I like this line from Time Magazine: Reading In Defense of Floggingis a lot like reading Woody Allen’s classic “My Speech to the Graduates,” in which he declares, “More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us…
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The Timeshas a story about Samuel Battle, one of New York’s first black police officers. But what is reallyinteresting is his oral history. In his own words. “They had riots. Many riots.” Worth a read: I went on down, and we got there, with my squad. The whites and Negroes were battling. I saw the…
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Cops and bicycles and a good cause… what’s not to like?
In the New York Timestoday, there’s an article extolling the benefits of introversion. I love reading pieces like this, which make it clear that introversion is a personality trait and not a medical problem that needs to be “cured” or treated with drugs. My understanding of introversion began after I realized that being introverted is…
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A friend and former roommate writes: By the way, and I mean this in the most flattering way – In Defense of Flogging: great toilet read! Coming from him, I know it isa sincere compliment. He says he’s averaging 10 pages a day, not that I asked, and not that he used the word “day.”
If you have $35,800 to casually drop on dinner, you have too much money. Rich Democrats should be taxed more, too. More productive uses of $35,800? How about paying the tuition of seven students for a year of study at my public university. Obama’s dinner also cost me$12, because I had to hop off a…
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For their review: Imagine that you–or, if you prefer, a younger, more reckless version of you–committed a crime. … And say you were offered a choice: you could either spend those years behind bars, or you could get ten lashes. … You may think flogging is barbaric, but is there any question which you would…
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In an attempt to get health care. What a country! I am curious to see how this will play out. He probably won’t be sentenced to the three years he wants. Will he then commit more crime? And he might disappointed about the quality of health care in prison. But it is better than nothing.
If you’re reading this, you’re in the good company of about 400 others. If you’re reading this, you probably have at least someinterest in what I write. But here’s the thing, if you’re reading this, you probably have not bought my book, In Defense of Flogging. Yeah, I’m calling you out. How, you may ask,…
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How about that? Maybe that guy in 1996 at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville wasn’t him after all. The Timesarticle leaves out the details regarding his relationship with his younger brother, who was a long time state representative and then President of of the University of Massachusetts. If my older brother was on the lam,…
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