Torsade Literary Space Assorted Opinions: Unusual Turnout
Assorted Opinions Unusual Turnout Much noise has been made this week in pursuit of voter fraud claims…so far found unwarranted. But there’s another side to this coin that the noise drowns out: election fraud. Tales of voter fraud—individuals forging ID in some way, then voting more than once—have the […]
Marjorie Bowen: The Sword Decides! (intro part three)
Marjorie Bowen The Sword Decides! Introduction: part three A Different Kind of Translation, continued: A Question of Taste Chapter One, Joris Middelstum’s Strong Points Joris Middelstum was a bachelor. Do not be angry with him, ladies, on that account. Supposing that […]
Marjorie Bowen: The Sword Decides! (intro part two)
Marjorie Bowen The Sword Decides! Introduction: part two A Different Kind of Translation, continued: Most of what you want to achieve contradicts itself to a degree, the writing of a story or novel being like every other enterprise…all things in their rightful places, […]
Assorted Opinions: Stupid Loyalty
Assorted Opinions Stupid Loyalty Scenes from America’s protests, which began with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and continue as general dissent under the banner of Black Lives Matter, play onscreen like a surreal clown show, tragic and brutal, while the enforcement conduct often seems comedically […]
The M Word That Isn’t Moscow (opinion)
Assorted Opinions The M Word That Isn’t Moscow From one of the books I’m reading, Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes, by James Palmer (Basic Books, 2012), on the last days of Chairman Mao and the horrific Tangshan earthquake, comes this translation of a Maoist anthem: The […]
Republicans’ Last Chance (opinion)
Republicans’ Last Chance Or, advice from an observer As to politics, I believe in doing what works and not doing what doesn’t work. Human society has never been able to figure out why this principle is so difficult, rather than so easy, […]
Assorted Opinions: Plastic
Assorted Opinions Plastic The thing you’re doing isn’t wrong. In most cases. What comes athwart environmental activism is the scorn, distrust, frustration of people who feel themselves harried over things that were always “okay in the past”. When you drink a Diet Coke and faithfully drop your bottle in […]
Best of the Season to You!
And, for today, I have a small historical anecdote, from the American Civil War, with a certain lesson to be derived. Respect the Flag A day or two after we established headquarters at the City Hall, the national flag was hanging over the street, when one of the principal ladies […]
Assorted Opinions: They
Assorted Opinions They 2020 seems a bad time for the Democrats to become the party of pronouns. History shows, of course, that they can pull it off, this snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory… And liberal forces appear to be gathering towards a […]