Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Five years ago, Julian Assange commanded such media attention, you’d have thought he posed the greatest threat to the United States since Osama bin Laden. Yet media mentions of him soon became as noteworthy as those of Ted Kaczynski or Eric Rudolph. Exactly. As it happens, I’m on record not only decrying the cause celebre… Read more.
The World Health Organization [WHO] declared the Zika virus and its suspected link to birth defects an international public health emergency on Monday, a rare move that signals the seriousness of the outbreak and gives countries new tools to fight it. An outbreak of the Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, was detected in… Read more.
The migration crisis is only the latest issue threatening to blow the European Union asunder. From “Brexit” to “Grexit,” respective countries are chipping away the categorical imperatives of integration by reasserting the political imperatives of sovereignty. In fact, more and more Europeans are longing for the days when the EU functioned primarily as a trading… Read more.
The contamination of drinking water in Flint, Michigan, has so outraged community advocates that they now pose a powerful question: Was the city neglected because it is mostly black and about 40% poor? Several advocates say yes. They charge that Flint residents are victims of ‘environmental racism’ – that is, race and poverty factored into… Read more.
September 2001 was allegedly witness to one of the strangest road trips in history: Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando driving from New York to Ohio in an attempt to get home [to California] following the 9/11 terrorist attacks… The saga is now being dramatised in a one-off special for Sky Arts, starring Joseph… Read more.
Last week, the British Government published the long-awaited findings of its inquiry into the 2006 hit on ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. No doubt the most sensational finding is that Russian President Vladimir Putin had to have ordered FSB (formerly KGB) agents to execute it: Mr. Putin is likely to have signed off the poisoning of… Read more.
Real Football fans will tell you that the most exciting day of the NFL season is Conference Championship Sunday, not Super Bowl Sunday — as casual fans might say. (“Historic NFL Championship Sunday,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 22, 2007) AFC The media hyped the American Conference Championship (AFC) game between the New England Patriots and… Read more.
The world is all atwitter about the “lily-white Oscars.” Because, for the second consecutive year, the 20 nominees for best performances are all white. I commented on this racial snub when it happened last year. And, frankly, everything I wrote back then remains as relevant today. Most notably, that commentary, titled “Oscar Snubs Selma. Good,”… Read more.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is a black-swan phenomenon. Nothing demonstrates this quite like so many commentators having egg on their faces for mistakenly predicting its demise. The only reason I don’t is that I have never underestimated the ignorance or gullibility of large segments of the American people. Such commentaries as “On Syria (and almost… Read more.
