politics – The Watering Hole

My Father Was an Anti-Fascist Too

I might’ve been eight when I first asked my father if he’d ever killed anyone. “No,” was all he said. But I asked again, and again, in spare moments, and the more I asked, the more he didn’t say. It was the 1970’s and I had an obsession with WWII. I built model planes andContinue reading “My Father Was an Anti-Fascist Too”

Observance: Demons in the Shadowland of Autocracy, or Fear is the Mind Killer

Photo credit: yours truly Feb 25, 2025 Yesterday while I was at work and my first grader was at school, my partner’s phone rang and seconds later my partner ran into my office screaming, breathless: “They took our child! They have our child!” The phone rang again and on speaker I heard my daughter’s voice,Continue reading “Observance: Demons in the Shadowland of Autocracy, or Fear is the Mind Killer”

Observance: Letter to a MAGA Friend

22 November 2024 Since the Trump election, the zeitgeist in my media-sphere* — call it the liberal media if you have to – is all about taking-a-long-hard-look-at-ourselves-as-a-nation. There is the very real dread and the democratic soul-searching and the data-mining and poll-questioning, and the finger-pointing and the circular firing squads and the group therapy sessions,Continue reading “Observance: Letter to a MAGA Friend”