Of the issues on the front burner of the Republican campaign so far, none has been more prominently paraded than the frenzy over Planned Parenthood. Most dramatic has been a version of guerilla theatre of the right in the form of heavily edited and secretly recorded videos purporting to show that Planned Parenthood profits from … Continue reading
Yesterday morning, Pope Francis addressed a Joint Session of Congress, and talked, among other things, about climate change. He didn’t use the term climate change, but the audience knew what he was referring to. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect … Continue reading
I recently published this op-ed on the politics of trade. Continue reading
In the middle of the night last Tuesday someone hung a piece of rope in a tree on the Duke campus. A cheap, yellow, synthetic rope, the kind you might use to hold up a tarp on a camping trip. The rope was taken down before dawn. Few saw it in person, but there was a … Continue reading
As the tension between Greece and Germany (as the financial leader of the EU) continues, old stories are oozing out. Last week, Bild, a leading German news magazine, published an editorial under the blazing banner: “Nein! Keine weiteren Milliarden für die gierigen Griechen!” (“No! No more millions for the greedy Greeks!”) The choice of “greedy” evoked old stereotypes of … Continue reading
It has been nearly a month since Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were shot and murdered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Deah was a dental student at the University of North Carolina, Yusor was to enter the same school next year, and Razan … Continue reading
When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu addresses Congress this week, he will have appeared more often than any other foreign leader in American history, excepting Winston Churchill, who was also bequeathed this high honor and distinct privilege three times. Pretty fair company. Speeches to a Joint Session of Congress are almost always part of … Continue reading
