It’s an odd title for a book that is mostly about Japan. But, then, the relationship between these two Asian states is an odd one. Japan can rightly credit its…
The sheer silliness of the stranglehold religion has upon government is represented by the dispute that has arisen over Barack Obama’s decision to select pastor-bigot Rick Warren of the Saddleback…
Daughter Laura sent me a bunch of photos she found of the aqua alta in Venice these days—the highest in over 30 years. It is a preview of what global warming will…
I have no issue with the man or woman sitting beside me in a café or on a bus mumbling prayers to themselves because their back hurts, a loved one…
What happens to our consciousness after we die? What some people call a soul, they believe, will head off for heaven, the afterlife, Elysian fields, nirvana, or another round of…
In 1992, my dear friend, Sue, and I flew into then Bombay (now Mumbai) from London on December 6, for a few days before taking ship to other Indian ports…
As we gather round our turkeys—and have a chuckle at the video of Sarah Palin blathering her nonsense oblivious to a farmhand gruesomely dispatching turkeys in the background—those of us…
Listening to the heads of the major American automobile companies whine before Congress today was enough to make me puke. Can you believe this—they each flew to Washington to beg…
An old friend wrote to me about the election of Barack Obama to the presidency wondering what I was going to “rant about” in these pages now that George W.…
Heaven, I’m in heaven And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak And I seem to find the happiness I seek When were out together dancing cheek to…