Dear Friend and Reader: Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor now living in exile in Moscow, has done something that few people have done: he made the American government and much of American society let out a little squeak. Compared to the roar of the national security state, it was a modest sound. Yet it has … Read more
Dear Friend and Reader: Back in January 2003, during a Sun-Mercury conjunction, George Ryan, the outgoing governor of Illinois, commuted the death sentences of 167 people, clearing out death row. Illinois had an infamous reputation: by that day, 17 convicted murderers, all of them sentenced to death and having exhausted their appeals, had been exonerated of … Read more
By Len Wallick Aries (March 20-April 19) — What’s ahead for you is probably unconventional, but not difficult so long you are willing to change a way or two. It’s not that you have done anything wrong. This is not about compromising yourself. You have simply created a groove. What’s being referred to here is just … Read more
Dear Friend and Reader: The other night I went to the movies with my cousin Dominick Vanacore, and we saw Ex Machina. One of my principles of film is that any movie worth seeing once is worth seeing twice, and Ex Machina qualifies. It’s the story of a programming genius (modeled after a search-engine billionaire who goes into … Read more
Dear Friend and Reader: When the dust settles on the wreck of Amtrak 188, and all the facts come out, I think the cause will turn out to be something simple: for example, the train’s driver not paying attention to the speed limit. Before I cast the chart for the crash, I had a feeling … Read more