Category: History

Facebook Wisdom – 2

12/13/2019 I’ve continued to collect these screen grabs from Facebook since my rpevious 9/5/2019 report . As with everything on Facebook it is impossible to determine authorship. And of course it is also impossible to know why I saw these images instead of the probable millions of others that might have populated my screen. Take…… Continue reading Facebook Wisdom – 2

Facebook Wisdom

9/5/2019 I’ve been collecting these screen grabs from Facebook over the last few weeks. As with everything on Facebook it is impossible to determine authorship. And of course it is also impossible to know why I saw these images instead of the probable millions of others that might have populated my screen. Take it all…… Continue reading Facebook Wisdom

A Fog of War or a Fog of Ethics?

Through our friend Esther Hanig we attended a showing of Errol Morris’s new documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara. at the Kennedy Library in Dorchester on December 14, 2003. This documentary is an extended adventure into the historico-biography of Robert S. McNamara, most famous as the Secretary of…… Continue reading A Fog of War or a Fog of Ethics?

Michael Crichton’s Congo and the Transformation of the Western Mind

Original Book Review/Essay  2/97 ((originally published on markorton.com ))(REVISED 1/29/02 – MAPS ADDED AT BOTTOM) (REVISED 6/25/03 – MAP OF ANGOLA SUPERIMPOSED ON THE US)Michael Crichton’s 1980 pulp novel Congo opens with an introduction that is truly arresting . I quote here the first two paragraphs in their entirety. “Only prejudice, and a trick of the Mercator…… Continue reading Michael Crichton’s Congo and the Transformation of the Western Mind