The Unassuming Scholar's Weblog

I remember the fall of 1983 well.   I was in twelfth grade.   The dreary ordeal of high school would finally end in the spring.   I didn’t p...

If you’re under forty, you were raised to fear Middle Easterners and Muslims.  For my generation, the bogeyman was communism. This week...

Fox News traffics in populist outrage.  It is its forte, its stock in trade so to speak. It’s not hard to see why.  For one thing, it’s...

The passing of Fidel Castro has evoked mixed feelings for me.  Initially I felt a sense of disbelief, as if he might last forever as a livi...

After 54 years, the end of an exercise in futility:  The U.S. and Cuba have restored full diplomatic ties. And what was accomplished by...