Year-end columns usually highlight the high points. What to do with a year that is an accumulation of “low points?” If “Comedy is tragedy plus time,” this could be a very funny […]
Out of My Mind: 2025 The Year that Was
Opinion: Out of My Mind: Who Will Lead? Rudderless ships of State in Stormy Seas
There is a clear crisis of leadership in the West. When we look around our nation (the USA) and our world (the only one we have), we can easily determine who leads […]
Opinion: Out of My Mind:The Autopsy of American Democracy Not Dead Yet…Monty Python
American Democracy isn’t dead yet but is under attack and on life support. Who believed that our guardrails and the spines of so many legislators and businessmen would crumble so fast? Many […]
The Agony of a Pro-Palestinian Zionist
There’s tension in my title. With all the killing, suffering, hopelessness and despair, my agony isn’t central. Yet, it drives my effort to understand the complexities that cause our moral compasses to […]
Out of My Mind: July 4th Message: Where You Going to Run to?
I hear friends and acquaintances from the left to the right threatening to leave America if the “Wrong” guy is elected. I hear people complaining about our many problems and challenges. The […]
Out of My Mind: Protests in the 60s & Today
I’ve never received so many requests to write about a topic as this: The current “horrifying” campus protests in comparison to our “righteous” protests of the ’60s. I did survive Civil Rights […]
Out of My Mind: Free Speech and the First Amendment: Our Most Misunderstood Amendment
Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of […]
Out of My Mind: The War with Iran Turns Hot
Almost every war begins with a tragic series of miscalculations. Nations get fooled into not understanding the gravity of their actions, and sometimes, the whole world pays the price. Today, three hours […]
Out of My Mind: Killer Satellites & Political Lies
We have a crisis. It was leaked by a conservative Congressman that the United States is under threat from Russia—not today and not immediately, but a threat nonetheless. The Russians, he leaked, […]
Out of My Mind: The New Old Anti-Semitism
I first encountered anti-Semitism in 1950 while watching our tiny new TV. I saw bodies piled up and bulldozers pushing them into open graves. I saw barely living skeleton people in striped […]
Out of My Mind: Conservatives Aren’t Always Wrong (Nor Liberals Always Right)
We politicize everything: sex, gender, wars, viruses, masks, race and religion. However, as Obama said, “We are not a red nation or a blue nation. We are purple.” We are a blend […]
Out of My Mind: Is Israel a Racist State?
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal characterized Israel as a racist state. Her charge was itself racist, offensive, and anti-Semitic. It was also both true and meaningless. The Squad also calls Israel an Apartheid state. […]
Out of My Mind: The Scales of Compassion
As I write this, the world’s attention is drawn to the passengers trapped (or dead) on a submersible that was searching for the Titanic. We can’t help but put ourselves in their […]
Out of My Mind: On Artificial Intelligence and Organic Intelligence
Let me begin with my ending. I am not terrified by A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). I’m far more afraid of our own Organic Intelligence. The slingshot, catapult, gun, cannon, and atomic bombs were […]
Out of My Mind: You Dirty (Yellow-Bellied) Rat*
*Actual Jimmy Cagney quote from Angels with Dirty Faces Everyone who follows the news knows that New York City has a rat problem. No, I’m not casting aspersions on their politicians—fit targets […]
Out of My Mind: On Wokeness
Unless you’ve been asleep, you’ve run into and been confused by the term “Woke.” This is understandable since some use it as a synonym for “enlightened” and others as an accusation of […]
The Cause of Gun Violence Finally Revealed
We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us –Pogo Every time there’s a shooting, we relive the film Groundhog Day. We debate if it’s the guns that kill people or the […]
Out of My Mind: Political Commentary
Hypocrisy, Mendacity & Cynicism: A Trifecta of American Politics The picture of AOC (Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez) and Matt Gaetz chatting, seemingly amicably, during the nearly violent chaos of the Kevin McCarthy confirmation hearings […]
Why There Will Be No Nuclear War
Out of My Mind I am well aware that by the time you read this, I could have been proven tragically wrong. I know that when the World Affairs Council met in […]
