Latest Posts
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Birthday, or not?
Today is Aidan’s fourteenth birthday. At one level, this should be unremarkable: just another adolescent boy passing another year marker, working his way awkwardly to adulthood. But, of course, Aidan is anything but typical. On each of his… Continue reading
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So what happened to filial duty?
A story in the People’s Daily reports on a survey of people in China 60 years old and above. They are not happy: Older people are finding themselves in a more passive position in today’s rapidly developing society,… Continue reading
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Sunday “Modern Love:” Loving Autism
Claire Scovell LaZebnik writes a beautiful piece today about her teenage son, who has autism. He is starting to discover his sexuality but his disability – even though it has not stopped his education – seems to make… Continue reading
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Friday I Ching: Where is the US Economy Going?
In a column today in the Washington Post, Robert J. Samuelson mulls the medium-term prospects of the US economy. He is rather pessimistic. A burst of inflation and declining consumer confidence may overwhelm the "wealth effect" of high… Continue reading
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A Taoist Yankee Fan?
As sports fans know, the New York Yankees lost in the first round of the American League Championship Series. They had won the American League East Division, beating out that other team to the northeast, but fell to… Continue reading
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Mencian Rhetoric, Chinese Interests
An article by Chinese Culture Minister Sun Jiazheng was published today on the front page of the People’s Daily Overseas Edition. Its title: "Sino-US exchange requires communication of heart." The use of the term "heart" is what jumped… Continue reading
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Grandparents, Rights and the Law
A court decision in Ohio has ruled that grandparents may have visitation rights for their grandchildren even when a parent disagrees. This interests me in a couple of ways: not only the definition of "family," but the nature… Continue reading
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A Timeless Thirty Years
For those few of you who read this blog regularly, you will notice I missed by usual Sunday "Modern Love" commentary (where I comment on the "Modern Love" column in the Sunday NYT; past examples here). Instead, I… Continue reading
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Friday I Ching: Harriet Miers and us
One of the big news stories in the US this week is the nomination, by President Bush, of Harriet Miers to serve a life-time appointment on the Supreme Court. Bush’s conservative allies have been up in arms because… Continue reading
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The Impossibility of Regime Change
The Washington Post has a worrisome editorial today, entitled: Iraq Slips Away. The writers point out the political conditions in that war-torn country are not supportive of unified constitutional rule. The Kurds have established a "statelet" in the… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 