Yesterday I wrote about my extracurricular activities at the University of Michigan back in the 1980s. Although I moved to Europe after graduating in 1991, I am still attune to the Michigan / Michigan State rivalry and must grudgingly concede one point where Moo U tops Big Blue: mascots. MSU has Sparty. Michigan has a … Continue reading Sparty rocks!
Book Recommendation: Epitaph for a Spy
If you enjoy old school crime fiction and are looking for an entertaining fast paced read for the weekend, get a copy of Eric Ambler’s Epitaph for a Spy. Written and set in 1938, it casts an unlikely protagonist into the role of spy. Josef Vadassy is a language teacher of Hungarian descent. He is … Continue reading Book Recommendation: Epitaph for a Spy
Divine redemption or comedy of errors?
A few days ago in a much discussed post I posed the question: What duties do the living have to compensate victims of past injustices? The tenor from comments, and also my opinion, is that at minimum the living have obligations towards the dead regarding their historical memory. It seems that Sperello di Serego Alighieri, … Continue reading Divine redemption or comedy of errors?
The true legacy of the Cold War
This is the second in a series of slightly longer posts drawing on some of my academic work. Following up on my last post, here I examine how post Cold War hubris has laid the groundwork for current Europe nationalism and xenophobia. When the Berlin Wall fell, neoconservative policy makers in the West broke into … Continue reading The true legacy of the Cold War
The Cold War wasn’t all that cold
In the next few blogs I am going to shorten up and break into blog sized bits some of the papers I completed this past semester. The blogs will be a little longer than usual, but I think they are well worth reading. Here is a first installment about the Cold War. Let me know … Continue reading The Cold War wasn’t all that cold
A message to my fellow Austrians and friends around the world
A few days ago Arnold Schwarzenegger, posted “a message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world” on LinkedIn. I won’t wade into the quagmire of comments (and rants masquerading as comments) that his video has triggered. Suffice it to say, the United States is deeply divided and Joe Biden faces a challenge. I … Continue reading A message to my fellow Austrians and friends around the world
The real Lost Generation
We live in an age of journalistic exaggeration. Most of this hyperbole I let slide with a slight eye roll or sigh, but somethings really get my dander up. One recent over amplification that has been causing me to spew my morning coffee over the op-ed page are the spate of columnists referring to current … Continue reading The real Lost Generation
