Posts Tagged ‘Barack Obama’
SAN BERNARDINO
In a way, San Bernardino in Southern California’s Inland Empire has become America’s Paris and also its Jerusalem. Why Paris? The City of Light symbolizes Western enlightenment and respect for human rights—values Islamists deplore. Why Jerusalem? The capital of Israel—even if the United States maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv—represents another symbol deplored by Islamists.…
Read MoreFOUR TOUGH TRUTHS
In the movie A Few Good Men (1992), Jack Nicholson is the Marine colonel commanding the U.S. base at Guantanamo. He famously tells a court martial, “You can’t handle the truth.” Given Tuesday’s election in Israel, last November’s American Congressional election and the state of the world, a number of regrettable truths confront us. Truth…
Read MoreCATCHING CAMBODIA
A few years ago, Carolyn and I visited Cambodia. After a stay in Phnom Penh, the capital, we flew to Siem Reap. Angkor Wat, the huge 12th-century temple complex, was breathtaking. But something else also caught my attention. The roads we traveled on made San Francisco look like a third-world city. I often say that…
Read MoreCRIMEA, OBAMA AND LIMITS
Russia’s penetration of Crimea leads some people to question the will or competence of President Obama. They believe he has presided over a radical diminution of American power. The critics may be right. Or not. The Crimean situation is complicated. A majority Russian-speaking, Orthodox population feels far closer to Russia than to its western-oriented, Ukrainian-speaking,…
Read MoreAND THE WINNER IS…
On Wednesday, Congress finally agreed to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling. Many House Republicans yielded and joined with Democrats to end Washington’s latest stalemate. Yet TV showed House Speaker John Boehner fist pumping. “We fought the good fight,” Boehner said. “We just didn’t win.” He seemed to suggest that Republicans really didn’t…
Read MoreJUST WHAT IS THE FLAG?
What piece of cloth doubles as a lightning rod? The American flag. Today (June 14) being Flag Day, that’s worth talking about. On this date in 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the American flag—thirteen stars then. President Wilson established Flag Day in 1916. In 1949, Congress legislated National Flag Day. The American flag is…
Read MoreHUMILITY
San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey just won the National League’s Most Valuable Player award. (The Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera won the AL MVP.) I hope neither tells the world, “I’m humbled.” Baseball players often say that, given the game’s roots in small-town America where seemingly no one can be humble enough. But I’m rankled by…
Read MoreQUESTIONS
The election is over. We can all take a breath. But that breath better be short. Because looking back—and forward—a lot of questions come to mind. 1. If the nation is as bad off as so many people believe, why did President Obama win? Discontent should have swept Mitt Romney into the Oval Office as…
Read MoreTHROW THE FLAG
Like tens of millions of Americans, I watched the presidential debate on Wednesday night. Before then, I’d been thinking about how these debates might be structured to better serve voters. Only after the debate did I come up with a solution. My thinking pre-debate was that the candidates play to the crowd—not only to the…
Read MoreTOP DECK: A FABLE
Mitch and Barry attended law school together but hadn’t seen each other for years. Still, they immediately recognized each other as they boarded a boat for a cruise on San Francisco Bay. Mitch, an investment advisor from Boston, was in the city on business as was Barry, a union attorney from Chicago. Neither anticipated the…
Read MorePOWER
HBO’s Deadwood (2004-06) offers an intriguing look at power. Two of the series’ main characters, both based on real people, and a character in an old movie reveal a lot about America in the late nineteenth century and America today. Al Swearingen (British actor Ian McShane) runs Deadwood, a South Dakota gold mining camp, with…
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