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On 11 September 2001, as 19 men hijacked four passenger planes and crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field near Shankstown, Pennsylvania, I was completely oblivious, cut off from news of the world aboard an American Airlines flight bound from [...]

I’m among those who, before the 2 May 2011 raid that killed him, were convinced that Osama Bin Laden had most likely died several years ago. A purported Bin Laden video released in 2007, in which a freeze-frame image of the Al-Qaeda leader appeared during all references to current events, reinforced this belief. On Saturday, [...]

Every year in the days before the Thanksgiving holiday, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh trots out his narrative, “The Real Story of Thanksgiving.” As Limbaugh tells it, the early Pilgrims were collectivists who held all property in common. But this arrangement didn’t work out, so they switched to private ownership, harvested a bumper [...]

Although the summer solstice actually occurred on 21 June 2008 at 01:59 hours Central European Daylight time, the 20th was the longest day of the year, and I decided to bike out to the dunes along the North Sea coast to greet the sunrise and bid the sun farewell on that day:

The Hague’s Stadhuis, or city hall, regularly hosts free art exhibitions. Passing through the cathedral-ceilinged atrium today, I encountered what appeared to be a colossal representation of the lifeless head of U.S. President George W. Bush. Sure enough, it’s a vinyl-covered nylon fabric sculpture by contemporary American artist Paul McCarthy titled “Bush” (2007):