I suppose if you hear a lie often enough, especially if it is never contradicted, you can be forgiven if you finally come to believe that it’s true.  That tactic certainly appears to be working well for the Republican Party as it closes in on a large, if not gigantic, election night in a […]

            Madeleine Albright’s appearance at the Mondavi Center (on the campus of U.C. Davis) marked the opening of the venue’s ninth season of providing artistic performances.  Each season has also included a distinguished speaker’s series, and with Ms. Albright as the opening act, so to speak, that series and the whole season got off to […]

            In the early 1960s, a Broadway play entitled “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” seemed to capture a feeling that many Americans were experiencing.  The musical itself (written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse) was a short-lived success, receiving several Tony Award nominations.  But its story wasn’t really what the title suggested.  […]

            Mark, a white man, was born in 1946 to a lower-middle class family in San Francisco.  His father was a line worker in a large manufacturing firm.  He supported his wife, Mark, and Mark’s younger brother, on an income that they squeaked by on, with enough left over to allow them a two-week vacation […]