Disastrous. Chaotic. Dysfunctional. Disorganized. Anachronistic. Fiasco. Those words describe the recent Nevada Democratic Party and Republican Party caucuses. My wife and I spent a horrendous four and one-half hours waiting to get our choices registered for president in a Democratic caucus at a Reno precinct. With a primary we could have done it in 10 minutes. A Reno … [Read more...]
Scalia’s death could turn Supreme Court progressive
De mortius nilhi nisi bonum— Speak no ill of the dead. Despite the Latin injunction not to bad mouth the dead, it is impossible to say much good about Justice Antonin Scalia. Yet Adam Liptak, New York Times Supreme Court reporter, stretched the truth to say much good in his story of Scalia’s recent death at 79. Liptak cited Scalia’s “transformative legal theory.” … [Read more...]
U.S. revenge behind persecution of Julian Assange
The Julian Assange detention has nothing to do with sexual misconduct and everything to do with the Pentagon’s desire to exact revenge for his WikiLeaks exposure of U.S. crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Namely, wholesale killings of civilians and contempt for sovereignty and international law. Whistleblowing is not unconstitutional. As a presidential candidate in 2008, … [Read more...]
Rely on good film critics rather than Oscars
Much valid criticism has been hurled at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for ignoring African Americans and lacking diversity when it hands out Oscars. But there is a far deeper problem: the Oscars themselves. The nominees and winners are selected by a narrow-minded and provincial group of 6,000. The group is 87 percent white, 58 percent male. Two-thirds are … [Read more...]
Supreme Court bares its anti-union bias
The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts has long shown its conservative biases. Its latest bias: fierce anti-unionism. Law professors often write articles about the shortcomings of the federal judicial system but never get to the root of the problem. Namely, Supreme Court justices are lawyers. Lawyers are legalistic, not humanistic. They are narrow-minded. They … [Read more...]
Study program for seniors covers wide range
The Elder College Extended Studies program (Olli) offers a fantastic 180 courses this winter and spring, at least one of them guaranteed to please senior citizens. They range from Alzheimer’s and autism, basket weaving and Shakespeare, and politics and Mark Twain. To start with, here’s a course offering for our sometimes hectic lives. It’s meditation taught by Debbie … [Read more...]
Outrage over Redskins name silly political correctness
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet. —“Romeo and Juliet” Sports columnists and TV commentators, wanting to show their righteous rage over racism, are howling over the nickname of Washington’s National Football League team. But the nickname, Redskins, is hardly a pejorative like racist names of yesteryear. The outrage over … [Read more...]
Internet seethes with hatred of Sgt. Bergdahl
The Bergdahl case proves the truth of a statement made by Georges Clemenceau, prime minister of France in the early 20th century: “Military justice is to justice what band music is to music.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held hostage for five years by the Taliban, will get military injustice when court-martialed on charges of desertion from his base in Afghanistan and … [Read more...]