Mary Travers has died at age 72. Her group, Peter, Paul, and Mary, were often scorned by folk purists who disdained their popularization of the folk idiom in the early-60s. But there can be little doubt that the group’s harmonies opened mainstream US society folk, with its long history of advocacy for civil rights, unions, and peace. Through their covers of Bob Dylan’s songs, at a time when mainstream listeners would have been unwilling to listen to his decidedly un-Bobby Vee voice, created...

And can it be righted? Being perceived as only being against things is not a winning political formula; the Democrats have been taught that lesson many times since the 1970s. Conservatism seemed to break away from its philosophical moorings four years ago, anyway. [This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]

My wife and I bought a GameBoy for our son when he was in his early teens, some fifteen years ago or so. Phil is out of the house. But the GameBoy has remained with us and is far from being exiled to the Island of Unwanted Toys. Many a night while watching the evening news or catching something else on the tube, my wife and I play Tetris. Now, comes evidence that this addictive game “may boost the size and efficiency of parts of the brain.” I wondered what accounted for the enormous increase...

That’s the topic of historian George C. Edwards III’s blog post over at History News Network. Looking at presidents noted for their persuasive powers and legislative achievements, Edwards concludes that “the power to persuade” may be a bit overstated. I think that he’s right. Presidents (and other political actors) can persuade only as much as the moment allows. They can exploit and they can nudge, but they can’t create consensus out of whole cloth. Woodrow Wilson...

Olympia Snowe. [Crossposted at my personal blog.]

Here. I would say, “Everybody’s a critic,” but truth is the government’s dislike of the festival has nothing to do with music and everything with the Methodist Church’s opposition to the coup which brought the government to power. [Sort of crossposted on my personal blog.]

A few days ago, I published links to primers on health care reform from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Here is a fun visual overview of current health care reform proposals. (WARNING: The biases of the presenters are apparent. But if you know that going in, I think that you can sift the policy preferences out and keep the information in.) Thanks to Meredith Gould for posting this link on her interesting blog. [This has been crossposted on my personal blog.]

The repressive regime in Beijing doesn’t want Australians to learn more about their despotism. [This will be crossposted at my personal blog.]

That would be insane! But, I agree with Niall Ferguson that the two countries are, inevitably, headed for a divorce, the end of what he once called “Chimerica.” Having said that, China’s government clearly seems to be moving toward what Ferguson calls “empire building,” which could be detrimental to regional stability, the environment, and US interests. For the future, the US government needs, among other things, to: Decrease its debt to China. Deepen or form strategic...

This past week, I spent time visiting with a woman who worked at the Curtis-Wright airplane plant in Columbus during World War Two. She wasn’t a Rosie the Riveter, but Blanche the Solderer. (I know the designation isn’t alliterative. But her name really is Blanche.) The World War Two experience no doubt planted seeds for the modern Women’s Movement, which took off in the 1970s and has resulted in opening so many professions previously closed to women. (Although we have a long way...

If you’re like me, busy working ten hours a day or so, the claims and counterclaims in the current “discussion” over health care reform may lead you a bit confused, with little opportunity to check the veracity of the claims. Here are two overviews of the health care reform issue and the arguments advanced by its advocates and opponents. One from The New York Times and the other from The Wall Street Journal. What interests me is that the Times piece, coming from a paper generally...

Sometimes, money does the following.

Wah! Maybe if the Beijing regime didn’t oppress people, they could, as they put it in their warning to Japan, focus “on important issues,” like freedom for their people, an end to religious and other forms of persecution, and bullying others economically. [This has also been posted at my personal blog.]

See here, from the BBC. It’s all part of a pervasive hardening of North Korean policies on a broad range of subjects, the article says. Desperation will do that.

Okay, I have a few non-political, that is non-partisan, questions about an alleged Bush Administration cover-up of a CIA program that, if implemented, would have authorized killing foreign leaders. My questions go beyond the legality of such a program or about whether it was right for the former administration to conceal it from the Congress. I hope that those more steeped in constitutional law than I am can answer my questions. First, this question: How did Vice President Dick Cheney, who reportedly...

It’s become an accepted piece of conventional wisdom. The United States, it’s said, is at risk of falling behind the rest of the world because of continuing shortage of scientists and engineers. Maybe not. [This has also been posted on my personal blog.]

Here. [Also posted at my personal blog.]

Here. Contrary to the stereotyping coming from some corners these days, not all who believe in the existence of God are bigoted, closed-minded, or anti-science. Francis Collins is one demonstration of that. He’s a theist and an outstanding scientist. Politically, this is yet another shrewd appointment on the part of Barack Obama. As he pursues such hot potato issues as stem cell research, Collins will likely be able to talk to all sides. [This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]

While the Vice President put his foot in his mouth (twice) and his seasoned political pro, Rahm Emanuel, did the same, President Obama was acomplishing quite a lot during his trip to Russia. The BBC reports: US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have reached an outline agreement to cut back their nations’ stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The “joint understanding” signed in Moscow would see reductions of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 each within...

Michael Jackson has died at age 50. Like many, I’ve watched him degenerate from an articulate, confident child star to a strange, reclusive adult. Four years ago, I wrote this piece inspired by Jackson on the effects of fame on the famous. If Michael Jackson had not been introduced to the addictive power of fame, might he have lived an obscure and happy life? We’ll never know. This video is of Jackson’s performance at the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary bash for Motown Records back in...

There are, says BBC correspondent John Simpson, present for protests at both points in history. His reflections suggest that any pro-democracy celebrations in other parts of the world may be premature: When I go out into the streets now and see the crowds with their green ribbons and scarves and face-paint and balloons, it occurs to me that I am looking at a coalition of interests as complex as the one that marched along the same streets 30 years ago. Then, liberal, middle-class, Westernised people...

I heard an interview on NPR with Elie Wiesel, the famed author, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor, on Thursday. He was asked for his reactions to the shooting which occurred at the US Holocaust Museum on Wednesday. Of course, Wiesel said, he was shocked. But he also asserted that the actions of a deranged Holocaust-denier did not represent a growing body of opinion. In fact, quite the contrary. More people acknowledge and are conversant with the facts surrounding Adolf Hitler’s extermination...

They’ve been signaling their mutual interest in a musical collaboration quite a lot in the past several years. The most recent issue of ‘Rolling Stone’ contains an excellent Dylan profile by historian Douglas Brinkley in which Dylan is, by turns, uncharacteristically candid, then typically obscurantist. There, he makes clear–or, as clear as Dylan makes things–that he would love to work with McCartney. Now, according to Gibson Lifestyle, that collaboration will happen: Recent...

The thing ought to be dismantled.

“God save me from my enemies…and from my friends.” The prayer is attributed to Martin Luther, but it might well fit President Barack Obama’s mood as he ponders recent statements made by some of his fellow liberals. They’re hot over Obama’s decision not to release photographs of alleged terrorist detainees taken during the Bush Administration. The assumption is that the pictures will buttress the belief that under Bush, the US engaged in criminal interrogation...