I'm sorry to inform some of you of this.  I know how hard it can be to relinquish your illusions when they are so widespread.

The excess of testosterone in a man's system is what burns out the hair follicles.  It's a matter of hormones; some men have more than others and… Read full post »

I feel like we've been through a battle together, in the same regiment, defending the same borders.

I was especially riveted to my "post" when you came under attack from the early Obama supporters, many of whom became rude, nasty, and intolerant.  They held you somehow accountable in ways t… Read full post »

Yesterday at my polling place a senile woman was being escorted across the room.  It was the lobby or her apartment building.  Every time her home care worker got close, the old woman screamed at her in terror, "go away," "don't touch me," "help, I'm being molested."

The care giver… Read full post »

I don't know how many saw them, but there were a number of posts by bloggers who refused to vote.  That's how they to got our attention.  The candidates lost their confidence because they fought each other, or  it is one's prerogative not to vote just as it is to vote--and it's… Read full post »

It's been over three years now.  I started out as a letter writer at Salon.com and transferred over after OS opened up.

It's almost become obsessive at times.  I'm at 600 or 700 hundred posts, (for both sites)  without counting comments.  I know there are folks with a hell of… Read full post »

Obama is elected.  There will always be the archetypal need for power, order, and control.  But the continuum can shift more to the other side.

It's most obvious in the candidates ages.  McCain is old enough to be Obama's father.  The replacement of the father by the son isn't hig… Read full post »

The demographics explaining Obama's rise are now in.  (See Salon, "Why Barack Obama is Now Electable" by Walter Shapiro.)

Interestingly, not much of it is particularly new if you've been following the election from an intuitive standpoint. If you don't know Obama's initial appeal was to the "mil… Read full post »

Finally, the last debate is over, and Obama won by a nearly unanimous decision, but the question is whether many so-called liberals will now go back to sleep.

Obama faced a far more formidable opponent when he faced Hillary, and at a time when he was still earning his chops. He's… Read full post »

I have two relatives I love whose politics I find abominable.

My Uncle (Fred) lives in Fla.  He's my godfather.  He moved down there after leaving his wife and children when she was diagnosed as schizophrenic.   He's also the only other writer in the family.  When he sta… Read full post »

Pete Seeger is doing his last concert in NYC this Nov. with Arlo Guthrie.

If you don't know who Pete is it'd be hard to put down a few words that could do it.  I remember singing his songs in my bedroom as a boy.  He did a lot at the… Read full post »

Although they are crucial issues, I do not  think this election is ultimately important because of the economy, the Iraq War, health care, Sarah Palin's proximity to the White House, the obliteration of the Constitution by Cheney's manipulations and the defection of the Congress, or Obama's calm… Read full post »

I went to a student hang-out to watch the debate.  They watched about the first third then went back to drinking and flirting.  It was nice to see some things never change.

Palin did better than expected.  I wasn't looking forward to it.  I thought I'd have to be embarra… Read full post »

When a politician like Olmert throws in the towel you know there's trouble.

But when a politician like Olmert makes his last speech a mea culpa it's disconcerting.  Who is he speaking to?  The temptation is not to believe anything out of the five corners of his mouth.  Since when does… Read full post »

The first book I ever read cover to cover was "Squanto, the Indian Boy."  When we played cowboys and Indians, I played the Indian.  On Sunday, we watched old Westerns on Bill Kennedy's Showtime in Detroit.  I rooted for the "injuns" even if Gabby Hayes wasn't one of them.

I thought… Read full post »

I'm not a Scientologist.  I've had some close friends who are, visited a center a long time ago, and took a pass.  I know about their infamous history of treachery and even death among their hierarchy.  I'm sure every critic of the religion has some knowledge of an unacceptab… Read full post »

My wife and I were in couples therapy at a teaching facility in NYC.  We had two therapists, both women, and knew there were other therapists on the other side of a wall size one way mirror.  After two years, the therapy was going nowhere.  Both my wife and I were "posing,"… Read full post »

In Catherine Breillart's fine new movie, "The Last Mistress" there's a scene where the actress Asia Argento appears fully exposed physically.  She's in coitus with her young French nobleman straddling her leg.  She's told him he can't leave her because the passion between them binds them et… Read full post »

     This is the story I never thought I'd have to tell.  A year ago today my wife Joan passed away.  It is my spiritual belief she went on to a higher frequency that informs the entire earth.

     She contracted mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by… Read full post »

I've had it with "isms," I really have.  With feminism, it's not the lower wages, the glass ceiling, etc., and it never has been, it's the ideology and how it's being used that aggravates me. 

I backed Hillary and saw how her being a woman figured into the primary. She had to… Read full post »

I've learned after months and months of participating on Salon.com, that what most people call their political views aren't political at all--but projections of their unconscious attitudes and assumptions.

Health insurance is a good example.   Almost fifty million Americans don't have it, a… Read full post »

This is the time when elections become the least interesting to me.  The merchants of neediness are out with their hands extended, asking, "What do I do, what do I do?"  Politics is another way to get attention by withholding themselves, and playing dumb. 

If what's happened so far, w… Read full post »

_{It's a bird, it's a plane, it's superman}

But no, it's not.

To me, writing is a "container."  It's a way to hold and understand the thoughts, feelings, and images that run through me at any given time.  It provides the opportunity to "see" the maelstrom and stop time, if only for&n… Read full post »

I thought something very instructive happened yesterday on Salon.com.  If I have the story correctly, a "feed" of some sort went out on the conservative blogs that Palin was under liberal attack, and before long every writer and thread was inundated with right wing hate messages. 

There wa… Read full post »

The religious archetype that rules the Islamic world and much of the United States took centuries to evolve and to integrate. It follows the same pattern as the earlier archetypes that dominated the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Greece--that became the foundation for our own.

They started to bre… Read full post »

The only rally I've been to this year was in the small town of Beulah, Mi. located near the shores of Lake Michigan in Benzie County, the smallest county in the state.  My family built a home there over thirty years ago, and my mother has lived alone in that house… Read full post »