A Tale of Two Symbolic Systems
I am angry with my friend; he has betrayed a secret of mine perhaps, or maybe instead he has formed an intimacy with persons...
The Euro: Crisis and Opportunity
The Euro is in trouble, and the news just keeps getting worse. There is now open talk of a post-Euro Europe, and such a...
Vonnegut Laid(?) to Rest
Burned-Over District, NY---I’m reading Charles J. Shields’s absorbing new biography of Kurt Vonnegut, And So It Goes, and while its morose subject deservedly never...
The View From Your Front Porch
Queens, NY -- The idea was to design an English village from scratch, within railroad-commuting distance of Manhattan. It was meant to include homes...
The Lovely Real and the Long Game
One pernicious aspect of our age is its commitment to techne, the quasi-religious belief that all manner of things shall be made well with...
iHero: Steve Jobs, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Modern Heroism
The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was a civil rights legend and American hero. Born deep in the Jim Crow south during the 1920s, he grew...
Occupy Oligarchy!
The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has proved to be significant in its appeal – a majority of Americans support the movement, even though it...
The View From Your Front Porch
Nashville, Tennessee -- This is a tale of two neighborhoods, a move from one to the other, and the inherent contradictions of gentrification.
Our old...
Power Made Perfect in Weakness
If we expect others to rely on our fairness and justice we must show that we rely on their fairness and justice.
—Calvin Coolidge
My wife...
