Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
It seemed like one of those news stories that would come and go quickly — but the media and the politicians aren’t letting it die. Two weeks ago, the city of New York agreed to let a private organization build a $100 million mosque and Islamic community center in Manhattan. This in itself is nothing unusual. People from 190 countries … >>
Do you know the difference between nationality and citizenship? A lot of people use these words to mean the same thing — but they don’t. The word “citizen” comes to us from Latin civitas, meaning “city”. The French took that word centuries ago and made the word citeain — someone who lives in a city. Today, a citizen is a … >>
Some of my e-mail correspondents in the US forward me nutty chain letters from time to time. Beneath several layers of e-mail addresses is an anonymous rant that someone either made up or copied from a website somewhere without attribution. Topics range from Barack Obama’s secret Muslim origins and plans to ruin America, to how all government is unproductive and … >>
Barack Obama calls it “a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster”. The explosion on a BP drilling platform on April 20 has led to an outpouring of oil from the sea floor which threatens not only wildlife, but also the important fishing and tourism industries, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Visiting Louisiana on Sunday, Obama said that “the federal … >>
There are times when I just can’t read the news. It’s too depressing. There is some value in knowing, I suppose, that California is better equipped to handle earthquakes than northern Mexico, or that the price of energy in China and West Virginia may sometimes include human lives, or that a major church might be full of pedophiles. But often … >>
Yes, I was an altar boy. No, I wasn’t abused. I was also a Boy Scout, and I wasn’t abused there either. Yet judging by all the scandals that have come out over the years, there must have been some potential for it. The European controversy over the Catholic church has again spilled over to the United States, and in … >>
One of my favorite Bushisms is one that George W. said when visiting Nashville in 2002. “There’s an old saying in Tennessee,” he began. “I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee [as well] — that says, ‘Fool me once: shame on you. Fool me [twice]: you can’t get fooled again.” Bush had forgotten the second part of the saying, … >>
It was the right thing to do: when the earthquake hit Haiti last week, Barack Obama promptly sent over $100 million in aid. It was easy to do, because the money was already available. The US had given Haiti three times that amount last year, out of a sense of charity. Haiti is like that family member that no one … >>
When I was little, I heard about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Naturally, I asked my parents when Children’s Day was. They laughed and said: “Every day is Children’s Day.” So it must seem to supporters of the women’s movement, who have spent the last hundred years fighting for equal rights, equal pay and equal respect, that there is such … >>
Two weeks ago, on October 29, the US officially became the fourth G-7 nation, after Germany, Japan and France, to come out of recession. After shrinking for a year, the US economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent during the third quarter of 2009. That was great news. The Guardian described Britain’s envy at what was partly the … >>