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.
Worth the read every single day? TO READ OR NOT TO READ? I read two newspapers everyday. It is the one ritual I promised to keep after the upheaval of becoming a father, the daily activity I would keep to bridge the gap the life between the “before” and “after” metamorphosis of becoming responsible for … Read more
USC crunches Idaho 38-10 in 2007 season opener SPORTS AND BOOZE So last night my father and I walked around Balboa Island in my hometown of Newport Beach, California. The moon beamed down on us as we walked and talked in the darkness, and the air still had a touch of the heat that had … Read more
“…and now i own and run porn sites.” So I receive the below message on Myspace the other day from a student who I taught digital video (Adobe Premiere and After Effects) and graphics (Photoshop) to a few years back: I had you for vizcom and now i own and run porn sites. you were … Read more
“The president is in good health,” Bush spokesman Tony Snow said Monday, July 23, 2007. “There is no reason for alarm.” WHY? Last Saturday I read that President Bush underwent anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy, whereupon Vice President Cheney officially was in charge of the Executive Branch for a few hours. I was also informed … Read more
THUGS WITH MASKS WHO TAKE ORDERS FROM NOBODY God be praised for Netflix! Over the past three years, the mail order DVD rental service has significantly enriched my life in a way no conventional bricks-and-mortar video store could. Please keep in mind I am not a movie junkie. In fact, the number of movies I … Read more
“Hillary Clinton is the right candidate. The nation is in deep need for a mother figure who will lead the people out of a violent world and back into caring for the poor and the disabled, mostly caring for our children, our future.”Daphne Zimanquoted in LA Times of February 16, 2007 I read the above … Read more
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”Thomas Jefferson THE “DIS-UNITED” STATES OF AMERICA I would like to think that bipartisanship can work in the United States. JFK once wrote, … Read more