NYTimes Archives — American Delusions

Tightrope – Americans reaching for hope by Kristof and WuDunn – book review

May 1, 2020 Comments Off

Kristof and WuDunn’s book, Tightrope – Americans Reaching for Hope, spent some weeks on bestseller lists. Kristof is a well known reporter and writer for the NYTimes. It centers around the town of Yamhill OR --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – “Across America, working-class people are dying of despair”

January 17, 2020 Comments Off

“Who Killed the Knapp Family?” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn appeared in the Sunday 1/12/2020 NYTimes. This essay which is adapted from a newly published book by the same authors, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for --->> read more -->>

Thanksgiving – a bit of a corrective history telling and turkey adaptation

November 22, 2017 Comments Off

Corrective History The NYTimes posted a bit of Turkey Day corrective history: “Most Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong” By MAYA SALAM Adaptive Turkeys The Trump pardoned two turkeys yesterday at the White House. But, no --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer”

November 7, 2017 Comments Off

The NY Times published an interesting article by Max Fisher and Josh Keller, “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings? International Comparisons Suggest an Answer” on 11/7/2017. The analysis shows that there is a strong correlation between --->> read more -->>

Recently Noted – “Making Affirmative Action White Again”

August 13, 2017 Comments Off

Ira Katznelson (see my earlier post “Affirmative Action for Whites – began in the 1930s“) wrote a brief opinion piece in the 8/13/2017 NYTimes, “Making Affirmative Action White Again” (“Who Really Got Hand Outs” in --->> read more -->>

Justice in America – Not

April 5, 2017 Comments Off

A central dogma of American politics and culture is the rule of law. The ever present blind scales of justice are trotted out with such regularity that the briefest glimpse serves to remind us that --->> read more -->>

LAURA POITRAS credit: Ruby Washington/New York Times photographer - borrowed w/o permission

Dangers of the US Security State

June 16, 2013 Comments Off

There are those, in response to the recent revelations of the US government vacuum cleaning our lives through the NSA and other secret programs, who take the line that the innocent have nothing to fear --->> read more -->>

Thomas Friedman’s It’s a 401(k) World – facile, misleading

May 21, 2013 Comments Off

May Day 2013 brought a piece in the NY Times by Thomas Friedman, “It’s a 401(k) World” that points out the enormous changes in employment, technology, personal access to information and personal responsibility for larger --->> read more -->>

Economic Inequality – Does It Matter?

May 9, 2012 Comments Off

It is fairly widely known that income and wealth inequality in the US is as high or higher than at any time except perhaps the Robber Baron period at the end of the 19th century. --->> read more -->>

America’s Longest War – a socio-political-military disaster – indicted by Global Commission on Drug Policy

June 12, 2011 Comments Off

Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy Last week this commission released its report, “War on Drugs“. This once again brings into focus our longest war, Nixon’s War on Drugs. Here are the first --->> read more -->>