Just how bad is antisemitism in Europe?  Not as bad as some alarmist suggest, but neither as benign as some might expect.  Jews live in fear in many places in the Old Continent.  Many are leaving for Israel.  Is this 1933?  No.  But neither is it 2015.  Humbling. Continue Reading...

Over 1.5 million US GIs advanced deep into Germany at the close of WWII.  They stayed in large numbers for some time - US troops are still stationed in Germany - and, according to one historian, raped as many as 190,000 German women by the time West Germany regained sovereignty in 1955, with most of the assaults taking place in the months immediately following the US invasion of Nazi Germany.  If true, this would doubtlessly undermine the Continue Reading...

The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer may be a supercilious, smug SOB and shamelessly unrepentant Iraq War advocate, but his blistering take-down of Obama's apparent negotiating stance vis-a-vis Iran is worth pondering.  We quite possibly have Tehran on the ropes, so why not go for the jugular?  A fair question.  Very fair. Continue Reading...

How do you get ahead in a party that is overwhelmingly white and that has pockets - deep pockets - of racism?  Simple: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  That has worked well for conservative performance artist Dinesh D'Souza, an Indian immigrant who has embraced bigoted whites to become one of their own, a token "darkie" that will do their intellectual bidding.  Brilliant! Continue Reading...

Who's looking out for you?  Not Bill O'Reilly.  He's looking out for himself, even if that means, well, stretching the truth - okay, outright lying.  His stock in trade is lamenting the "liberal media" and the pointy-nose elitists and, of course, defending the interests of the working man.  It's all bogus, of course, from top to bottom.  Here's a snapshot of some of his lies. Continue Reading...

What is the success for a long marriage?  Luck, at least according to Arlene Alda, wife (of 57 years) of Alan Alda, the well-known actor.  And humor.  And economic stability.  But luck most of all.  “Most likely one of us will die first,” Arlene Alda observes.  “I can’t even contemplate what that might be for either of us.  Meanwhile, we’re doing what we should be doing. Living.”  A touching vignette.     Continue Reading...

Want to understand recent events in the Middle East?  Forgeddaboutit!  Can't be done.  The place is too fragmented, too complex, too abstruse.  This isn't to say it's not worth giving it a shot.  A good place to start is the following article, which recounts the most recent hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel and which lends insight to the three-dimensional chess game that is being played in the region. Continue Reading...

Quick, what is Obama's biggest foreign policy triumph?  Killing bin Laden?  Withdrawing (mostly) from Iraq and Afghanistan?  The much-ballyhooed pivot to Asia?  It's not an impressive list.  Maybe topping the accomplishments is his not screwing up.  Giving his predecessors shambolic tenure, this may not be such a bad thing.  Still, it's not all that impressive, either.  A shame. Continue Reading...

Chris Christie, the straight-talking New Jersey pol, is running for president.  Why wouldn't he?  He's a popular GOP governor of a blue state.  And he's totally corrupt.  This article is only the tip of the iceberg - and that's not just a reference to the bridge scandal.  This man is going to jail, you'll see. Continue Reading...

Does art have a role in society?  Not really. Kurt Vonnegut once likened the cumulative firepower of all the art and literature directed against the Vietnam War to “the explosive force of a very large banana-cream pie."  Art, it seems, is just another commodity like pork bellies and oil, with its value determined in dollars and cents.  Which is why the recent attacks against Charlie Hebdo in Paris was strangely affirming by demonstrating that art Continue Reading...

President Obama has bravely confronted some longstanding problems with the nation's immigration system by attempting to positively reconcile the status 12 million-plus undocumented immigrants, some of whom came to this country as children and are American in every way yet nevertheless lack citizenship.  However, the Obama administration has also aggressively deported well over a million others, sometimes with ruinous consequences to families.  Continue Reading...

Our political system, having largely been "captured" by corporate interests, is broken.  Washington doesn't respond to the people's will so much as the desire of the rich and powerful.  We live in an oligarchy.  Why, then, try and affect change through Congress?  That's hopeless.  Better to go out on the streets - and that's precisely what's happening. Continue Reading...

ISIS, that scourge terrorizing Iraq and Syria, grew from al-Qa'ida's franchise in Iraq.  That much is known.  But less publicized is how closely Syrian intelligence worked to facilitate its development as a means of destabilizing its neighbor in Iraq led by an American-friendly government.  Yet, once again, the sorcerer's apprentice is now haunted by his maniacal creation, with ISIS knocking on Damascus' door.  Classic case of blowback.  Continue Reading...

This more or less states the obvious: our country is deeply divided along racial lines, which is played out in our politics, with the respective major parties essentially aligning with whites (GOP) and whites as well as minorities (the Democrats).  What makes this piece particularly interesting is its source: an admittedly centrist writer, but one who works at the American Enterprise Institute, a decidedly right-wing outfit.  The GOP must grow Continue Reading...

To gauge just how far rightward the GOP has shifted, even in the last 10 years, consider Jeb Bush, scion of the famous dynastic family of American politics.  Thoroughly conservative by any conceivable standard, his occasional moderation on hot-button issues like immigration makes him a non-starter for dyed-in-wool Republicans.  This all begs the question: how far right will the right get?  One wonders. Continue Reading...