Column: Flags serve as part of cultural identity
July 24, 2008
The past month or so seems jam-packed with days devoted to patriotic fervor. Bastille Day has just passed us and the Fourth was not too long before that. Perhaps there are other periods as dense with nationalistic celebration but, from my Western-centri
Column: Modern music blurs classic genres
July 2, 2008
Though, as with most things, it is the matter of some debate, many popular music critics acknowledge that The Beatles seminal 1967 record "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" marks the point at which rock music began to be taken seriously — as art. Tha
Column: Linguistic innovation is not always bad
June 25, 2008
Someone recently informed me that the British Local Government Association had produced a 100 item long list of words that are not to be uttered by any local administration in the United Kingdom or anyone within them. Your first reaction to this might be
Column: Bipolar disorder afflicts electorate
June 18, 2008
The seemingly interminable Democratic primary season has now come to an end, and if you thought that Sen. Barack Obama's lengthy struggle to clinch the nomination was so hard-fought as to be an almost Pyrrhic victory, then you'll love the latest activism
Column: Wikipedia criticism is unwarranted
June 11, 2008
As is always the case with arguments borne of anecdotes, I'm not sure if the view I'm about to critique is wildly held, but it very much seems to me that it is. Not in the circles I run in so much but certainly just on the periphery. The view is that of t
Evolving confusion through education
May 21, 2008
I once read an opinion piece in my undergraduate institution's newspaper that spoke of the unsettling fact that education, specifically of the liberal arts variety, can confuse as much as it can clarify.
