Essays exploring history, politics, government, public policy, and current events. Drawing on years of teaching history, government, and English, these articles examine historical perspective, political ideas, leadership, democracy, and the forces that shape societies.
“Reince Priebus.”* That is the person to blame, in my opinion. Say his name. Say it out loud. It was Reince Priebus who was the Republican Party Chairman during the 2016 presidential election when Donald Trump — real estate developer, reality TV show host, and conservative Rush Limbaugh-talk show protégé — enacted a hostile takeover … Read more
I attended a meeting of parents for my daughter’s club soccer team last night. Much to my astonishment and chagrin, the meeting was “emotional and intense,” in the later words of the coach. Parents grew red in the face and raised their voices to each other and the coach, and for sixty long minutes it … Read more
Cognitive Dissonance: In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, or values. This afternoon I find myself suffering from cognitive dissonance. I read yesterday … Read more
I go round and round in a circle. I don’t quite know what to think about the homeless in Ventura where I live. There are new numbers of homeless people in the neighborhoods I travel in, and I have complicated and ambivalent feelings towards them. On the one hand, they are a burden to the … Read more
I was cruising around my Apple News Plus feed the other day when I came across the following article “Polls, Fake News, and Trends” by Erick Erickson. Fifteen months away from the presidential election of 2020, Erickson writes the following: American voters are exhausted. They are tired of the drama. They are tired of the … Read more
Last night I was browsing the news when I came across the following article title and lede: “WHY IS JOE ROGAN SO POPULAR?” He understands men in America better than most people do. The rest of the country should start paying attention. by Devin Gordon. I had never heard of Joe Rogan — or maybe … Read more
I spent a good chunk of this summer training for my tennis team’s USTA sectional playoffs last weekend at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center. I put in the “hard yards” both on and off the court to prepare for a weekend of intense tennis against players likely better than myself. I ended up winning neither … Read more
Portrait of an Activist Banging Head Against the Wall: Those dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade have enacted a whole series of legislative acts at the state level to try and make life difficult for women seeking to get an abortion. Mandatory waiting periods before an abortion, having to read scripts to the patient, or … Read more
“The boundaries of privacy are in dispute and its future is in doubt. Citizens, politicians and business leaders are asking if societies are making the wisest tradeoffs.” New York Times The New York Times last month launched a whole series of pieces on the danger of privacy going the way of the Dodo — with … Read more
“Fake news is cheap to produce. Genuine journalism is expensive.” Toomas Hendrik “In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.” Oscar Wilde March 12, 2019 Dear Journalists of the Present and the Future, Before I talk about the role of your chosen vocation — “journalism” — in America today, … Read more
In my last essay, I talked about the “fraying” of American society, and how loosening social mores resulted in a tiny number of lonely, disturbed young men choosing to perform acts which were taboo in earlier eras of American history. I was talking about high publicity mass shootings. But as tragic, senseless, and dramatic such … Read more
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the only mass murderers who will be named in this essay, with the exception of Mohammad Atta. I read about the recent shooting in Pittsburgh, and I had the same sick feeling in my gut I had when I previously read about the Las Vegas shooting, the Manchester Ariana Grande … Read more
“I will not allow Trump to make me crazy.” It is almost two years since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. I am still so deeply embarrassed and ashamed of this fact. I am against Trump in most aspects of his presidency, and I am a confirmed centrist — far from a … Read more
After my daughters went to sleep around nine last night I enjoyed my free hour before my own bedtime by sitting down in front of my flat screen TV to enjoy my Bose Soundbar 300 and Acoustimass (subwoofer) wireless sound system. The setup is new, and I am still seeing what it can do. Wow! … Read more
Protesters at the Gaza Strip border with Israel in May 2018. CHAOS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AGAIN It was approximately March of 1999 and I was on the steps on the backside of Congress listening to Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) speak to my students and myself. He was our local representative in Congress, and he had … Read more
Last weekend there was published a photo taken at the funeral reception for Barbara Bush, the matriarch of the Bush family who died last Tuesday on April 17, 2018 at the age of 92, having been married to George WH Bush for 73 years. Americans from across the political spectrum (except for the far left) … Read more
AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE FOR THE “INFORMATION AGE” UNITED STATES “The U.S. economy’s largest and fastest growing sectors—business services, finance, healthcare and education—have little room for high school educated workers,” notes a 2015 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. “Access to education is pretty much the arbiter of middle-class status,” said Anthony P. … Read more
March 27, 2018 I can hardly believe it. After some twenty five years of abjuring the National Rifle Association and considering them to be extremists who were more trouble than they were worth, I am about to join them. I am going to join the NRA. I am going to give them my money. I … Read more
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln It is said that “rich and powerful men are a powerful aphrodisiac for women” – I remember hearing this line during the late 1990s with the Bill Clinton “bimbo eruptions” that culminated in the infamous … Read more
President Donald Trump, Enfant Terrible February 23, 2017 Donald Trump has been president for a handful of weeks, and it has already been frustrating, excruciating, exhausting, and enraging. The purpose of this essay is to examine why I am so angry, how I can control that anger so it does not drive me crazy, and … Read more
Yes, it happened. Back in 2000 I was incredulous that my fellow Americans flocked to see Charlies’ Angels and wrote about this in my essay “Revenge of the Political Center.” I thought the idea of a Charlie’s Angles movie ridiculous at face value. Plenty of other Americans voted with their pocketbooks and bought tickets to … Read more
Today my state, California, votes in the 2016 presidential primary. By the end of the day, it should be the end of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. And I will be happy almost never to hear his name again. What a primary season it has been! Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as viable candidates for … Read more
I tend to agree with the ancient Athenians who, Pericles tells us, scorned the person who took no interest in politics — “We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.” And it is … Read more
DOING MY CIVIC DUTYAfter voting on November 3, 2009 local election… I wrote the following letter to the editor for our local newspaper but was persuaded not to send it. It was considered impolitic. Alas, I resort to posting it here: I would say a few words about the candidacy of Monique Dollone for the … Read more
THE MUSIC INDUSTRYThe American popular music business is not what it once was When digital technology in the form of CD ripping and file sharing ravaged the music industry, I did not mourn. I would see all my high school students take their music collection out of their backpacks and all the CDs were copied, … Read more
DEMOCRACY IN ACTIONGovernment rebates coming to citizens soon. I read with interest and curiosity this morning that the federal government intends to cut my wife, myself, and daughter a $1,500 check as a means to boost consumer spending, stimulate the economy, and ward off a looming recession. While any unexpected monies are welcome, I think … Read more
NEW ERA OF HIGH-DEFINITION VISUAL MEDIAMaria browses the Internet on our new HDTV. My Internet service provider, Time Warner, has always probably held that I was a strange customer. When I first called them up to order service, they were incredulous that I wanted only Internet service and no cable access for television. They had … Read more
ASSASSINATION SERVES THE CAUSE OF DISCORD“Someone shot Bhutto in the neck and chest, initial news reports claimed, and then the assassin blew himself up.” DECEMBER 27, 2007 at 6:47 a.m. An unquiet mind drove me from my bed this morning. An acute personal disappointment of the previous day, and then brooding and anger over the … Read more
VLADIMIR PUTIN“Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism.” What exactly is he calling for then? “A GOVERNMENT OF LAWS, AND NOT OF MEN” The past few years have seen the rise of a handful of authoritarian leaders around the world who have taken great strides … Read more
GUANTANAMO BAY DETENTION CENTERReasonable measure to secure our country? Or overreaction and judicial “black hole”? ON TERRORISM AND CIVIL RIGHTS: Today is the sixth anniversary of the terror attacks on September 11th, 2001. It is time to opine on a topic increasingly on my mind these past several months: civil rights in the context of … Read more