Government is handling youth unemployment with: 1. student loans––which financially hobble recipients 2. the Peace Corps––which exposes volunteers to criminal attack 3. the military––which risks life and limb. Destroying and rebuilding are big businesses with political clout. 4. prison for victimless crimes––which cripples economically and socially. Incarcerating fellow citizens is another lucrative business with political clout. All require extorting from taxpayers money they might otherwise have used to hire youth.
Charles Ferguson’s award-winning documentary on the economic Depression that has stunned and devastated many in our generation, and blighted our descendants’ hopes, dreams, and opportunities. The major players are old enough for their character (or lack thereof) to be written on their faces. Watching the guilty being interviewed, I was reminded of vermin caught in a spotlight, evading, side-stepping, hemming and hawing, scurrying for cover. I’m grateful not to have the nauseating job of being… read more →
BRIDGE OF SPIES, 2015, screenplay by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers. A suspenseful true story with excellent characterization and dialogue. During the Cold War, American lawyer James Donovan, played by Tom Hanks, is recruited to defend arrested Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, played by Mark Rylance, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers, played by Austin Stowell.
WINGS OF THE DOVE, a 1997 film from Henry James’ 1902 novel, was nominated for four Academy Awards. Sandy Power won a Satellite award and BAFTA nomination for best costume desire, John Beard a Satellite Award for best art direction and production design, and Eduardo Serra a British Society of Cinematographers award. The beautiful locations include Venice’s St. Mark’s and Palazzo Barbaro. Kate Croy, played by Helena Bonham Carter, is an impoverished woman who has… read more →
E. O. Wilson published “Sociobiology” in 1975, revolutionizing the social sciences, bringing a breath of fresh air into staid anthropology. Reading his latest book, I’m amazed that it was written by a man whose eyesight was so poor that he spent much of his life studying ants––because that was what he could see. He surveys all of life on earth from an Olympian perspective––zooming in on fascinating details––and a time horizon ranging from years to… read more →
Alexandra Day’s book for children in the lower grades is about a little boy who hears a story with a fairy godmother. Wanting a fairy godfather, he requests one. He’s dyslexic. Guess who responds. What a charming premise! In contrast with most children’s books, the art is good and the vocabulary not dumbed-down.
Charles Seife’s book about the Internet reveals surprising things about Amazon, Facebook, Google, email, search engines, sock puppetry, and Wikipedia. There are fake individuals, academic journals, and corporations. If something is free, you aren’t the customer; you are the product being sold. Think about it! One man has 110,000 books online. Thanks to widespread education and underemployment, too many people are writing and too few are reading. We are inundated with books and other print… read more →
Is it Donald Trump’s job to split, discredit, and discombobulate the Republicans so that Hillary becomes President?
During his long career, the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel, M.D., has studied this phenomenon with a mind that is both open and scientifically rigorous. A lifelong learner, careful thinker, and meticulous writer, he expresses difficult concepts in words that enable the nonscientist reader to comprehend them. The desire to believe can affect research results, so sound research design is imperative, conducted double-blind with enough subjects and with control groups. Doctors and scientists, accustomed to… read more →