What Have We Done to the Rain?

When Joan Baez recorded that song, the fear was that the testing of nuclear weapons was releasing so much radioactivity into the atmosphere that living things (including humans) would be adversely affected. We don’t yet know, of course, the degree to which living things might have been (or are being) influenced by the radioactivity, but—so far, at least—we haven’t had any major biological disasters (that we know of). The current fears about the climate are based primarily on what has been global climate change” or Global Warming And it certainly seems as though our climate has been . . . → Read More: What Have We Done to the Rain?

1984 Redux

As everyone who ever read 1984 knows, George Orwell understood the importance of truth. In these times of Trump, it is worth revisiting what Orwell had to say about societies where “truth” is what the government says it is. For some relevant quotations, see George Orwell on truth. Verifiable honesty on the part of politicians is rare. I am old enough to remember . . . → Read More: 1984 Redux

The Long and Winding Road

With apologies to Paul McCartney, the winding road I have in mind for this blog is not to your door but to the 2016 elections in the US. For one reason or another, we seem to be off to an earlier and stranger start than is usually the case. The impetus for this blog post was an article in Salon by Heather Cox Richardson about the intellectual battle for the soul of the Republican Party. The article caught my attention because I started my political life as an “Eisenhower Republican” while I was still too young to vote. I liked . . . → Read More: The Long and Winding Road