Race
Nikki Haley’s clumsy fumbling of questions about American racism — call it Haley’s comment — leads me to wonder how many of us truly understand what is perhaps the most divisive factor among Americans. It eclipses class, politics, gender, religion, geography, even IQ. Do I believe America is a racist
Politics
At the recommendation of friends, I took a book on my recent vacation. The book, “The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics,” is the most cynical nonfiction I have read, drawing parallels between how democracies and autocracies operate. But. . . Authors Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and
Jim Kenney
For the past couple of years, as we sailed into October, I noticed the city put out a notice that City Hall would be closed on the second Monday, for “a holiday.” It did not mention the name of the holiday. Sssssh. Columbus Day. Mayor Kenney now has abandoned flying
Politics
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds. . . “ — Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Speech, 1865, with the war