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Send us Fan Mail The chancellor wanted to have a commemoration event on September 13, two days after Septembeer 11.  He invited me to speak.  As I look back on my comments 25 years later, I am pleased at how I detected the dangers inherent in the political system.  But I also realize how much I under estimated what was to come.  We had a Republican president who went to the national mosque and declared Islam to be a religion of peace.  He made it clear to his cabinet that there would be no retaliation against Muslims.  How could we even imagine the regime to come, whose supporters openly call for the expulsion of all Muslims from the country?  But we do what we can in the moment presented to us.  I look back on this talk with some satisfaction.

Send us Fan Mail This is from an article on The Forward, a Jewish newspaper.  It draws from an interview that Abdul El sayed gave with the New Yorker a day before the primary election.  A Jewish journalist thought it deserved discussion so he provided key excerpts along with his comments.  If you are a supporter of Abdul, or his critic, you will find this of interest.  Sorry I posted this without music.

Send us Fan Mail This is a true story of a young woman cashier who was having a VERY bad day.  I really didn't mean to add to her problems, but stuff happens.

Send us Fan Mail I once visited a Salvation Army graveyard section.  It was a very interesting experience.

Send us Fan Mail This is one of those episodes in life that descend upon you like a mosquitoe that just keeps buzzing around.  You can either let it ruin your night's sleep or you can view it as an opportunity.  I chose to turn it into an anecdote.  By the way, there was a time, not long ago, when there were people called "operators."  They were very helpful and were always available to help find a number or to reach a person.  In time, the phone companies decided they could be replaced by on-line information.  Then they started charging for on-line information.  That is why some of you who are younger may be slightly confused by the "operator" aspect of this story.

Send us Fan Mail Derek Peterson, Chair of the UM Faculty Senate, was asked to deliver remarks to the 2026 graduating class.  He focused upon the tradition of protest on campus, going back to the period after the Civil War.  Everything was ducky until he got to protests against the Gaza War.   Well, you can listen to what happened after that.  My approach was to read the statements of the various parties to this dispute, and to same my own thoughs until the end.   Update:  In the end, I decided to read the full (rather long) statement by the 1100 faculty and staff rather than excerpts.  My wife thought that any attempt to edit it down would change it in some way, and detract from its purpose.  I agreed.

Send us Fan Mail Being my family historian, I bump into strange documents from time to time.  A couple of years ago, I saw a will from 1717 that I thought might belong to an ancestor.  It turned out that it did not, but the will was so fascinating that I wanted to discuss it with you.  The logic and style are very different from what we know as a will today (although the goal is the same -- to allocate resources according to the wishes of the deceased, without tension).  Three small points First, in a mistake, I once said an ell was 14 inches.  In fact it is 45 inches.  Second, I suspect you know the term anno domini, which we commonly call A. D.  Third, a "share" of tobacco  had different meanings.  In some cases it was a negotiated amount, for example with a shareholder.  The most common meaning was a full "hogshead" barrel, which was typically 1,000 pounds.  It sounds as if that might be what was meant in this document.   This is a relatively short podcast so it will not cost a significant portion of your life to listen.  And you might find it interesting.

Send us Fan Mail This is a discussion of the historic context of this war, plus some thoughts on the strategic issues involved.  Note: At one point I referred to the end of the Gulf War when I meant to say the end of World War II.  Note:  At this point (March 17)  opposition to the war is about 53-41.  Republicans are very supportive, Democrats opposed. The general pattern in public opinion, is that whenever your country goes to war, you support it, but then support falls off very quickly within a month or so.  By 51-29 Americans think the war has made us less safe.

Send us Fan Mail In 1981 Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book on suffering. He decided to write this when he learned that his beloved son Aaron had a terrible disease that would turn him into an old man even as a child.  Aaron died at eight.  Kushner reflected upon why an innocent child should suffer so much.  Could God have prevented this?  Kushner turned to the story of Job to try to understand.   If you like this podcast, I hope you will read the book.   And another book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel.  I also have a podcast on that book.

Send us Fan Mail On January 3 American forces went into Caracas and captured Venezuelan President Maduro.  He was taken to the United States to stand trial.  Is this a one-off adventure because of a corrupt leader, or does it suggest a broader set of actions of which this is just the first of many?

Send us Fan Mail When I was in Turkey I visited a caravan serai.  It was a place where a caravan would stop along the way.  (And where travelers could find a place to spend the night).  When we read that there was "no room in the inn" and Mary had to deliver in the stable, what does that mean?  I suspect it was not nearly as harsh as I learned when I was a kid.  Two updates might be helpful First, scholars have not found evidence of a caravan serai in Bethlehem.  Second, scholars believe that many stories in the Bible are metaphors, not facts.  Some scholars believe that Jesus was not born in Bethlehem.  That is more like one of the parables of Jesus, which everyone recognizes is a story designed to make a point

Send us Fan Mail I am very cautious about predictions.  All the pundits are doing those, plus most of them seem to be chasing headines.   I have made an exception in this case, because I think Trump has peaked and is on his decline.   Am I just doing what others are doing and over-reading headlines?  Maybe.  But I think I see something worth noting.  You are welcome to spend 29 minutes see if you agree.  Feedback welcome.  [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail Biden carried Georgia by just under 12,000 votes.  They had a Republican governor and Republican Secreatary of State.  Trump called them and asked them to "find" those votes.  I just need one more than Biden got to carry the state.  Trump threatened the Secretary of State with prosecution if he did not "find" the votes.  The county prosecutor Fannie Wills charged the president with corruption.  Trump fought furiously.  In time, Wills was removed for conflict of interest.  (She was boinking one of her associates).  The person who replaced her was a well respected prosecutor.  Today he dismissed the case.  Why?  1.  The case should never have been in a county court.  It should have been in a federal court.  Allowing every county prosecutor to bring criminal charges against a president would produce chaos.  2.  The critical sentence from Trump about "find the votes" could have been interpreted as having criminal intent OR just urging the local official to do his job.  The law specifies that if reasonable people could interpret a statement in two ways, the prosecutor is obligated to grant the accused the benefit of the doubt.  3.  The case was very complex with many individuals named.  It would have involved multiple trials.   4.  Trump is now in office.  It could not go to trial until he was out of office.  That would be very difficult.   What I do not yet understand is what happens to all of the peripheral individuals who already pleaded guilty to being a part of a conspiracy and have been sentenced.  Wills used the RICO law to suggest that there were a host of people involved in this effort.  This podcast will explain the original indictment document, including the logic of the RICO charge.  This is not long and is very informative.

Send us Fan Mail After the catastrophic defeat at Charleston, the Patriot forces were on the ropes.  General Clinton, commander of the British army, was so confident of the outcome, that he left his deputy, General Cornwallis, in charge and headed north.   Cornwallis planned to link up with Tory militias from North and South Carolina, to crush resistance, and to  remove two more stars  from the flag.  (The British already controlled Georgia, at least they thought they did).   The Tory militias, backed up by some regulars, had gathered at King's Mountain right on the border between North and South Carolina.  They were in a formidable position, holding the high ground.  The plan was to link up with Cornwallis, finish off the rebellion, and go home as heroes.  What could go wrong?  But four battles (Musgrave Mill, Cowpens, King's Mountain, and Guilford Courthouse) changed the tragectory of the war.  We have been watching the Ken Burns masterpiece on The American Revolution.  This story is told in the last episode.

Send us Fan Mail Christa Bruhn was my student back in the 1980s.  I remember very well the first time I met her.  She told me she had lived for a semester in Gaza.  I have been to Gaza twice and did not consider it a place for a young American woman to be spending a semester.  But Christa was never able to get Palestine out of her soul.   This is her own story of her life-long engagement with a land and a people whose survival is not guaranteed.  In time she fell in love with a Palestinian student she met in the US.  She moved with him to Jenin where she became fully integrated into her new Palestinian family.  Christa shares amazing insights from her years in that land.  I found it easy and very rewarding to interview her about her life and her book.  This interview is over an hour long but you will be glad you listened.