Richard Geldard

On this day, when Governor Romney secures the Republican nomination for president, we now are offered our November choice. What is it? In Emerson's essay "Intellect" he put the matter plainly for us all:

"God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please, --...

In the Wizard of Oz, you will recall, the loyal watchdog Toto (think media for this brief item), pulls aside the curtain hiding the sham wizard, who is turning wheels and belching smoke from behind his phony throne. He is exposed for the fraud he is (the GOP Super PACs...

As anyone familiar with the subprime housing debacle will surely see that the current student loan crisis has a similar feeling about it. In fact, now that more careful statistical studies have been done, we are beginning to know the extent of the crisis. 70% of college graduates carry debt...

In 1860 Ralph Waldo Emerson published a collection of essays entitled The Conduct of Life. One of those essays was entitled "Wealth," and in it he spelled out the basic laws of wealth in a free economy. Here is a passage from that essay:

"Wealth brings with it its own checks...

Among some of the debris washed up on the beaches of Alabama and Mississippi in the recent Republican primaries there were disturbing opinion polls, one of which asked questions about the President's religion. Only a small percentage thought he was a Christian while nearly a half thought he was a...

If you haven't already noticed, your search results on Google, the choices presented on YouTube and Netflix, are being tailored to what they think are your interests, based of course on previous choices. Search engines and big retailers like Amazon also focus on your purchases to offer items they think...

The campaign for president in 2012 has once again raised the usually dormant issue of whether or not America was founded as a Christian nation. The assertion that it was has been declared almost unanimously by the Religious Right, and now with candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich making...

No one, I'm sure, is looking forward to the inundation of super PAC ads coming to our TV screens for the next eight months. For the most part, given the evidence of their present tone and content, these ads will not only be negative but also near libelous. And...

The following historical nugget appeared today in Paul Krugman's Op-Ed piece in the Times: "In 1997 Mr. Clinton struck a deal with Republicans in Congress in which he cut taxes on the rich in return for creation of the Children's Health Insurance Program." Up to the point of that deal...

In Act Two of King Lear, the old fading king's nasty daughters, Goneril and Regan, badger their dottering father about letting go of his large, expensive entourage of soldiers and retainers. They argue him down in number to the point where, finally, Regan puts the knife in and asks, "What...

In the media recently, the question is being asked: how it is that the wealthy are doing so well while the middle class is suffering in comparison? The usual villains named are outsourcing and the resulting decline of the manufacturing base. Blame also goes to NAFTA and the other trade...

A new book has been making the rounds and getting a very bad press. It is The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions, by Alex Rosenberg, a philosopher of science at Duke University. What Rosenberg has done is to take the scientific principle of reductionism and apply...

In his recent article in Foreign Affairs, the historian Francis Fukuyama said: "It has been several decades since anyone on the left has been able to articulate... a realistic agenda that has any hope of protecting a middle-class society." It's too bad that the Left has not clearly articulated an...

It's an old theme by now, going back to Reagan and his war on welfare, but this time it's Romney's war on entitlement. His new campaign refrain is to blame the poor for feeling "entitled," for saying, "They owe me, I'm entitled," while they sit back with their big screen...

On the eve of primary voting, we are more or less clear about Ron Paul's racist newsletters and the Gingrich sexual and financial affairs, but less clear about the relationship between Mitt Romney and Bain Capital. As in the case of Paul and Gingrich, this too is an issue of...

As Congress muddles its way toward some sort of deal on extending the payroll tax holiday, and the Republicans keep fighting a tax on the wealthy to help pay for it, we hear again and again the mantra of this campaign: "Don't penalize the job creators."

That mantra has...

My question is this: why would any sane person want to be elected president of these disunited states in this toxic economic and political climate? In the case of Obama he has little choice but to try for a second term. If he quits now, he's a coward, and if...

As the 2012 election cycle heats up, the myth of American Exceptionalism is with us again. Romney and Gingrich, the two bruised and battered candidates still standing, have both chosen American Exceptionalism as their clarion call, their only rationale for being candidates for president.

They accuse President Obama of...

In 2008, millions of people saw the presidential election as a matter of crisis and principle. Deep into two wars and debt rising, Barack Obama was a new voice, stunning in his eloquence and a stark and welcome contrast to the aging McCain and the Crazy Lady from Alaska. Small...

Well, we knew it was coming. First, the big box bookstores like Barnes & Noble drove out the independents (See You've Got Mail). Then, the online sellers knocked out the big boxes (watch as B&N closes hundreds of those big boxes) and now, as we learned in the New York...