Like many people, probably multitudes, I've been following the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power facility in Japan. Just this morning, the morning of March 28, 2011, it has been announced that the level of radioactivity in the water within the facility has risen to new levels, and that radioactivity is seeping into the water [...]
I came across this essay on BBC's website concerning the border country between Poland and Ukraine. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/direct/ukraine/9405579.stm As the article points out, it is a borderland that has shifted over time between sovereignties. Sometimes parts of it have been Imperial Russian, Polish, Imperial Austrian, Soviet or Ukrainian. I was interested in a personal way, because both [...]
I just saw a news item about Joseph Stalin. He’s been dead for almost fifty-eight years, so you might wonder what could be new about him. But there is a departure of sorts in this from RIA-Novosti: The Georgian Culture Ministry said on Tuesday it would build a monument to victims of the 2008 war [...]
I got together yesterday with a small group of old crocks. We’re not formal about the way we describe ourselves. It’s an Opus Dei cooperators’ group. Cooperators aren’t members of the Work, but they do take part in activities, contribute volunteer work and often a bit of money. They don’t have to be Catholic, or even [...]
Recently, a series of photographs of ruined Detroit was published here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit?%2F%3Fpicture=370173054&index=0#/?picture=370173054&index=0 I feel confident that the images bear their own impact and need little or no commentary. Anyone who looks at them must wonder: What is happening to America? But there is also a lesson here. Every society must possess the qualities of unity, stability [...]
About a week ago I read an extraordinary story at the BBC site about a British officer named James Blunt – now a popular singer – who may have single-handedly prevented World War III. He was ordered by his commanding officer, the American general Wesley Clark, to attack a contingent of Russian troops during the NATO [...]
I used to work with a guy who came from Magadan. He was short and strong and had a loud voice. People were intimidated by him for more reasons than his loud volume and aggressive manner. Magadan was the oblast, or province, where the notorious and dreaded labor camp known as Kolyma was located. The province [...]
I’ve just received an email from a friend I’ve never met. That’s possible these days because we can have friends all over the world we will never see in “real space”, but who are nevertheless real friends. Sometimes they and I exchange gifts, confidences and prayers. This email came from someone in real trouble. The friend [...]
The new Mayor of Moscow has ordered the city to find 200 plots of land for the building of Orthodox churches. This is, of course, a great departure from the Moscow that anyone living in the Soviet Union had known, except for the very old. But Russia is now at least partly Orthodox and Christian. I [...]
Like many other people I’m beginning to feel more than a little gloomy about the prospects for the next two years. I’m talking about secular prospects, of course. Two years ago, although I didn’t vote for the present Administration, and although I disagree with its social policies, I was willing to be patient. I’m not an [...]
