history
COVID-19 is Boston’s 1721 smallpox epidemic redux
Reading Time: 5 minutes Although the coronavirus pandemic is clearly starting to ebb, as of March 9, 2022 an average of 35,496 Americans were still be being hospitalized daily with the disease, and it’s still killing 1,451 citizens each day on average, the New York Times reported. So, the current pa
Why are we so timid in defending Ukraine? It’s MAD.
Reading Time: 5 minutes MAD is the excellent reason why American President Joe Biden—along with the rest of the West—is so seemingly over-cautious in trying to defend Ukraine against the brutal Russian invasion now in progress. MAD is the canny acronym for Mutually Assured Destruction, which, in bri
Uproar over Critical Race Theory is a modern ‘Red Scare’
Reading Time: 6 minutes The quote below is apropos today for Kristi Noem, the governor of my state, South Dakota, and a visceral “critical race theory” opponent: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” This famous and consequential retort was leveled against rabid anti-communist U.S. Sen.
What did Jews ever do to deserve such epic contempt?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Why do so many people around the world seem to hate Jews? This perplexed me as a kid when I first learned about the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in school and watched horrendous black-and-white films of Nazi bulldozers shoving huge piles of dead, emaciated Jewish pr
Spain, US growing more secular at similar, relentless rates
Reading Time: 4 minutes America for decades has lagged behind Western Europe in growing more secular. Now we seem to be catching up with Spain, though.