Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Small World: Looking back, presidential preferences

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Last week, I watched on the Internet an interview of former President Carter with two Washington Post reporters. He was promoting his most recent book — he’s written almost two dozen. The new one has to do with religion, women’s rights and related issues. Carter is 89 and remains as […]

  • Darkside of the Sun: Pontiff should interpret U.S. Constitution

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist As you remember, the new pope recently sent up a puff of black smoke against income inequality, and white smoke for economic justice. But if he’s going to actually do anything about income inequality, he’ll have to be named to a real position of power, U.S. Supreme Court Justice — […]

  • Small World: Diplomatic crimes and punishments

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Imagine the recent scene in the White House situation room in which senior (appointed) officials are debating how to respond to Russia’s take-over of Crimea. The experts on the media and Congress will speak up first for they will provide the most important bit of context in which the president’s […]

  • Uppermost House: Joy, the happier alternative

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I haven’t been happy since 1987.  And I wouldn’t wish happiness on my best friend. Perhaps, I should explain myself. One of my work colleagues told me the other day that she had read my column about my delight in brushing my wife’s hair, and then she stuck her […]

  • Small World: Keeping them straight — enemies and friends

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist My wife and I visited Washington’s National Gallery the other day to see the marble statue of “The Dying Gaul” on loan from Italy. It is a marvelous piece and you should Google it for photographs and the full story. I’ll offer a couple of my reflections. The muscular young […]

  • Darkside of the sun: This week in science reporting

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Last week’s confirmation of the instantaneous and rapid expansion of the Universe from a hot point only slightly larger than a lobbyist’s sense of ethics, to the vast infinities of vastness we don’t see all around us today, due to the low density of good cable connections in the early […]

  • Dark side of the sun: What’s that spell? Photosynthesis! Yay! Go green!

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In ancient times, philosophy was respected as one of the natural sciences — as opposed to today, when none of the sciences, naturally, are respected at all. In ancient Athens, philosophers gathered to discuss the eternal questions, such as Can Beauty Be Self-Taught?; Is the Truth Marketable?; and, of course, […]

  • Uppermost House: So many little things

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist It was a day of little things. I rushed home from work and yanked my car into the driveway only to find the place dark and vacant. As middle-aged men often are, I was befuddled for a few seconds, and then I remembered that my wife was visiting our […]

  • Small World: Obama’s foreign policy — weak or wise?

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist President Obama’s “feckless” foreign policy invited the crisis in Ukraine, Senator McCain told a pro-Israel group last week. The president, he continued, has repeatedly failed to demonstrate American strength in the face of adversaries. McCain was only the latest Republican to criticize the administration’s handling of the crisis. Other GOP critics […]

  • Dark side of the sun: I…am…Android…the…of on maybe

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist That was not an earthquake you felt last Tuesday, just the earth shifting slightly on its axis. Yes, I went and bought a tablet. Not that I have the electronic marvel up and running yet; that unlikely event would probably send the planet spinning off toward the asteroid belt. Perhaps […]