Encampment at Columbia University For the past few weeks, the news has been filled with reports about mobs of college students across the country — beginning at elite institutions like Columbia, Yale, Harvard and UCLA, and often supported by professors — chanting antisemitic slogans, harassing and intimidating Jews and even calling for (and sometimes committing) […]
President Biden with his National Security Team in the White House Situation Room, April 13, 2024 I was going to title this post “Biden Gets It Half Right,” but on second thought it’s clear to me that the wrong part considerably outweighs the right. When, yesterday, Iran’s mullahs launched some 320 drones and cruise and […]
Joseph I. Lieberman, Feb. 24, 1942 – Mar. 27, 2024 Joe Lieberman’s death this week brought back memories of my freshman year at Yale, when I made a brief effort to “heel” (that is, to try out for a position as a writer) at the Yale Daily News, the nation’s oldest independent college daily newspaper […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Sen-Lieberman.png503678Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2024-03-31 15:19:412024-04-01 03:16:32Joe Lieberman May Have Been the Guy Who Taught Me How to Create a Martini — And a Few Loftier Thoughts on a Principled Politician
Author’s Note: Here is a link to Part 1 in this series of posts, which we published half a year ago, on Sept. 10, 2023. (Please forgive the delay in resuming publication of this series.) The introductory Author’s Note to Part I will give readers of this post important context for what they will now […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/800-years-of-change-in-Hawaii-1.png776527Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2024-03-24 20:26:262024-03-24 22:38:18What Makes Hawaii Unique, Part 2 of 5
With Super Tuesday having all but ensured that Donald Trump and Joe Biden will receive their parties’ nominations for November’s presidential election — a huge disappointment for many, if not most, voters — Shakespeare’s famous line in Romeo and Juliet, “a plague on both your houses,” is all I can think to say. Rather than […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Plague-on-both-houses.png704584Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2024-03-11 18:16:152024-03-12 07:39:09A Plague on Both Their Houses
Me (Howard) in hospital shortly before discharge to rehab facility, Jan. 19, 2024 As some readers may already know (if they also follow me or Pen-for-Rent on Facebook or LinkedIn), I had myself a little myocardial infarct (love that word!) back in mid-January. As you will no doubt infer from this post, I’m now well […]
If you’re deeply woke or MAGA, you won’t like a lot of the thoughts that follow. But if you view what’s been happening in our country with dismay, as I do, you may consider both wokeness and MAGA-itis to be the sort of thing Ben Franklin was wary of when, at the conclusion of the […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Biden-vs-Trump.png608962Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2024-01-07 22:17:522024-01-08 07:03:22If Joe Biden Can Be Replaced at the Top of the Ticket, There’s Hope for Us All
Pro-Gaza demonstration at Columbia University, New York City A great deal of water has spilled over the dam since I wrote about Israel’s existential struggle against Hamas following the latter’s blood-curdling attack on October 7. Because it is a truism that silence in the face of developments you dislike amounts to complicity, today I refuse […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Marantz-Columbia.webp8541280Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2023-12-05 00:07:062023-12-06 01:44:23Speaking My Mind
Pro-Hamas demonstration in London It’s now 11 days since Hamas launched its barbaric October 7 attack from Gaza, brutally murdering — according to the latest figures I’ve seen — more than 1,200 Israelis (most of them civilians), injuring over 4,100 more and kidnapping nearly 225 people, including children, and holding them hostage in Gaza. As […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/London-demo.png7821242Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2023-10-18 01:52:132025-11-12 00:01:16If You View Israel’s Gaza Response as Disproportionate, What Do You Think WOULD Be Proportionate?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (left) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer flank Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in U.S. Capitol Readers of my blog and those who follow me on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter/X), know that I regularly post two things: (1) daily generally humorous items (except Sundays) related to language or writing and […]
https://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/364.png370631Howard Danielhttps://pen4rent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.pngHoward Daniel2023-10-09 00:00:372023-10-09 18:32:24A Change in My Postings — What Drives Me — And Thoughts on Ukraine and Israel vs. Hamas
Antisemitic Campus Mobs
/in Current Events, Israel, ThoughtsEncampment at Columbia University For the past few weeks, the news has been filled with reports about mobs of college students across the country — beginning at elite institutions like Columbia, Yale, Harvard and UCLA, and often supported by professors — chanting antisemitic slogans, harassing and intimidating Jews and even calling for (and sometimes committing) […]
Biden Gets It Half (or More) Wrong … Again!
/in Current Events, Israel, ThoughtsPresident Biden with his National Security Team in the White House Situation Room, April 13, 2024 I was going to title this post “Biden Gets It Half Right,” but on second thought it’s clear to me that the wrong part considerably outweighs the right. When, yesterday, Iran’s mullahs launched some 320 drones and cruise and […]
Joe Lieberman May Have Been the Guy Who Taught Me How to Create a Martini — And a Few Loftier Thoughts on a Principled Politician
/in Current Events, History, Places I've lived, Recollections, ThoughtsJoseph I. Lieberman, Feb. 24, 1942 – Mar. 27, 2024 Joe Lieberman’s death this week brought back memories of my freshman year at Yale, when I made a brief effort to “heel” (that is, to try out for a position as a writer) at the Yale Daily News, the nation’s oldest independent college daily newspaper […]
What Makes Hawaii Unique, Part 2 of 5
/in Hawaii, History, Places I've livedAuthor’s Note: Here is a link to Part 1 in this series of posts, which we published half a year ago, on Sept. 10, 2023. (Please forgive the delay in resuming publication of this series.) The introductory Author’s Note to Part I will give readers of this post important context for what they will now […]
A Plague on Both Their Houses
/in Current Events, Israel, Russia-USSR, ThoughtsWith Super Tuesday having all but ensured that Donald Trump and Joe Biden will receive their parties’ nominations for November’s presidential election — a huge disappointment for many, if not most, voters — Shakespeare’s famous line in Romeo and Juliet, “a plague on both your houses,” is all I can think to say. Rather than […]
Wake-up Call
/in Family, Humor, ThoughtsMe (Howard) in hospital shortly before discharge to rehab facility, Jan. 19, 2024 As some readers may already know (if they also follow me or Pen-for-Rent on Facebook or LinkedIn), I had myself a little myocardial infarct (love that word!) back in mid-January. As you will no doubt infer from this post, I’m now well […]
If Joe Biden Can Be Replaced at the Top of the Ticket, There’s Hope for Us All
/in Current EventsIf you’re deeply woke or MAGA, you won’t like a lot of the thoughts that follow. But if you view what’s been happening in our country with dismay, as I do, you may consider both wokeness and MAGA-itis to be the sort of thing Ben Franklin was wary of when, at the conclusion of the […]
Speaking My Mind
/in Current Events, History, Israel, Russia-USSR, ThoughtsPro-Gaza demonstration at Columbia University, New York City A great deal of water has spilled over the dam since I wrote about Israel’s existential struggle against Hamas following the latter’s blood-curdling attack on October 7. Because it is a truism that silence in the face of developments you dislike amounts to complicity, today I refuse […]
If You View Israel’s Gaza Response as Disproportionate, What Do You Think WOULD Be Proportionate?
/in Current Events, History, ThoughtsPro-Hamas demonstration in London It’s now 11 days since Hamas launched its barbaric October 7 attack from Gaza, brutally murdering — according to the latest figures I’ve seen — more than 1,200 Israelis (most of them civilians), injuring over 4,100 more and kidnapping nearly 225 people, including children, and holding them hostage in Gaza. As […]
A Change in My Postings — What Drives Me — And Thoughts on Ukraine and Israel vs. Hamas
/in Current Events, Russia-USSR, ThoughtsSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (left) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer flank Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in U.S. Capitol Readers of my blog and those who follow me on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter/X), know that I regularly post two things: (1) daily generally humorous items (except Sundays) related to language or writing and […]