The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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Hearing is believing: The torture memos.

By amike on Fri, 04/17/2009 - 3:53pm |
I'm not much more than a semi-fan of John Hockenberry's The Takeaway.  It's a bit too rushed, a bit too sarcastic, and a bit too New York for my taste: but the theme music does serve to jar me awake...
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Temples of Mammon Redux

By amike on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 5:33pm |
About two weeks ago I presented a piece entitled Temples of Mammon, the thesis of which was that political battles over the banking and credit systems are as American as Apple Pie, and the sub-thesis of which was that more...
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Kindness is such a wussy word.

By amike on Mon, 04/06/2009 - 11:26pm |
How to Perform Free Random Acts of KindnessLast fall, passing through South Station in Boston, I was approached by station staff and given a little business card.  "Commit to Kindness," it read, and on the reverse was a picture of...
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Temples of Mammon

By amike on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 7:13pm |
Towards the beginning of the week I wrote a little number under the title The More Things Change the More They Remain the Same.  In it, I promised something more extensive on the theme of the piece, which was that...
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The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

By amike on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 5:43pm |
The battle between citizens and banker/financiers is as American as Apple Pie. If I wasn't afraid of being accused of being a Francophile (and we know what that did to John Kerry) I'd have titled this wee post,  "plus ça...
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Do You know Versus? You Should, Really You Should.

By amike on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 3:49pm |
I'm not sure what I might call Versus.  It's rather like a blog of musical satire, with out a place to put comments (wish there were such a place).  I love satire.  I love music.  Put them together and I...
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How Much Time and Attention does Democracy Take?

By amike on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 2:17pm |
I have to make this post a quickie, which in a way will prove its point.  I'm in the middle of grading papers, and I need to avoid a riot by returning them to the kiddies in the next day...
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God has a Lousy Job.

By amike on Fri, 03/20/2009 - 1:23pm |
Should the position ever become open, I'm not applying.  Lucifer might be a wanna be god, not aMike.  I've known that for a long time, but it came home to me yesterday when I had to play god for a...
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The Common Man: Where's his Fanfare? IV. Radio...Just like Television Without Pictures.

By amike on Mon, 03/16/2009 - 10:10pm |
A short post today, well, at least short for me.  As my avatar indicates, I grew up with radio.  My family was late to television-we didn't own one until 1954, as I remember.  But there were radios.  Great big Philco...
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The Common Man: Where's his Fanfare? Musicals III.

By amike on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 12:37pm |
Spring break is upon us and the students are leaving in droves.  I have a couple of hours before I leave campus with my colleague (not to Fort Lauderdale I hasten to add), and this may just be long enough...

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