The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

An authoritarian has been toppled in Hungary. The rise and fall of Viktor Orban should provide a lesson for nations in the grip of authoritarians, and those struggling with creeping authoritarianism. And that especially goes for the United States. Viktor Orban was in power for sixteen consecutive years. His total stay in power was twenty …

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Paging James Comer. Paging Jim Jordan. Paging Byron Donalds. Paging all of the Republicans who spent four exhausting years and boxcars full of taxpayer dollars trying to prove that Joe Biden was the infamous “capo di tutti capi” (“boss of all bosses”). James Comer. The name should sound familiar. Comer is the Republican Congressman and …

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America has reached the momentous, yet really meaningless milestone that occurs every four years; the completion of the president’s first 100 days in office. It’s an unofficial-official anniversary demanded by nothing more than tradition. Neither required by law or mandated by the Constitution, the hundredth day is when the pollsters poll, the press reports (in …

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Jason Barone: “I’m starting to feel a little intimidated.”Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gualtieri (Tony Soprano’s brutal henchman): “As well you should my friend. A man who teaches skiing for a living, ought to look after his physical condition. Wouldn’t you say? His knees. You wouldn’t be in this situation had you listened to Tony in the first …

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brown bare tree

“The seller of lightning-rods arrived just ahead of the storm. He came along the street of Green Town, Illinois, in the late cloudy October day, sneaking glances over his shoulder. Somewhere not so far back, vast lightnings stomped the earth. Somewhere, a storm like a great beast with terrible teeth could not be denied.” When …

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