Profiles in Courage. Where are they today?
So U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has a new book. It’s called Stand, and it offers a cautiously optimistic view of our dark time by harking back to individuals from…
Read MoreKeeping Posted
Bezos wants clickbait! More departures. Forget the seven principles enunciated by my namesake Eugene Meyer The Washington Post’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos made it clear to a select group of Post people he…
Read MoreThe Bicentennial +50 – Looking Back and Ahead
The Bicentennial was 50 years ago. Planning for it was contentious. We are now on the cusp of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our semiquincentennial, if you…
Read MoreBlack History Month Is Canceled…
…at Harpers Ferry. The February calendar at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is blank. No events scheduled. Until after this Jan. 4, every Sunday featured an hour-long history talk (“The…
Read MoreThe End of the [Book] World
NOTE: Feb. 21, 2026 — It was a bittersweet night at the iconic indie bookstore Politics and Prose in Northwest DC…
Read MoreDemocracy Dies in Darkness. Indeed!
As I write this, I am reading about the utter destruction and decimation of the Washington Post staff by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the newspaper since 2013, who…
Read More“The future of New York is Queens.”
“The future of New York is Queens.” — Gary Shteyngart, New York Times, Dec. 28, 2025 And now, a pause from current events for a bit of personal nostalgia from…
Read MoreWhen “1984” was just fiction.
Remember when 1984 was fiction, and a year so far in the future when George Orwell published his novel in 1949 that it seemed impossible? The CIA smuggled copies behind the…
Read MoreAIN’T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND
My final edition No, not of this blog but as the editor of B’nai B’rith Magazine, the eclectic Jewish magazine I’ve been proud to helm for 16 years. The current…
Read MorePresident Garfield is having a moment. It’s about time!
He was the 20th president, whose short time in office was cut even shorter by an assassin’s bullet. President James A. Garfield has long been forgotten and ignored — until…
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