Today saddens me. Although it is not clear what the ultimate outcome of the events that have unfolded in Iran over the last week will be, still, today's violent response by the Iranian government to…
Over the past few days, I have been powerfully moved by the voices from Iranians struggling to be heard that have been delivered to me through Twitter as I monitored the feed from #iranelection. In…
As mentioned early this week, I have been anticipating the election in Iran to see the extent to which the new possibilities for peace emerge as the structure of global politics shifts in the face…
I admire the White House's strategy to press forward on substantive health care reform now and I hope Washington is able to resist the temptation to water down the public option in such a way…
I have been asked to continue to blog for WPSU on local politics, so periodically I will be draw your attention here to my posts there.My latest post concerns the manner in which policy decisions…
Today is the anniversary of the death of Mohammed in 632 CE. The schism that opened in the Muslim world after his death continues to play out in the contemporary political tensions between Sunni Muslims…
Something more than "mere words" is at stake when the President of the United States, Barack Obama, goes to Cairo, Egypt and makes a speech offering a new beginning to the relationship between the United…
STONE HARBOR, NJ Last night's violent storms have given way to one of those crisp, clean, beautiful days at the New Jersey shore. Now, however, it is time to sweep the house, pack the swimming…
STONE HARBOR, NJ Today is my 40th birthday: I feel the curvature of the arc of my life, the contour of its trajectory. As it begins, I hope, to press toward its apogee and ultimate…
Here is episode 13 of Life with Chloe and Hannah. I have collected the video I took a few months ago at the Tussey Ski Area when they are dancing on the deck. I admire…
Although I fancy myself someone who takes advantage of the web, I must admit that I find myself repeatedly going to the same sites all the time: the New York Times, Slate.com, the Centre Daily…
In less than a week, we will be going to the polls again here in Pennsylvania. Although this primary lacks the national interest of last year's Presidential primary, it remains nevertheless important to local politics.…
The title of this post comes from George Vaillant, the director of one of the longest running longitudinal studies of physical and mental well-being that has ever been undertaken. My attention was drawn to him…
Yesterday Alan Levine, aka cogdog, gave a presentation on 50+ Ways to Tell a Story using Web 2.0 technologies. The presentation was excellent as it introduced us to a variety of tools available online for…
In that moment of silence before the crying starts, when your heart stops, you can only hope it is not too bad, not that bad.Today on the "tickle bed" Hannah fell into the headboard and…
Over the last few months, I participated on an Educational Technology Services "hot team" that focused on researching the educational significance of grassroots video. If you don't know what grassroots video is, check out our…
As I grow older, I realize more and more that a life is made up of lives, that an individual life involves phases linked yet distinct. With the approach of my 40th birthday in May,…
After listening to this week's New Yorker comment podcast entitled "Economy vs. Environment" by David Owen, I was struck by three things. First, economic prosperity is dirty. Owens says that "the principle source of man-made…
Today is John Updike's birthday. Today a friend presented me with a little gift of one of Updike's poems. It reminded me again how important now is. I knew that, of course, but one must…
I have just finished listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on the Lincoln Presidency, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Although the book takes a largely uncritical view of Lincoln's political wisdom,…
I am beginning to notice something about my course blog for PHIL298H: Patriarchal Force and Political Power. As we discuss the material we have been reading for class and engage with one another online through…
For those of you who have noticed a lack of postings here recently, this is largely because I am doing a lot of blogging with my honors class over at the course blog for an…
I just wanted to pause to note two small moments that occurred as we watched the inauguration unfold on TV as a family on Tuesday.As Val and I were focused on the inauguration, Hannah was…
This day stands as a rebuke to all who doubt the power of words. And on this defining day, I was struck again by the power of words spoken to inspire, transform, evoke, and celebrate. …
I woke, this much anticipated morning, to the news of the death of a colleague. Professor Paul Lyons taught history, social work and holocaust studies for 29 years at the Richard Stockton College of New…
In a short but powerful speech from the Lincoln Memorial, Barack Obama stood where King had stood and offered a powerful rejoinder to some of those most powerful words King spoke 46 years ago. Where…
Just before the new year, we took Chloe and Hannah to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Chloe, who is obsessed with everything that has to do with art, was beside herself with excitement. Once I…
This year we had a Christmas without batteries and it was excellent. Santa, aka Val, asked for and bought nothing for the girls that required a battery of any kind. Most of what the girls…
For those of us who own houses and who are working hard to keep up with our mortgage payments, it has been difficult to hear about multi-billion dollar bailouts of Wall Street banks and financial…
My friend and colleague from the New School, Emma Bianchi, forwarded me an essay written by Judith Butler entitled "Uncritical Exuberance?" that cautions us against too enthusiastically identifying with the election of Barack Obama. Butler…
It is difficult to put into words the feelings of the last few days, the sense of genuine pride, of relief, of hope, of new possibility; the sense of gravity for the seriousness of the…
The first word Hannah could read herself, or at least recognize, was 'Obama'. She has been involved with the Obama campaign for at least 30% of her three year old life, and now she and…
My brother-in-law is the editor of the sports section of New York Newsday. He asked for feedback from those of us living in battleground states. I sent them a picture and a short report, which…
When I arrived at the 31st precinct (State College West - 1) at 6:45am to begin working as a poll watcher for the Obama campaign, they had already been lined up for a half an…
Today the girls and I went out for another day of knocking on doors to get out the vote for Obama. This time, however, we were paired with Larry, a doctoral candidate in the School…
Here in State College, things are progressing very well with the Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts for Barack Obama. Chloe, Hannah, Nanny Janny, Val and I went to the Obama office in State College…
Philadelphia has waited 28 years and 46 hours for this moment when Brad Lidge struck out Cliff Floyd to win the 2008 World Series. One of the most memorable moments of my childhood was watching…
This has been a perfect sports weekend from my perspective. Over the last 36 hours, we have seen the Phillies win not one, but two World Series games, the Eagles beat the Falcons and, of…
Over the last few days I have received four phone calls from the McCain campaign and one mailer from the Republican national committee. Of the four phone calls, two have been robo calls, one was…
While many of us have found it difficult to forgive Colin Powell for the decisive role he played in lending credibility to the lies that led us into Iraq, his endorsement of Obama today on…
Last night's presidential debate was, on the whole, quite substantive, offering the public a good sense of the fundamental differences between McCain and Obama on issues ranging from health care to foreign policy. However, the…
The girls and I went out canvassing for Obama again on Saturday and I learned something: the front porch is where the world can be changed. OK, that sounds perhaps a bit grandiose, but I…
This is a simple call for anyone who comes across this blog and agrees with what they find here to please register to vote.The Pennsylvania deadline is Monday, October 6th.I have added the voter registration…
The last vestiges of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which was passed during the first year of the Franklin Roosevelt administration in an attempt to regulate the banking industry in the face of the Great…
In a striking comment earlier this month, Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, insisted: "This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."…
Today my friend and neighbor, Dan Letwin, and I went out canvassing for Barack Obama with our kids. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon; a perfect day to change the world.We brought our four…
If Barack Obama wins in November, it will surely be historic, but not only because he would be the first African American president. He would also be the first President elected based on an organizing…
Over the past eight years, the Republican party and its leaders have perfected a strategy of political dishonesty and deception.In 2000, having lost badly to McCain in the New Hampshire primary, George W. Bush, decided…
I have now posted episode 9 of Life with Chloe and Hannah, entitled "Long Time." It chronicles our time with my brother, Jon, and his family, Hilary, Hoshaiah, Lucia and Natasha as they visited us…
The most distressing revelation to come to light in the Penn State sponsored forum held at the Grange Fair on August 26th for the candidates running for the 5th Congressional District is that only one…
Exactly one year ago I wrote of the disjunction between the ideals American professes and the reality it embodies. That was the second anniversary of hurricane Katrina and the day after the 44th anniversary of…
For the next few months, most of my political musings will be posted on a political blog run by WPSU, the PBS affiliate for Central Pennsylvania based at Penn State.I have been asked to join…
Summer ended on Saturday at 4:49 am. No, this was not the moment the din and energy of 40,000 students descending upon us here in State College made itself felt - that actually began already…
Over the past few weeks I have been thinking that Obama might just pick Hillary Clinton as VP. I know the media is saying that an Obama-Clinton ticket is unlikely, but still, consider this:Who is…
I am currently slugging through what I hope are the last few chapters of a book on Aristotle and it is not easy going. Although writing has always been something I love--crafting sentences, considering the…
PITTSBURGH, PA - The girls are finally asleep in their "hotel home" in Pittsburgh, where we have come for an overnight so we could visit the Pittsburgh Children's Musuem and the Pittsburgh Zoo. The day…
About a year ago, Val pointed me to the RealAge.com website and I took the RealAge test. The test is designed to calculate your "real age" as opposed to your "chronological age" based upon your…
A few weeks ago my Aunt Cathie wrote us an email about a business her niece, Renee Fischer, had started with her friend, Carla Manna. The name of the company is Neela Products and they…
I hesitate to write this after what has been such a difficult roll out for Apple of MobileMe, the Application store, firmware upgrades for the iPhone and iPod Touch and, of course, the introduction of…
Yesterday, in the spirit of the Obama campaign's attempt to organize "Unite for Change" neighborhood parties across the country, we gathered with some of our neighbors for an "Obama Mamas and Papas" party. Thanks to…
FREIBURG, GERMANY - I have been struck during my short visit here in Germany by the way the world is at once made smaller by the internet and yet remains also somehow large enough that…
Over the course of the last few months, I have been very critical of Hillary Clinton's politics. However, now is the time to recognize the powerful significance of her candidacy for the presidential nomination, to…
So much, of course, can be said about the significance of Barack Obama's capturing the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. I simply want to mark the moment by appealing to a…
STONE HARBOR, NJ - As our week at the beach draws to a close, the girls are in bed, though not yet asleep, I type, watching the sun set from the back deck of our…
STONE HARBOR, NJ - The passing details of life at the beach: Hannah standing on one foot.Chloe and Danny playing with Jake in the pool.The breeze smells of the salt sea.Danny reading a bedtime story to…
Leigh Johnson makes a very good point that to the extent that Hillary Clinton's continuation in the race for the Democratic nomination calls our attention to the struggle of women in American society, she should…
If one wants an immediate sense of the different kind of politics Barack Obama is offering, look no further than the recent discussion of gas prices in the campaign. At a time when the Obama…
Fear and obliteration are the two words that currently define the Clinton campaign and mark the substantive difference between a possible Clinton and Obama presidency. First, taking a page directly out of the Karl Rove…
Well, last night did not bring the victory for Obama and the conclusion to the Democratic nominating process that I had hoped. It seems that Obama's defeat in PA was largely due to the voting…
OK, Pennsylvania readers, it is now our turn to weigh in on the Democratic nominating process. I hope tomorrow will put an end to the long primary season with a decisive victory for Obama. The…
If the title of this post is unequivocal and definitive, it is offered in the spirit and style of the American mass media punditocracy. No sooner was the debate on Tuesday over than commentators and…
As many people must have heard, Barack Obama stopped in State College last Sunday on his six day tour of Pennsylvania. The girls and I were there with 22,000 other people for the largest political…
A Liberal Arts Education is committed to cultivating habits of thinking and acting capable of responding to the world in ways that open new possibilities for human community. It is oriented in part by what…
In his 1961 essay, The Dangerous Road Before Martin Luther King, James Baldwin speaks of the death of segregation in America and he raises the question as to "just how long, how violent, and how…
Tonight I went with my neighbor and friend, Paul, and his daughter, Caitlin, and with my daughters, Hannah and Chloe, to the opening of the Obama campaign office here in State College. There were many…
To those readers of this blog living in PA, now is the time to make sure you are registered to vote in the Pennsylvania primary. The deadline is March 24th, so if you want to…
Today is Val's 40th Birthday!To celebrate, Hannah, Chloe and I put together this video. They wanted me to write: "We love you Momma, because you're so great. Happy Birthday." Have a wonderful birthday Val:
A number of graduate students, faculty and Penn State staff have started a Google Group to spread the word about Obama and generate excitement about his campaign. It seems now that Pennsylvania will finally have…
On Sunday, Val, Hannah, Chloe and I went on a winter nature hike sponsored by the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center. Although everything was covered with snow, we were about to witness the more dormant side…
WNYC's Radio Lab did a wonderful set of stories on laughter recently. They appeal to Aristotle as having said that human beings "are the only ones of the animals that laugh" (Parts of Animals, 673a7).…
My Dad wrote me an email today suggesting I take a look at David Brook's column, When the Magic Fades, in the New York Times. He wanted to know what I thought, so here it is:In that…
I have recently been struck by, and stuck between, two critiques of Obama's foreign policy approach. The first, articulated here in Kristin Rawl's thoughtful response to my last post on Style with Substance, argues that…
To the degree that I have embraced the power of Obama's words as a way to move the country toward a new way of thinking about politics, I risk giving the impression that I too…
There is really only one message this week: Yes We Can.Will.i.am, who says he is not big on politics, was nevertheless moved after New Hampshire to write and produce this song based on the speech…
January is a paradoxical month: it contains the hope of new beginnings in the very dead of winter.In early January, we traveled to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Little did we know when Chloe posed for this…
The Obama campaign continues to perplex the pundits and the politicians who insist on operating with an outdated political calculus based on fear, hatred and self-interest. Some in the press see Obama's dominant victory in…
In his famous essay, What is Enlightenment?, Immanuel Kant writes: Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's own understanding without the guidance of another.Kant, Immanuel. “An Answer…
Today as the Republicans of South Carolina again go to the polls, I am returned to those critical days in the Republican primary in 2000 when Karl Rove deployed a strategy of hate and fear…
Last October I wrote with some frustration about the limitations of my iPod Touch, three months later, it is perhaps fair to revisit the list of issues I had with the device to see what…
Last year on the anniversary of hurricane Katrina I wrote about Martin Luther King and the content of our Nation's character. In that post, I embedded a YouTube video of about Barack Obama because I…
I have always thought Obama's background as a community organizer would help his chances in Iowa. A few hours time will tell if this intuition was right. However, this article, entitled "A Tiny Iowa Paper…
Lately, we have had a monster problem in our house. Chloe has been very concerned about monsters, particularly the possibility that one or more live in one of her closets. Checking the closets before bed…
One of the many great privileges of teaching here at Penn State is the opportunity I have to work closely with faculty and staff committed to thinking creatively about teaching and learning. One place where…
Two boxes of old slides had been sitting in my closet for years. My mother gave them to me long ago with the thought that maybe we might look at them sometime. Over Thanksgiving this…
After hearing the Education Technology Services (ETS) Talk, number 35 in which issues were raised about the limits of Facebook and other aspects of Web 2.0 social networking that were feeling a bit cumbersome, I…
With the campaigns for the US Presidency fully underway, the attack ads are really heating up. The intense rhetoric seems to have filtered down into the heart of at least one long standing battle in…
Upon passing a cemetery on the way to play group yesterday, Chloe was prompted to a line of questioning that led to the question of death: not only her death but also the death of…
Here is another episode of Life with Chloe and Hannah (LwCH). It is a relatively short recording of the girls playing a typical game with their dolls, putting them to sleep and waking up again.…
Today Hannah Aveline Long turns two years old! To celebrate I have added one of my favorite pictures of her with a new umbrella she received for her birthday.This year we celebrate with visits first…
I have posted Life with Chloe and Hannah, episode 01 below. It is the first of what I hope to be an ongoing collection of podcasts that capture something of the daily life of my…