Got any ideas for President Trump’s wall? Go ahead and submit them. Seems like everybody else has. How about another Great Wall of China, a fortress on the Mexican border? Or one based on nuclear waste in a 100-foot deep trench? Maybe one that can withstand any kind of attack, even missiles? A wall of solar panels useful in the desert? A wall with art to make it not just an intrusion but a pleasure? Then there’s a utopian wall which is really no wall at all. That’s probably not in the running. Continue reading “Wall Plans”
Month: August 2017
Karl Marx Is Back
Americans are more unequal than ever. One percent of the population has close to half the nation’s wealth, while ninety-nine percent makes do with the rest. How did this come about? Who is responsible? Why, Karl Marx, claims economist James Petras in a recent article in the Unz Review. Karl Marx! Promoter of revolution, communism and class struggle as “the motor force of history” that will ultimately bring the less fortunate to power! You’ve got to be kidding. Continue reading “Karl Marx Is Back”
Future in Arizona
Among all the dreams of the future is Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti, a stark, massive, multilevel concrete structure some 70 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona. It stands alone amid a serene setting of low lying mountains and desert. Continue reading “Future in Arizona”
Example of Rome
Is there anything to learn from an empire that collapsed over 1,500 years ago? Yes indeed, since it’s the Roman Empire that provided a longer period of peace and prosperity for a crucial part of the world than it had ever experienced before or has since. Here is Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Continue reading “Example of Rome”
Mexican Paradise
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City must look up, way up to see the lofty exhibit from the cathedral in Puebla, Mexico. Three stories high is a spectacular painting of the Old and New Testaments – “Moses and the Brazen Serpent and the Transfiguration of Jesus”- completed by Mexican artist Cristobal de Villalpondo in 1683. Continue reading “Mexican Paradise”