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Barack and Bashar at the Bottom of the Pool

With summer becoming cool enough to warrant a shawl or sweater, my task this weekend was to clean the pool before closing. Thus occupied, I encountered Barack and Bashar”two frogs dwelling in the deep end and refusing to budge from their positions as I worked. Moving the vacuum head carefully, I would try to gently nudge the creatures away, but they would take turns launching themselves at the suction head. At one point, as I tilted the pole, lifting up just enough to capture a leaf, one of the frogs”I believe it was Barack”dared too deeply … Continue Reading »

Syria: Should We Intervene?

Symbolic killing: It’s a repulsive notion. Gang bangers do it, using killing as a rite of initiation. Shoot someone to show resolve. Many ancient societies did it, killing to send a message to the gods. Totalitarian states do it. What they lack in legitimacy they make up for with fear, preserving the credibility of their threats to destroy all dissent… . Continue Reading »

While the World Watched: Carolyn Maull McKinstry and the Birmingham Bombings

It was called “The Magic City,” “The Pittsburgh of the South” (because rich ore deposits had led to the development of a strong steel industry), the most segregated city in the country. After 1948, Birmingham, Alabama was increasingly called “Bombingham.” That was the year several African-American families moved into a hitherto whites-only neighborhood called Smithville, soon to become known as “Dynamite Hill.” … Continue Reading »

The Case That Destroyed Marriage

How did marriage lose most of its meaning? How has it gone from being regarded as an institution that formed the conjugal bond, established nuclear families, knit vital social ties across extended familial units, and forged the necessary social cohesion for the sheltering and rearing children to a more-or-less optional affirmation of love? … Continue Reading »

Beautiful, Liberal Chautauqua

Visiting Chautauqua, New York, is almost like peering into Norman Rockwell’s world decades ago. Chautauqua the lake is stunning, with Lucille Ball’s hometown of Jamestown on the southern edge. Chautauqua the village is dominated by charming early 20th century cottages, most of them immaculately maintained. Everywhere there are flowers, brick sidewalks, American flags, Adirondack chairs, and welcoming front porches. Concerts sometimes begin with the National Anthem… . Continue Reading »

Respecting And Opposing President Obama

In 2012, despite a more favorable political environment, Mitt Romney managed to do worse among Latinos and Asian-Americans than John McCain in 2008. Romney’s voters skewed older than Obama’s and will likely be dying off faster. The younger cohorts are increasingly nonwhite, and Obama won enormous margins among nonwhite voters… . Continue Reading »

Obamacare as Civil Right

In his speech last week marking the fiftieth anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, President Obama tried to equate the civil rights revolution with the health care revolution he has undertaken through the Affordable Care Act… . Continue Reading »

A Chapel of Consequence

CRACOW”The chapel in the archbishop’s residence in Cracow”which everyone calls by its street name, “Franciszkanska 3””has witnessed a lot of modern Church history. Here, clandestine seminarians watched the city’s heroic archbishop, Adam Stefan Sapieha, put the terrible problems of the long, dark night of Occupation before the Lord, every night during World War II… . Continue Reading »

Marty Glickman’s Triumph

For a moment, it all seemed like a dream. Young Marty Glickman, an eighteen year old from Brooklyn, was at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, ready to run the 4 by 100 relay, in hopes of winning gold. It was early in Hitler’s dictatorship, but Jews had already been persecuted for several years. As a Jewish American athlete, proud of his heritage, and proud to represent his country, this was Marty’s opportunity to help expose Hitler’s mad theories about Aryan supremacy”just as Jesse Owens, his African-American teammate, had humiliated the Nazis by excelling in his events… . Continue Reading »

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