It is a sad awareness that is becoming the zeitgeist of our time. It is being spoken in scientific, environmental, spiritual, academic, and even governmental circles. We humans may not make it much longer. The possibility of our species' demise (along with the demise of many of the higher life...

You know you're in a pretty hip city when its main newspaper's weekend edition has the Dalai Lama as its guest editor, along with his big smiling mug taking up most of the front page. The theme of the special edition of The Vancouver Sun this past weekend was "Educating...

Many of my friends, formerly thrilled with the election of Barack Obama, are now grumbling about his being too nice. They feel he should be fighting back, not compromising his agenda, and that he should play by the rules of the opposition in which anything goes. These same folks were...

Unlike much of America I am dismayed by the success of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Aside from finding the show's humor banal, I am genuinely concerned with its message based on a comment by a 17-year-old relative who told me that all politicians are alike and there was...

I am so tired of hearing Karl Rove referred to as a genius. It’s like saying the mob boss, known for getting his way by kneecapping people and stuffing bodies into car trunks, is a genius. When informed friends of mine acknowledge Karl Rove’s intellectual prowess, they are always careful...

One’s experience of life seems to have a great deal to do with what occupies one’s thoughts. It may seem petty of me, but, along with all the horrors we have endured over the last five years under the present administration, I have also resented how much unpleasant mental real...

In these last days I have noticed a flickering of hope. For the past five years it has seemed that no matter how great our government’s crimes, lies, illegal invasion of a country, acts of torture, or willful destruction of the environment, there were virtually no repercussions because these acts...