Noelia Castillo Ramos, was last week euthanised in Spain…. she received her death ultimately at the hands of healthcare staff and the State.
Two fine poems by Matthew Arnold who bravely spent his life upholding decency and high standards in a world that was abandoning them.
I couldn’t resist the poster of a mustached fellow in a short sleeve button up parachuting down to Vietnam on top of an enormous beer can.
It stands to reason that the piloting of a banana republic should be in the hands of banana republicans, but unfortunately we’re not in Latin America and it’s Republicans with a capital R who are at the helm.
Back from Italy and feeling the relief at not having to speak Italian all day long.
Grammar I: Infinitives are, as we all learned, verbal nouns.
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;
I want to sound a note that at first appears incongruous or frivolous but is in fact deeply relevant, namely, how the habitual lie seeps into the national character and becomes an inalienable part of it.
Merle Haggard was anything but a political thinker—or even a particularly good songwriter—but, with the exception of one unfortunate line—his 1981 hit song “Rainbow Stew” summed up the common wisdom of disgruntled Americans.
