President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is welcome news, in one sense. Our part of the war will finally be over. But it’s 20 years too late. And his claim that we achieved our goals is absurd. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban won. We lost another war where we did not belong.
Palm Coast Survives Its Own Big Lies. For Now.
The big lies lost. But Palm Coast isn’t out of the woods. Alan Lowe may have been rejected by 73 percent of the electorate, but David Alfin’s 36 percent win, with less than 10 percent of the actual electorate, is hardly a rousing victory for a campaign that won more by default than acclamation, with incendiaries like Ed Danko and Victor Barbosa still on the council.
The Sleaziest Generation
This fourth wave of covid is ravaging the state. It was entirely preventable but for glib, “don’t Fauci my Florida” recklessness and the militancy, disinformation and poisonous selfishness of the unvaccinated. This is on them.
Critical Rage Theory
Critical race theory has been around almost 50 years and went mainstream 25 years ago, but Trumpist Republicans are discovering it only now, passing laws in several states to ban the teaching of critical race theory without understanding the first thing about it, but proving with every ban that it is less theory than fact.
After Holland
The resignation of Milissa Holland and the coming special election for mayor puts Palm Coast at a forking path between the course Holland set and a more radical change in a different direction. The two views seem to be represented by Alan Lowe and David Alfin, the leading contenders for the seat.
What Stolen Election Diehards Owe Holocaust Deniers
Holocaust denialism’s dregs on the fringe don’t get much attention because responsible institutions from publishers to campuses to media organizations kept them in their gutter. Election deniers are owed no less.
The Odious Victor Barbosa
An examination of Palm Coast Councilman Victor Barbosa’s accusation of “corruption” against Manager Matt Morton reveals it to be baseless and defamatory, while Barbosa’s own methods, from trying to get city employees fired, meddling in administrative business, blindsiding the council and shaming of residents in the city’s name, raise questions about his own understanding of, or fitness for, the job.
Lysenko, Stalin and Trump
On the one-year mark of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump’s malicious, politically motivated anti-science handling of a calamity that has killed more than half a million Americans so far recalls the alliance between fake Soviet scientist Trofim Lysenko and Stalin, which led to the death of millions.
The Golden Rule Is Not Cancel Culture
The Dr. Seuss estate’s decision to pull six books from reprints has nothing to do with cancel culture. That pair of terms has become its own dogmatic dumbbell anyway. Our misplaced nostalgia for books we were so fond of isn’t more important than the golden rule of looking out for our neighbors, to whom the same nostalgia translates as insult or put-down.
Addiction Is Not a Crime. The Drug War Is.
To continue with our cruel and sadistic drug war is the daily crime. The only way out is to decriminalize all drugs, treat, repair and, somehow, atone for lawmakers’ and the judicial system’s half-century assault on their own citizens.
