I was at the annual PYM Peace Picnic recently and spoke with two WWII veterans (Neil Hartman & Warren Sawyer) – pacifist COs in medical experiments intentionally infected with hepatitis by injection or by drinking fecal water. My friend Russ Tuttle wore lice underwear in typhus tests. These are my heroes…they saved many lives. (more…)
July 19, 2010
The Roots of White Anxiety (NYTimes 7/18/10
This article helps explain some of my issues with what has become of Affirmative Action. ML King and Bayard Rustin had it right when they said poverty was a “people” problem, not a “black” problem. (more…)
July 9, 2010
A truth about Kagen — Supreme Court Nominee
Glen Beck declares that Harvard banned military recruiters from campus when Kagen was Dean of Harvard Law School. Not so. (more…)
June 27, 2010
How Many Graduates Does It Take to Be No. 1?
An article in the NYTimes today (6/27/10) reports that many high schools have given up on trying to determine who is the class valedictorian and simple give that designation to every student in the class who has a 4.0 GPA or the equivalent, resulting in many valedictorians every year. Each of them can honestly claim to be class valedictorian. Sounds pretty stupid to me, as I expressed in the following two NYTimes Comments: (more…)
June 25, 2010
I am a co-complainant to the U.N. Human Rights Council
I am a signatory and co-complainant in a formal complaint to the United Nations. We are waiting to receive a full response. (more…)
June 22, 2010
Supreme Court says counseling Peace to terrorist groups aids terrorism.
The NYTimes today reported on the Supreme Court’s decision that advising about peaceful or humane alternatives with groups that the State Department has designated as terrorist is the equivalent of aiding and abetting the enemy. I guess the U.S. follows the “shoot first, talk later” approach – oops, we can’t be doing that, that’s terrorist. So what IS the Supreme Court thinking?
One of my NYTimes Comments in response to their articles was the following: (more…)
Are incompetent folks too incompetent to know it, or do we teach them false self-esteem?
This NYTimes article presents research that attempts to establish that incompetent people are too incompetent to realize their incompetence. The authors note that those grammatically challenged actually believe that they are good writers. Sometimes overall incompetence may be the answer, but there is another possible explanation for why incompetent writers think that they are doing so well. I posted the following response on the NYTimes Comment site. (more…)
June 13, 2010
A 50th High School Reunion
Fifty years ago I graduated from Mount Hermon, a preparatory boarding school in the middle of nowhere in northwestern MA. They have since combined with their sister school across the Connecticut River, Northfield School, to form Northfield Mount Hermon. (more…)
June 7, 2010
Costs or Benefits of the Technology Age? (NYTimes Comment)
This article illustrates an extreme example of technology ruling our lives, but many of us experience the conflict between technology and “real” (human) interaction. (more…)
May 19, 2010
Blumenthal’s dubious “Vietnam Service” political campaign
I posted the following Comment in the NYTimes in response to the Senate candidate’s misleading speeches (“lies” may be too strong a word for it) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19veterans.html regarding service in Vietnam:
What bothers me even more than his inferences of having served in Vietnam is that Blumenthal’s Vietnam campaign strategy works directly against the nation’s welfare today, as he tries to generate anger over Vietnam so as to garner veterans’ votes. (more…)