Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Small World: Egypt, cry the beloved country

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Every worthy foreign service officer is obliged to maintain balance in assessing the country with which he is involved. Avoid “clientelism” is the rule. Understand them, yes. Identify with them, not at all. Respect them, sure. Feel affection for them, nothing doing. I plead guilty when it comes to Egypt. […]

  • Darkside of the sun: U.S. middle class down in 2nd quarter to 31 people

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist The earning power of the U.S. middle class has fallen behind its counterpart in Canada for the first time. Despite the fact that Canadians must pay higher taxes to support universal, state-sponsored health care, the Canadian middle class worker now averages a higher real income, after taxes, than does the […]

  • Darkside of the sun: Monet, that’s what I want

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist “Did you ever wonder why Monet painted so many paintings of water lilies?  Were they his favorite subject: or did he just crank them out because he ‘knew how’ to paint them and didn’t have to put a lot of effort into them? The answer is ‘no’ to both questions! […]

  • Uppermost House: A confluence of nerds

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist Last week, I attended a fancy awards/scholarship function at the University of Maine in Orono with my wife Karen; she being there because she was among the rarefied few on the Dean’s List. Dressing appropriately was a challenge for me. I wear Docksiders because they’re comfy and I can […]

  • It dawned on me: When a favorite product leaves the shelves

    By Dawn De Busk BN Columnist My father’s hairstyle has endured for five-and-a-half decades. It is straight from the 1950s — a combination of James Dean and Elvis, a result of my dad’s southern California upbringing. In fact, when he was 15 years old, he worked in a cement factory. He asked the other guys […]

  • Small World: The new diplomacy

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist I had lunch the other day with three friends — three older (if you can believe that) retirees from the Foreign Service. They had had long experience in Europe, Russia and the Middle East and I thought I might garner an insight of two between the anecdotes and off-repeated memories. […]

  • Darkside of the Sun: This week in the news

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Scientific fact enrages Congress, field of chemistry is sanctioned WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Panel on Climate Change’s recent report, giving civilization less than a century to go without immediate steps to stop overloading the atmosphere and oceans with carbon, met the usual response in Washington yesterday: complete denial of […]

  • Small World: Congressional ‘diplomacy’

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Several months ago, Iran notified the United States that it was appointing Hamid Abu Talebi as its ambassador to the United Nations in New York.  Several days ago, the United States replied that it would not issue a visa to admit the ambassador. In the interim, Congress got wind of […]

  • Uppermost House: The man who learned to listen

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist You don’t listen. The words spilled out in slow unavoidable syllables, relentless, pushing, demanding attention and bearing down, and the man who heard them leaned into the words the same way he’d lean into thigh-deep river current to keep his footing. The speaker’s eyes bored into him and if […]

  • Small World: New style creative diplomacy

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist President Obama’s offer to Israel to release imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard if Israel would prolong Palestinian peace negotiations may or may not work. Whatever, the unique proposal was an extremely creative addition to the annals of diplomacy. A traitorous jailbird swapped for merely spinning out words — who could have imagined […]