Judgment at Nuremberg on Roman Holiday
Today, I remind my Kossack friends of some recent history that most of them have less reason to remember than I do.The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is a multilateral treaty that has...
View ArticleNY Times Sets Me Off
Charles A. Kupchan published an op-ed in the Times titled "Democracy in Egypt Can Wait."His position is that the US needs to "downsize its ambitions" for democracy in the Middle East generally and...
View ArticleHistorical Roots of the March on Washington
Anniversaries matter in the short run as memory markers and in the long run they become traditions. The year 1963 was the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and it was...
View ArticleThe Butler Kicks Butt
Here's my two word review of Lee Daniels' The Butler: See it.I'm not an actor, but I love the craft. It's a rare pleasure to watch a professional like Lawrence Olivier, who could spin a bit of gold...
View ArticleTo Twerk or not to Twerk
Is anybody besides me nonplussed by the verb "to twerk"?Seems to me like a lap dance, only very public.I'm not calling for a ban or saying I would disown my granddaughters if they twerked.I guess it...
View ArticleA Dream Deferred for American Indians
In my previous column leading up to August 28, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, I sketched a prosperous nation built with stolen black labor on stolen Indian lands....
View ArticleChasing the Dream
Martin Luther King, Jr. famously told the nation, “I have a dream.” Less famously, he said on April 3, 1968: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not...
View ArticleI have a Cherokee Dream
In a series of columns keying on Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, I’ve asked Indians to dream. I’ve asked whether we have dreams worth risk and multi-generational effort. Without...
View ArticleThe Message I Sent to the White House
If you believe, as I believe, that this POTUS is different, a great roar of opinion to the White House email might make a difference.I encourage my fellow Kossacks to find out.There are two legal...
View ArticleFrom the Bottom of the Barrel
I guess I should explain why I'm on a bunch of Repug mailing lists while complaining that it's bad for my blood pressure. When I was teaching at Indiana University and living in Bloomington, my son...
View ArticleCruz Control
Texas senator Ted Cruz thinks he is one of the principal contenders for the Republican nomination to be the next President. He represents the Tea Party wing of the GOP, a source of much craziness and...
View ArticleLacking the Right Stuff
It's becoming clear why I don't really have the right stuff to be a rich man.My wife and I have real IRAs that are about to shrink when the GOP opens another set of self-inflicted wounds in our body...
View ArticleBrother, Can you Spare a...bit of Wisdom?
Kossacks are a smart bunch, so crowdsource me some wisdom. Please.I am responsible for a family stock portfolio. I never owned a stock until my mid-fifties. I had no business education, but a solid...
View ArticleLetter From the Slow Lane
Dear Card Services:I do not have any dispute that will delay paying my bill but, boy howdy, I really have a dispute. This dispute just arose for the second time and I now reduce it to writing because...
View ArticleThrowing Scraps to the Wogs
There’s a piece in the September 21 New York Times about waves of legislation beginning in California to expand the social integration of non-citizens, partially in response to the Republican Party...
View ArticleShould Texas Rule Japan?
We got into a discussion over on my Facebook page about why, in the opinion of a number of mostly Texan friends, Prime Minister Abe of Japan should just get all those nuclear power plants over there...
View ArticleWhipping the Rubes
Rep. Peter King was on Morning Joe explaining in abecedarian terms, de-shin-bone-be-connected-to-de-leg-bone terms, why you can't just "de-fund Obamacare."This is why I committed the cardinal sin of...
View ArticleEpiphany about a Debate off the Rails
There are no flame wars on my Facebook page because I follow a one degree of separation rule. Every "friend" is either someone I know in meatspace or recommended by someone I know in meatspace.So, I...
View ArticleShooing Away Bad Birds
Publishers Clearing House P.O. Box 6344 Harlan, IA 78633-4862Dear Clearinghouse Vultures:I have done everything I can do short of litigation to extract my relative, Deleta Four Privacy, from your...
View ArticleA Question for Bubba
This is semi-serious.I know exactly how Ayn Rand would answer this question, but she's gone and this is not a seance. I'm not asking Ayn Rand.I live surrounded by Bubba, and he's not mean. If Bubba...
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