The Psychology of Terrorism, Revisited

I remember sitting in a lounge at Milan’s Malpensa International airport four days after the 9/11 attacks, waiting for a plane to New York. Retired newsman Walter Cronkite was also in the lounge, watching television like the rest of us. Some people asked him…

Highland Capers

I’m ambivalent about Scotland breaking away from the United Kingdom. As a schoolboy in London, I considered Scotland always there to the north, a flick of the wrist away. This was both comforting and predictable. We never expected Scotland to do anything or even be anything. Our meanderings in…

Some Sons of Anarchy

If you have wondered how interlopers were able to able to amble across the White House lawn or even get as far as the Lincoln bedroom without paying a bribe, let me explain. The Secret Service and its attack dogs in DC had largely decamped for New York City, where they set up an expensive…

The Militarization of Our Discourse

I have been following media coverage of a deadly head-on collision on Interstate 87, just a few miles from where I live. In and of itself, the story is not remarkable. We see more than our share of accidents on this interstate, including head-on collisions.

And the world was no longer beige`

The photo arrived in my email a couple weeks ago.

Finding Soul on a Jersey Turnpike

I don’t know who in their right mind would give me permission to drive a bus south on the Jersey Turnpike through some ethereal fog. Don’t get me wrong. I’m legal in all the continental states as well as in Alaska and Hawaii. I should note that I have successively…