Inside My Head These are strange times. They are strange for me, strange for my family and strange for my country and the world. I am certainly the first human being in the history of mankind to pass into irrefutable old age (65) and spend too much time thinking about my state and the state of the world. I am sure that no one thinks about stuff as clearly as I do. This is why…
I Cry for Stalin I recently watched for the nth time, The Death of Stalin and found it hilariously tragic or perhaps tragically hilarious. It is fun to imagine that powerful men might be the bumbling yet funny idiots that the Politburo of 1953 appears to be in this movie. The scene of them discovering and then moving Stalin’s non responsive body into his bed may be one of the funniest scenes in movie history.…
Renegade Nation Our mantra as a nation has always been E Pluribus Unum or “Out of Many, One.” Our new mantra might be more accurately changed to Quid Dicere, Quid Faciunt , which translates to “Say anything, do anything.” The recent news from Washington is that as Congress moves to enforce its constitutionally-given obligation to balance back against the Executive Branch of government, the President has decided that he’s not having any of it. He…
What a Difference a Day Makes Easter Sunday is meant to be a day of rebirth. I’ve never been a strict interpretationalist when it comes to the Bible, so you won’t see me talking about rising from the dead so much as mentally doing some major Spring cleaning. We do all have our “come to Jesus” moments in life and I feel as though thanks to AG William Barr, who could have given this report…
Sneaky Pete When I first heard Elizabeth Warren speak on the topic of bank regulation, I considered her a reactionary socialist. Over the years, I have listened carefully to her ideas and think she has many fine and well-reasoned ideas that would greatly benefit the nation. Universal healthcare and even universal income are enlightened and forward-looking ideas that could make a positive and meaningful improvement in the life of Americans. That, of course, would hinge…
Things Fall Apart Fast Tonight I feel like I am once again watching the final death throes of the Trump circus. I say once again because I must admit I have felt this way before several times. It has been amazing to witness the attempted hijacking of our country twice in my lifetime. I was very aware of it all during college, and I was as happy as anyone to see the Nixon Presidency unravel,…
What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor? It’s early in the morning and I don’t know what to do with my drunken sailor. On the one hand I need him and on the other hand a drunken sailor is more a liability than an asset. Can you still keel-haul someone? For those unfamiliar with the practice, it is an odd and drastic punishment that was used in the Dutch and perhaps English navies to…
The United States Versus Rita Lovely Rita, meter maid, where would we be without you? She had worked for the NYPD Traffic Section, Staten Island 121st Precinct on Richmond Terrace for eighteen years. She was a graduate of Curtis High School, where Rita had learned English very quickly by necessity. Her mother Adriana was from Guatemala, where Rita and her brothers and sisters were born. They had come to Staten Island when Bill Clinton was…
The Ida Lupino Effect For some reason, an obscure movie that starred Ida Lupino has had a lasting effect on me. The movie is called Women’s Prison and was released in 1955. It tells the story of a brutal women’s maximum-security prison where the guards are charged with being more brutal than the inmates. A young woman reporter named Brenda arranges to go to prison on fake charges to investigate the accusations of guard abuse. …
Immigration Nation Not unlike many weeks over the past three years, this week seems to be all about immigration in the national news. This week it’s about Trump firing everybody from the Secretary on down at the Department of Homeland Security. He wants a tougher stance it seems. DHS was established as a cabinet-level agency within a month of the 9/11 attacks, specifically with the mission to “develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive…