American Civilization

This Friday, April 22, will be the 41st celebration of Earth Day.  Take a look at this retrospective made last year to honor Mother Earth.

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Of course, the damage here is not close to the tragedy unfolding in Japan.  But, the West coast of the U.S. was also affected by the Japanese earthquake and consequent tsunami. Two California cities, Crescent City and Santa Cruz, were especially affected.  Crescent City is in the north part of the state, close to the [...]

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I’m guessing you’ve all read about the standoff in Wisconsin.  The state’s governor, Scott Walker, has proposed ending collective bargaining for public employees as a way to balance the budget.  In response, there have been continuous demonstrations in the state for the last week or so.  And, the state’s senators have gone to the neighboring [...]

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I think what I noticed most about last night’s speech was the difference in tone from last year’s State of the Union address.  This year the event seemed so much more subdued, maybe even more calm.  That was probably the result of the attempted assassination on one of Congress’s own members, Gabby Giffords. Both Obama’s [...]

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Saturday morning, as I was sitting at my computer, I was first alerted to the shootings in Tucson, Arizona.  (Tucson is located in the southern part of this western state.) First reports said that the Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had been killed.  I was horrified.  I could not leave the computer and kept checking for [...]

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I just saw this news story; SNCF has issued an apology for its role in the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps.  Check it out here. Is this story in the French press?  What’s being said in France?  Just curious….

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There has been another recent California story, but I’ve been fearful to write about just in case I brought bad luck to the San Francisco Giants.  This Bay Area team was playing against the Texas Rangers in the World Series, which is sort of like the World Cup for baseball in the U.S.  And, just [...]

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First of all,  I’d like to apologize for my lack of posts.  Normally, I’m really interested in following the American political scene, but this year I’ve found it extremely difficult to remain interested. I’ve gotten increasingly tired of the strident attacks, the extreme factionalism, the media predictions, the almost constant political advertisements, and the realization [...]

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I learned  a new English language term today.  I found it in an article called « What’s Really Human?« Â Â  In the article author Sharon Begley observed that many psych experiments which have led to supposedly universal conclusions about human behavior are, in fact, NOT universal.  Why?  Because the subjects used in most psych experiments have been [...]

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Well, money did « talk » in at least two of the primary contests yesterday in California.  Meg Whitman, the big spender in the race to be the Republican nominee for governor won, as did Carly Fiorina in her bid to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. But, having all those millions to spend didn’t [...]

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