Essays

Essays

Sep 18th 2014

Note to my readers: This essay is a follow-up to my rereading of Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse that is more personal essay than review and

Sep 13th 2014

The first time I fell in love was in the children’s section of Brooke Park library. I was eleven and she was ten and her name was Josephine and she had so many freckles on her face that she was a haze of delight.

Sep 4th 2014

In 1962, Bob Dylan told an interviewer: "The songs are there. They exist all by themselves, just waiting for someone to write them down.

Sep 2nd 2014

Almost daily, we are faced by difficult choices we are challenged to confront over a range of foreign and domestic policy concerns.

Aug 19th 2014

The New Atheists are once again provoking controversy, this time with their comments on Gaza which has prompted divisions among those better known for presenting a united front against religion.

Aug 16th 2014

I applaud those who retain the strength to fight the never-ending battle against ignorance, intolerance and persistent persecution of rationalists.

Aug 13th 2014

Humor is an essential part of the human experience. We tend to think of comedy as frivolous, a side show to the miseries of hunger, disease, and poverty that visit the vast majority of the global population.

Aug 11th 2014


ISIS
 in Iraq is murdering Christians and Shia Muslims alike under the guise of a Holy War.

Aug 7th 2014

In a broad sense of that term, reading Max Tegmark's Our Mathematical Universe is akin to a religious experience. I would not be at all surprised if Tegmark felt a similar sense of excitement in writing this massively learned yet wonderfully accessible book.

Jul 27th 2014

Note to my readers: This essay is a follow-up to

Jul 25th 2014
Many professional authors are also parents, but recently, there have been a number of success stories of parents simply writing for their own children and becoming very successful.
Jul 18th 2014

I make it a year and four months since Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope. In the light of this I was interested to read that he (Pope Francis as he became) had his first interview with a female journalist just three weeks ago.

Jul 17th 2014

Whatever happened to that steely British resolve, that famous Churchillian stiff upper lip?  When did the English become as whiny as we Americans?

Jul 14th 2014

A HuffPost blogger with expertise in publishing suggests there are still 5 reasons to get a de

Jul 10th 2014

The summer of 1961 was one of my favorites: Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were hitting home runs, Whitey Ford was winning games, and "Who Put the Bomp" was a big hit on my transistor radio.

Jul 9th 2014

This is an Excerpt from my new book 

Jul 5th 2014

Ah for every one step forward two steps backward.

Jul 3rd 2014

Let's be honest. Sure some smart young people who "come to Christ" are deeply sincere.

Jun 30th 2014

Very recently I heard a young Israeli called Yehuda Shaul being interviewed on Radio Ulster.

Jun 26th 2014

A reader has asked me to comment on the poem in Robert Hass’s book titled “Human Wishes” that I discuss in  my essay Robert Hass, poet: Meaning and Form and Pleasure.

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