Commentary & Opinion

  Choose a career, and stay with it for life?

Perhaps that's what many people used to do, and maybe still do -- but consider this man:

A couple of weeks ago, I sparked a small firestorm on my social media feed. While ‘checking into’ my local gym on Facebook, I made the self-deprecating comment that I was “not yet beach worthy.” Several of my friends and colleagues quickly took me to task for that statement, accusing me of buying into socially constructed stereotypes of healthy and beauty.

In a statement that reveals yet again how out of touch the administration is, Josh Earnest, White House spokesman, said that the massive suicide bombing in Lahore, in which 70 people were killed and about 300 injured, didn’t simply target Christians since many Muslims were victims as well.

Let’s talk about immigration in this current frenzy about keeping Syrian refugees out.

In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Belgium, the presidential candidates have not hesitated to offer their views on how to eliminate terrorist attacks. To become better informed on the candidates’ stances, recently I read an article in the New York Times, listened to General Hayden, the former NSA head, on NPR (I know some readers have now already disqualified me as a liberal), and read Karl Rove’s story in the Wall Street Journal. Talk about fair and balanced.

The big news last week was the new budget agreement.  As is increasingly the case, issues that had at best a tangential connection to the budget were part of the final agreement.  The issue that headlined the agreement included a hike in the state’s minimum wage.  The increase is phased in over a number of years and increases at different rates in different regions of the state.  The budget also included a requirement that employers offer paid family leave and lowered tax rates for New Yorkers making less than $300,000.

The 2015 Academy Awards were doled out over a month ago. Each year, in the days leading up to the Oscar-cast, a popular topic over water coolers is: Who missed out on a nomination? Who’s gonna win? And even, among the fashionistas: What will so-and-so be wearing while strolling along the Red Carpet?

I know the feeling of triumph. I also know the feeling of disappointment. I have witnessed Game 7 comebacks and I have witnessed last-minute interceptions to end a season. And I owe all of these experiences to my family, for raising me to be the sports-loving female I am today.

The media is awash with stories about how the Republican establishment is looking for a way to stop Mr. Trump. Efforts to stop him have received strong vocal support from former Governor Mitt Romney, and, to a lesser extent, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan (although McConnell’s and Ryan’s concerns may eventually prove to be, in reality, not necessarily presidential in nature).

If ever there was a need for U.S. diplomatic intervention in Middle East, this is the moment. Instead of sitting on the sidelines as a disinterested observer, Kerry and Company should be on a plane to Cairo to discuss an emerging schism in Saudi – Egyptian relations. In February, the Saudi kingdom announced that it was prepared to send ground troops to Syria to fight alongside the international coalition. Cairo objected.

In a still unpublished manuscript on the way conservative economics has failed us, my friend Eric Zuesse remarked, “The ‘Greek debt’ is really not a debt of the Greek people.” He goes on to identify the “institutional creditors  … Euro-banks … high risk kleptocrats, oligarchs and bankers who siphoned most of the euros into overseas Swiss accounts …. [and other foreign investments] devoid of any capacity to generate income to pay back the debt.”

Albany High School’s theater ensemble recently performed Once On This Island, a dark musical set in the French Caribbean Antilles. The play examines race,  class, and gender divisions between the island’s white French upper classes and its black peasants.  It tells the story about Ti Moune, a spirited peasant girl who falls in love with Daniel, a white man of mixed-race ancestry who lives in the gated hotels of the white French islanders.  After saving his life and nursing him back to health, Ti Moune goes in search of Daniel when his people take him back from her village to their side of the island.  Daniel has an affair with her, then destroys her with the news that he is marrying a white French woman, in accordance with the rigid racial and class mores of their time.  Devastated, Ti Moune drowns herself in the sea, but Asaka the earth goddess transforms her into a tree of love which brings all the people of the island together.

Recent events in Flint, Michigan and here in New York, the troubles in Hoosick Falls, Binghamton, Syracuse, Western New York, and Long Island, have focused public attention on the problems of keeping drinking water clean. 

When most people think about their favorite summer memories, they often imagine sunny days spent relaxing on a beach or by a pool, family barbeques, or laughing with friends all night around a bonfire. 

For the state budget cycle that began in January and for the expiring terms of several members of the Board of Regents, we’re coming down the homestretch and the winds of change are blowing.

There was a Hollywood film of yesteryear with the title “The Russians Are Coming.” If one were making that film today it might be called “The Russians Are Going.” In a move that has surprised many in our State Department, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the withdrawal of the “main part” of the Russian military contingent from Syria. He noted that the principal tasks “for the armed forces were accomplished,” i.e. stabilizing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Help. Two major problems have the same structure – it doesn’t look like people will deal with the problem until it is too late. Too late means the survivors will be refugees. Everyone else will be dead. And yet getting people to deal with the threat except at the fringes has been impossible.

Next month, hundreds of thousands of students in grades 3 through 8 will sit down in their classrooms and take the New York State assessments.

When it comes to cleaning up Albany, last week’s events indicate that the broom has been put away for now.  Governor Cuomo announced that the ethics issue had fallen off the table of the budget deliberations.  He added that he would make sure it was a top priority in the post-budget session.

Our grandson, Liam, died last year of a drug overdose. He was 26. Everything we thought we knew has changed.  

The stabbing spree in Israel by Palestinian terrorists continues unabated. Even when an American citizen visiting Israel is killed “What me worry? President Obama” is unfazed. At this point in his presidency Obama has only one goal: burnishing his legacy.

One of the major drivers of global warming is the greenhouse gases we emit by burning fossil fuels. Another major driver of global warming and one of the ways in which we are making our earth unsustainable for human life is the population explosion. When I was young the earth’s population was around 3 billion. It has more than doubled. When we talk about the growth of population, the crucial issue is about the time it would take to double. Population can double in as little as a generation. We are on the way to an earth with 12 billion people and counting. The devastation that is causing and will cause is incalculable and will make the earth inhospitable in short order, contributing to the overuse of water, the over fishing of the oceans, the deforestation of the jungles, the overuse of carbon based fuels even while we try to flush them out of the atmosphere and every other form of damage to the earth we depend on.

A teacher shortage isn’t looming in New York.

It’s here. 

  Sunday marked the beginning of “Sunshine Week,” a week in which the nation focuses its attention on government openness.  The “Week” makes it clear that it is important to maintain an open government, in order to ensure the proper relationship between public officials and the citizens they are pledged to serve. 

One might wonder why there is a “very long wait” if you are a Netflix subscriber and you wish to take a look at MY X-GIRLFRIEND’S WEDDING RECEPTION, an obscure low-budget comedy that dates from 1999. Surely, it is not because of the film’s cast, which includes Debbie Gibson, Dom DeLuise, Mo Gaffney, and a load of unfamiliar names. And surely, it is unrelated to one’s desire to be entertained by the very early screen appearances of future Oscar winners and superstars. If you wish, you can savor, for example, young unknown Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey costarring in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION. You can goof on the great George Clooney and his presences in RETURN TO HORROR HIGH and RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES!

The Republican debate on Thursday, February 25, had Mr. Trump, and to a lesser extent Senators Rubio and Cruz, presenting what only can be characterized as a silly idea for health care reform.  In contrast, a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled, “Companies Form New Alliance to Target Health-Care Costs” presented a sensible proposal. 

As someone who grew up in Northern California during the 1970s, I was surrounded by all the fads of the New Age movement: past-life regression, crystals, channeling, EST (or Erhard Seminars Training), macramé, hot tubs, and the nascent organic food movement.

The trial and subsequent execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimir has led to a storm of protest leading to the destruction of the Saudi embassy in Tehran. While Iranian president Hassan Rouhani condemned the attacks as “unjustifiable,” this statement did not mollify Saudi leaders. In fact, the Saudi foreign minister said his nation is severing all diplomatic ties with Iran. Iran’s supreme leader warned that the execution will result in “divine vengeance.”