War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
In the last few months, Gail Collins of the New York Times has become one my most-favorite pundits, making clear, concise points with a keen sense of humor. This morning she looks at those insufferable computer upgrade notices that are seemingly always there, and always ready, willing and able to promise a more-wonderful life in the…
As the economy tanks, the more wealthy of us are also going down the drain, albeit in slower, easier fashion. From the New York Times yesterday: But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer…
UPDATE BELOW “I’m glad you’re not overreacting. What do you wanna run?” “I don’t know. What do I wanna run? — They didn’t do it.” “They didn’t do it? You don’t have close to that. You have unattributed cops.” “She doesn’t have ‘Gotcha!’” “You don’t have “Gotcha!” for page one until you have a shot…
Today forty years ago the Woodstock Music Festival started and although it was a supposedly major US cultural event, a big chuck of Americans were unaware of a revolution that started and ended on a farm in upstate New York — including yours truly. (Illustration found here). In the summer of 1969 I was 20-years-old…
Although music didn’t die today, one of its real genius-producers did — Les Paul, dead at 94. Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar alongside leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. … Mr. Paul’s style encompassed the twang of country music,…
Today 60 years ago — Aug. 12, 1949 — was the fourth installment of what has been termed the “Geneva Conventions,” a series of documents meant not to stop war (what piece of paper could do that?), or define weaponry, but to set humanitarian standards for treatment of war victims. The first three ‘conventions’ —…
After months of bad health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister to JFK and Ted Kennedy, died early this morning at age 88. Shriver was a major champion for the mentally handicapped, founding the Special Olympics in 1968 — the first event, however, was in her own backyard in 1962. From the New York Times obit: “When the…
Bill Clinton hasn’t ever meant much to me, other than being a greasy political animal with bad taste, thus seemingly just an inadvertent knuckle-head. (Illustration found here). This past week, however, the old bubba-boy seemed to have pulled off a neat turn-of-the-hand, if the appearance is true, by bringing two US journalists home after they’d been…
Just a reminder, 64 years ago today Hiroshima was tagged. And Frida Berrigan at tomdispatch has a view this week on the Hiroshima legacy in today’s world: Keep in mind as well that the bombs which annihilated two Japanese cities and ended so many lives 64 years ago this week were puny when compared to today’s typical…
Via ClimateProgress this morning: We show that increases in temperature cause annual mean area burned in the western United States to increase by 54% by the 2050s relative to the present-day … with the forests of the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains experiencing the greatest increases of 78% and 175% respectively. Increased area burned results in…