This is a blog for journalists, authors, and those who enjoy reading and learning. Here you will find a variety of posts about all forms of writing–from fiction and non-fiction to the news media and journalism. It is produced by a former foreign correspondent and journalism school dean.
Here, once again, is “something completely different” that I have culled from various emails and notes from friends and followers. As I did the other day, I am sharing some of these epistles and dispatches with readers as a way for all of us to disengage from the steady stream … Read more…
One of the more enduring activities of human beings has always been to imagine what the future will bring. We all do it, some more than others. It’s what separates us from the rest of earth’s creatures, most of which are too consumed with daily survival to think past their … Read more…
“And now for something completely different,” as they used to say on the old Monty Python show. Duriing any given week I receive heaps of emails containing bits of wisdom, humor, anonymous information, and lots of weirdness. Normally, I give these things a quick read and delete them. Today, however, … Read more…
The other day I was taking stock of what is going on in our country and I realized that this is no longer the country in which I was born and reared. It is an alien place that seems to have embraced George Orwell’s vision of nationhood—a place filled with … Read more…
A new poll released Thursday shows that three-fourths of Americans believe American society and culture are in a state of rapid decay. Is anybody surprised by this? I certainly am not. Just look at what is happening since Joe Biden took office. Crime is not only up everywhere, it is … Read more…
For two years we have been bombarded with misinformation, misperception, and one lie after another when it comes to our seemingly never-ending battle with the COVID-19 virus and its apparently endless variants. First, we were told cloth face masks didn’t work when it comes to avoiding infection from COVID. Then, … Read more…
At the end of 2020, I posted a commentary in which I said: “In all my years on this planet, I never experienced a year as horrible as 2020. I am sure there are others with six or seven decades under their belts who feel the same.” Guess what, 2021 … Read more…
Today, I am turning my blog over to Steven Baldwin, a former California State legislator and executive director of the Council for National Policy in Washington. Steve, who happens to be my cousin, makes some significant and indispensable points about race and America’s unrelenting myth of “white privilege.” I hope … Read more…
It was 1967 and I had recently enrolled at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on the G.I. Bill after serving almost four years in the U.S. Army Security Agency. At the time I was working at the Lawrence Journal-World newspaper in the composing room. My job was to “kill” … Read more…
Three days ago the U.S. remembered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I was going through my files a couple of days later and ran across this story that I wrote in 1989 when I was the Chicago Tribune’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Chief Asia Correspondent. … Read more…