Blog

14 Mar

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized

Before we look at the gender dimensions behind the ghastly situation in Ukraine, there are some other news stories that demand notice, even if only in passing. Rising gas prices and the burden to the environment, for one. Florida's “Don't Say Gay” bill, for another, now passed into law. It bans teaching that same-sex lovers are human beings to children who are not “age appropriate”—not that such teaching is done in Florida schools anyway. COVID deaths worldwide reached 6 million. The Amazon rainforest hurtled toward irreversible change. And a happy after-the-fact International Women's Day to you. Am I not your cheerful blogger? But oh, how I do like to at least try to look on the bright side of things. And three news items come to the fore immediately, although the third has taken more than a century to crawl there. First item: a jury found Guy Reffitt guilty of obstruction...

07 Mar

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized

The important thing to remember is that by the time these words land in your brain, everything will have changed. Things are moving so fast that I won't keep repeating the phrase “as of now,” but please just factor it in. To start, if you're wondering what you can do to help an embattled Ukraine, let me right at the top here add to the list of organizations you may already have compiled. Here are two more, but important ones. The Kyiv Independent was envisioned and launched by former staffers of the Kyiv Post, a well-respected Ukrainian newspaper whose owner shuttered its doors and fired the entire team only three months ago, in a move considered to be retaliation for editorial independence. Now, relying almost solely on support from readership and donors, The Kyiv Independent faces continued financial challenges as its journalists work to provide the world...

14 Feb

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized
I'm grateful to the writer J.C. Hallman for the details below, from his excellent article in The Forum, a publication of the African American Policy Forum, founded by Kimberlé Crenshaw.

13 Dec

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized
Interesting, the things we've learned--and haven't learned--in the past 100 years. I can't help wondering whether we'll have learned some lessons, or most, or all, in the next 100. Or perhaps none? OMG.

06 Dec

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized

We seem to be in the middle of vigilantism--so we had better understand it. Robin Hood, sure--but the Ku Klux Klan? Batman, yeah! But the Irish paramilitary army? The resemblance isn't limited to pointy hats and face masks. That 13th Century folklore outlaw supposedly stole from the rich and gave to the poor. But he's folklore, and likely was an ordinary thief escaped to the greensward, his merry men a bunch of drunken louts, and Maid Marian an enabler. But there they are, Hollywood's anti-heroes: Superman, Batman (and Robin too), almost every role Clint Eastwood ever played, Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver," right up to today's hit TV series, "Dexter," about a lovable, boyish vigilante--who's a serial killer. The vigilante ethos existed long before the word was introduced into English from Latin via Spanish. The concept can be found throughout the Bible, for example in Genesis 34, in the account of...