Jeffrey Spitzer-Resnick — Last March, my wife and I decided to move into our vacation home in Central Wisconsin to stay safe from the pandemic. Our home is located in the Town of Jackson (unknown population as it is unincorporated), 5 miles from Oxford, where about 600 people live, in Adams County, where about 17,000 people reside in a large, sparsely populated area. Our closest … Continue reading Finding Common Ground
Mark Richardson — Classic detective fiction has occupied a lot of my time during this year of pandemic. I have always loved good detective fiction, and I have taken this opportunity to re-read many of my old favorites—Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Harry Kemelman, and the magnificent Rex Stout, creator of the reclusive, impatient, pompous, obese genius, Nero Wolfe and his eyes, ears, and … Continue reading Nero Wolfe: Bluster, Beer, and Brilliance
Ron Berger — One of the influential books I read while studying sociology in graduate school was Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Kuhn revised the conventional view that scientific progress evolves through the accumulation of accepted facts and theories. This he referred to as “normal science.” But Kuhn also thought that the discovery of puzzling anomalies that could not be explained by … Continue reading The Deficit Myth
Dave Gillespie — Do you think of yourself as something of a political junkie? Are you interested in, or concerned about, problems like partisan polarization and the future of free constitutional government in the United States? If you gave yes as your answers to these questions, I predict that you would find, as I did, much in Emily Conrad’s The Faithless? The Untold Story of … Continue reading The Faithless? The Untold Story of the Electoral College
Jeff Berger — In 2016, Colin Kapernick began a protest against social injustices experienced by African Americans when he “took a knee” during the playing of the national anthem before a National Football League (NFL) game. Public reaction was highly polarized. After the season ended, Kapernick was blacklisted by the NFL. (The NFL denied this.) Roll forward to 2020: This year athletes in all major … Continue reading Curt Flood: The Pioneering “Well-Paid Slave”
Dave Gillespie — James is the name his parents gave him; James as in Bond, the hero in Ian Fleming novels and movie spy thrillers. But unlike Bond, that famous but fictional character, Hedges has friends and fellow partisans who know him simply as Jim. He is currently at the helm, insofar as anyone is, of the nation’s third oldest living electoral political party. The … Continue reading Old Prohibition: Party and Leader in the Latter-day
Jeff Berger — Conor Dougherty’s new book, Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America, is an important contribution to understanding the housing crisis in the United States. Dougherty is a New York Times journalist who grew up in San Francisco and who returned to his home city in 2013. While the book focuses on California, and especially the Bay Area, the housing crisis is by … Continue reading The California Housing Crisis
Mark Richardson — I was 16 years old when I first became aware of the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was a junior in high school when one of the most important teachers I’ve ever had, Mr. Robert Bottomley welcomed me into his Twentieth Century Literature class at George S. Parker High School in Janesville, Wisconsin. Mr. Bottomley’s approach was to provide a closet … Continue reading Re-Reading Fitzgerald
Bob Bates — In 2013, the US government charged Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act for releasing National Security Agency (NSA) information, specifically for what the NSA termed its “bulk data collection program.” At the time the mainstream press focused on the material released, its content, and what it implied about US government surveillance of US citizens. The press also focused on questions about … Continue reading Big Brother IS Watching You: Edward Snowden and Government Surveillance
Charles Cottle — In May 2018 I took a tour to Russia, the Baltic countries, and Poland. We were in Russia for over a week, during which time we toured Moscow and St. Petersburg. In such a short period of time one cannot see anything but the major tourist sites and only get a smattering of Russian culture. Nonetheless, I was impressed by the beautiful … Continue reading Churches of Moscow, Russia and Vicinity
Ron Berger — As another season of the National Football League (NFL) comes to an end, I have been thinking about the football fans who live with a peculiar form of cognitive dissonance: They certainly must know (but seem able to deny) that the athletic gladiators they enjoy watching, who perform heroic feats on the playing field, are undergoing lasting harm to their physical and … Continue reading An Uncomfortable Truth: Tackle Football and CTE
Ron Berger — When I think about the myriad issues that are being raised during the current Democratic Party presidential primary, I am reminded of the advice given by James Carville, Bill Clinton’s political strategist, during the 1992 presidential campaign: “The economy, stupid.” It is often the case, however, that when people think about the economy they are thinking about elements such as un/employment, economic … Continue reading Antitrust Law and the Regulation of Corporate Concentration
Bob Bates — The brown wooden door opens and Mister Rogers enters, looking directly into the camera. Stepping over to the closet, he slips out of his jacket, hangs it up, and dons his zip-up cardigan (always knitted by his mother). He casually sits down to flip off his loafers and put on his blue canvas deck shoes—all while liltingly singing “It’s a beautiful day … Continue reading A Life in the Neighborhood
Mark Richardson — Baseball is played very differently today than when I was young. There has been a revolution going on for several years that has fundamentally changed the way players and managers approach the game, how it is taught, and how fans watch it. The changes began around the year 2000, when a group of devoted baseball fans had, some years previously, formed a … Continue reading Baseball’s New Analytics
Jeff Berger — I recently read Madeline Albright’s latest book, Fascism: A Warning, published in 2018, which she completed while Donald Trump was still engaged in a war of words with Kim Jung-un of North Korea—before the two of them began their love affair. The book seems to have been prompted by her concerns about Trump, whose behavior is very similar to many 20th century … Continue reading Madeline Albright’s Contribution to U.S. Foreign Policy
Charles Cottle —Below are a few short description of books I have read recently. I have grouped them into fiction and non-fiction categories. This past year I joined a couple book clubs at the Hedberg Library, our excellent public library here in Janesville, Wisconsin. Most of the fiction listed below comes from the book clubs. I want to thank Nikki Bolka and Beth Webb, the … Continue reading Books Recently Read – Fall 2018 to Fall 2019
Ron Berger, Jeff Berger, Charles Cottle, and Dave Gillespie — Eric Levitz is a journalist, opinion writer, and associate editor of the “Daily Intelligencer” blog of New York Magazine. In July 2017, six months after the inauguration of Donald Trump, he published an article titled “Democrats Can Abandon the Center—Because the Center Doesn’t Exist.” In it he reviews contemporary polling data, political science research, and … Continue reading Deconstructing the Center of American Politics: A Wise Guys Conversation
Jeffrey Spitzer-Resnick — Last July, a local school board President expressed annoyance with me on social media because she felt that I only expressed criticisms of her school district. While pointing out to her that I occasionally praise things that I believe the district does well, I informed her that my job as an advocate is to identify problems and suggest solutions through constructive criticism. … Continue reading Advocacy and Constructive Criticism in Public Education
Ron Berger — Most anyone who lives long enough can expect to have an experience with disability before they die. Moreover, as people live longer, on average, we are witnessing a process of what gerontologists Jeffrey Kahana and Eva Kahana call the “graying of disability.” Thus, US Census data indicate that about 25% of individuals 65-74 years live with an identifiable disability, as do about … Continue reading The Graying of Disability
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