They’re here, they’re real, but what do they mean for humanity?
Picture this: some guy who graduated from a public high school in Queens, who was the son of a repairman and grandson of European immigrants, comes up to you and says it’s possible to manufacture something called a “time crystal,” a new kind of crystal that without any input of…
But American right-wing media is China’s “useful idiot”
After the fall of Kabul, conservative news and opinion outlet National Review was quick to fill its front page with how terrible President Biden’s leadership has been, and how he has shown the world how weak America is by withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan. Of course there was no mention…
Power not only corrupts, but stupefies the proud
Afghanistan is the Graveyard of Empires. Afghanistan is a swamp, the more you move, the more you bog down. — Suhail Shaheen
Over the past twenty years, most of us have heard of Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan. It is a truly ancient city, having been founded by its…
Her spite lasted more than a lifetime, but may not have been her fault
Self-imposed guilt is what so often forces women to shackle themselves to their emotional jailors.
“I have to take care of your Grandma. She keeps telling me that no one else will take care of her, and I can’t leave her alone.” Every time my mother and I tried to…
Why you’d agree with conservatives if you were in their shoes
This morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, the major stories were about the looming disaster of our military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the approach of Tropical Storm Fred, and the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19. The latter story illustrated new overflow tents in a Mississippi hospital parking garage, the shortage of ICU…
Why America should reconsider its near-worship of military vets and retirees
“Thank you for your service.”
I’ve heard that phrase so many times that I’m really, truly tired of it. Yes, I spent 20 years in the Navy, and yes, I nearly died (and have the scars from 140+ stitches and staples on my scalp to prove it), but please stop…
Why social tolerance is inversely proportional to available personal space
A Country Boy’s Fears
He grew up in a place where cars passed by maybe three or four times an hour on a busy day. The closest city was fifteen miles away, and to him, any city with 12,000 residents was almost a metropolis. His family had an acre of…
And how my son made it so much easier
“I wish you’d just married a Black girl instead.” These were the first words my mom said to me as I stepped onto the front porch of her house in the Mississippi Delta in the early months of 1990. I wasn’t offended — in fact, I knew that by not…
Feed the poor or reach for the stars? We must do both.
Over the past several days there have been a lot of my fellow Social Justice Warriors decrying the vanity-fueled spaceflights of billionaires Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, and for the very best of reasons. After all, if the ten richest billionaires applied just their profits made during the pandemic…
And only moms can speak it.
If English is not your first language, you’d probably agree with me that English is the [insert insult here] language in human history e.g. “to”, “two”, “too”, “toot”, “tutu”…you get the idea. I’m sure every other language has its idiosyncrasies and little surprises. My second language is Tagalog (Filipino), and…
