entire country was tuned in to FOX News for the first Republican presidential debate … featuring Donald J. Trump. The irony, if not the poetic justice, cannot be lost on Stewart. After all, more… Read more.
