Ezra's Essays

Category: Current Event

  • MORE BITS AND PIECES: THE DOG THAT CAUGHT THE CAR

    A correspondent of the New York Times has drawn together his work and the work of dozens of his colleagues. He is Todd Purdum who ordinarily serves in the Washington bureau of the Times. His book is called, “A Time of Our Choosing.” It has to do with the American war in Iraq. A memorable…

  • BITS AND PIECES: A SHOO-IN FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

    The news from the Royal Family in London continues to be horrid. The holidays at the end of 2003 have become a disaster not only for the English Royal Family, but for the rest of the civilized world as well. On Christmas Eve, wire services such as BBC and the Associated Press were kept hopping…

  • A THOUGHT OR TWO ABOUT HORNETS OR WASPS

    Much is being said this week (March 21, 2004) about disturbing a hornet’s nest. There was Richard Clarke’s charge that the Bush Administration was so obsessed by Iraq, that it paid no attention – or minimal attention to Al Qaeda. The hornets or wasps stung people all week with the Commission on September 11, 2001…

  • BECAUSE THE RIVER’S WET BUT BEALE STREET DONE GONE DRY – W.C. Handy

    Last year, the United States Congress voted to declare the year 2003 the “Year of the Blues.” This took place while unemployment benefits ran out, while the U. S. was snarling at Iraq, while most of the Congress was seeking re-election and while the economy was limping along. But in the end, as someone who…

  • FOND MEMORIES OF BLIGHTY

    Being an essayist in New Jersey, USA, is an exciting existence. There are pageants and banquets and balls to be attended. New Jersey honors its essayists weekly with an uncommon display of gratitude and outright affection. In the midst of all these ceremonies, there is a chance that Americans, particularly those of Irish ancestry, will…

  • S O D – O – M Y

    Once in a great while, the United States Supreme Court issues a decision that causes a good deal of public controversy. At the end of its 2002 – 2003 term in June, a six to three ruling was published having to do with sodomy. It ruled against a Texas statute barring sodomy. This essay is…

  • SHOCKING NEWS FROM LONDON

    Christmas Eve news reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Associated Press brings us horrid, horrid developments about the British Royal Family of our Mother England. BBC gave this sad report precedence over reports of four American soldiers being killed in Iraq and the cancellation of as many as six Air France flights…

  • WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS IN IRAQ

    OR: THERE AIN’T NO JUSTICE  IN MILITARY JUSTICE Early in December, 2003, news reports and network television broadcasts quoted Lt. Colonel Nathan Sassaman of the United States Army as delivering these pungent remarks after the American Army had shot up some Iraqi villages. Col. Sassaman said, “With a heavy dose of fear and violence and…

  • HOMEBODIES

    In Iraq, over the years, Saddam Hussein has angered his neighbors and his fellow Iraqi’s. The Syrians condemned him to hell sometime in the 1970’s. The Iranians have no use for him because of his war in the 1980’s against them. The Kuwaitis have his invasion of 1991 fresh in their minds. Turkey has never…

  • OIL – FROM CRAWFORD, TEXAS AND BROOKLYN?

    Bush and Cheney loudly proclaim that they are oilmen. How could they in one week alienate the Arabs and Venezuela, our third largest supplier of oil? George W. Bush, The Israelis and the Venezuelans As I write this in mid-April, 2002, the crisis in the Mid-East has been going on for some time. Until April…