Did you know that Charles Manson and his followers were arrested and released multiple times not long before the Tate-LaBianca murders? What was the motive behind these killings? Why are files about Manson still secret, 50 years after the crimes? I’ve just finished reading Tom O’Neill’s fascinating and compelling new book about Charles Manson and […]
Cell phone video is a powerful force for Democracy. Alton Sterling’s life matters as much as mine does. Philando Castile’s life matters as much as my wife’s does. The racial problems in US law enforcement are not new but they are becoming less deniable by the day. This human catastrophe stems from problems that are […]
1976 Flashback: “You’re talented, Scott. Why do you have to get up there and lecture your elders about what’s wrong with America? They don’t want to hear it. Why don’t you give them what they want? They will love you if you do, and they’ll shower you with praise. Don’t you want that?” So spoke […]
Secret police don’t have a good reputation in America. The Nazis, Soviets and East Germans gave them a bad name. Since America is The Only Exceptional Nation, we don’t have secret police. We have “undercover officers.” Our secret police pretend to be students, entrap classmates and help create a climate of suspicion and fear on campus. […]
I do not have a terribly high opinion of nationalism. German nationalism did not work out very well for the Germans or for their neighbors. Ukrainian nationalism doesn’t look very appealing to me. Jewish nationalism doesn’t seem to be very good for the Jews these days. Here’s a nice family photograph from about 1904. These […]
The anniversary of Richard Nixon’s downfall gives us a chance to look back on our troubled history. Mr. Nixon was a racist and a crook. At the same time, compared to today’s leaders, Tricky Dick looks like a courageous, visionary genius. This should be food for thought for everybody, regardless of where we might place […]
Barak Obama wants to attack Syria, a secular state that poses no threat to our country. The President and the Secretary of State claim that the Syrian government has used poison gas against its own population. There’s no reason to believe them. The Syrian government is winning; why should it use a weapon that could […]
I got this poster in England while I was studying law at Magdalen College back in 1982. It has stood the test of time better than the ideology Maggie and her American soul-mate offered the world. “Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.” Share on Facebook
Here is a commentary I wrote about America in light of the events of September 11, 2001 less than a month after that tragic morning: October 9, 2001 Greetings, Friends: A new and dangerous phase of current events is underway. Our unelected President and his British butlers have unleashed the Dogs of War on a […]
To Vote YES on Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010! Here is a series of one-minute videos in support of Proposition 19, the California ballot initiative that will go before the voters on November 2. Way back in 1972, the California Marijuana Initiative shared office space with McGovern headquarters. I was […]
Arizona’s harsh new anti-immigrant law has received a lot of self-righteous comment from all sides. Although I deplore the racism at the heart of Arizona’s law, I believe the angry, confused white people of Arizona deserve the same compassion their undocumented brown counterparts are entitled to. I’m writing this entry from a rich suburban neighborhood […]
To Celebrate America, let’s meditate on the words of James Madison, our fourth President and Father of the US Constitution: “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts […]
Gerald F. Pearce was one of the two grandfathers I never met. He was in WWI, but not in the European trenches. Instead, Gerald Senior was in the Middle East. 90 years ago today, the Great War ended. My grandfather was in Baghdad, Iraq. Here’s what the main drag looked like on November 11, 1918: […]