Monthly Archives: January 2015

Hebdo:Free speech is not a damsel in distress

About the Charlie Hebdo massacre, what is to be said beyond the widespread righteous indignation over what seems to most in the West a shockingly—and tragically– out-of-proportion reaction to mere cartoons? One thing seems clear, Charlie Hebdo exposes the limits and naivete of the old saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words […]

War between religion and secular culture

From all the emphasis on the Charlie Hebdo massacre as an attack on free speech, what’s getting lost is the reality of this as a battle in the contemporary war of secular culture vs. religion. From my admittedly incomplete perusal of online news sources, the magazine has it in for Christianity as well as Islam. […]

Sharing the world with temptation

Among everybody’s New Year’s resolutions is surely turning over a new leaf on the opiate epidemic. 40 years into the War on Drugs the drugs are still winning. According to recent alarming coverage in this paper, they are on the offensive here on Cape Cod. In fact the campaign we’ve been waging on this major […]

Nuclear power is dead

The most compelling argument for closing Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant for those off us nearby and downwind is that it should never have been built there in the first place with “no escape from the Cape” (and none imaginable). Although the worst case scenario is unlikely, the consequences are so devastating and terminal, it seems […]