Books, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Edward Bear and Stochastic Terrorism

As America wakes up this Sunday morning it is confronted with the horror of two major acts of domestic terrorism. America is being dragged down – bump, bump, bump on the head – as the atrocities mount up. It is  thanks to a white nationalist race-baiter squatting in the White House. And a Republican Party rendered inert and spineless by…

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Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Brexit, Beowulf and the Bum Trumpet

The day after the Brexit referendum our dear leader – then candidate for the presidency – was on his way to Scotland to re-open a golf course. As soon as he landed he tweeted:  The response was fast and furious – an impressive torrent of inventive invective and obscenity that kept Twitter amused for days as the true significance of…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

The Darkest Hours -1940 and 2018

1940 has been well served by blockbuster movies this past year. Last summer there was Dunkirk as legendary saga and then this winter Darkest Hour focussed on the Westminster drama of the political backdrop. Dunkirk tells the story of the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force by following what happens to some representative figures – soldiers trying to get off the beach; a…

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Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

About Those Daffodils

So there I was, wandering about, Strolling the gardens, minding my own business The way one does on an April afternoon Unencumbered by seder or service, Thinking random simple thoughts  *** About the world and its ways. A frog at the margin, sitting tight. A goose honked. Flowers peeping by the stones, Buds bursting out and whatnot. Then …  suddenly…

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Education, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Teaching the Election: Clinton v. Trump: What are the Plans at Your School?

As we head into Back-To-School season, what are your school’s plans for teaching the 2016 presidential election? Seems to me that the some tried-and-true routines of the past are not going to work in any valuable and instructive way this season. One approach would be to ignore it all together. More peaceful that way for sure. But what a lost…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Without Empathy There Is No Leadership: “All America Felt My Pain.”

“You Have Sacrificed Nothing” Grieving father Khizr Khan said four simple words:  “You have sacrificed nothing”. It was one of those moments of astonishing clarity. A father grieving over the loss of his son – and speaking without notes or a teleprompter – delivered a resounding rebuke of everything Trump is and stands for. These words sang out in a…

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