Christmas Memories

Originally posted on Marjorie Turner Hollman:
Mom, or Grannie Kuhl, part of another Christmas ornament My sister Beth is an unashamed Christmas nut–she pulls out all the Christmas decorations every year, is thrilled with any gift pertaining  to Christmas, and simply sparkles with enthusiasm about all things Christmas-y. I, on the other hand, can be…

Parallels in Radicalism

Having just done a review of American history with one of my classes, I found this article by a Boston College historian drawing a comparison between the Republican Party of 2015 and the Democratic Party of 1860 to be interesting. This historian reminds us that John C. Breckenridge, the pro-slavery candidate of the Democrats of that … More Parallels in Radicalism

Tall Buildings

For no particularly good reason that I can think of, I was invited to go to New York for a day of sifting through scholarship applications. This is the view from my hotel floor (24th). Here in midtown Manhattan, a quite small but luxurious room goes for over $300 a night, which I personally did … More Tall Buildings

The Gang

While I have been more amused than concerned about the machinations of the butt-end of the House of Representatives, this article about the various groups that just successfully deposed Boehner, aborted McCarthy, and are eager to stage a coup that will shrinkwrap the Federal government to the size of a package of hotdogs has me … More The Gang

Ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

The enigmatic children’s rhyme “Ring around the rosie” may be about smallpox in the 16th century, but then again, it could just as easily be about any other existential threat to society or humanity. For the American Empire, that ol’ end-of-the-world feeling is coming around. The fires are burning in the US House of Representatives today. 

Fear. Terror. Panic. Cold Shivers. Cold suspicion……..Hate.

From Steve Wilkerson comes THIS ARTICLE about the fear here in the US that has effectively slammed the doors on hundreds of thousands of desperate Syrians trying to escape slaughter by their government. We refused to accept large numbers of Jews in the ’30s and ’40s, too, and look what happened. We count the Holocaust as … More Fear. Terror. Panic. Cold Shivers. Cold suspicion……..Hate.