In all the recent news about Tom Golisano trying to spend his way into political relevance (again), it occurs to me that he could be the answer to two of Upstate’s most pressing problems. Upstate needs (a) lots of money and (b) something distinctive to call itself that doesn’t remind people of New York […]

Famous Architect Rem Koolhaas is disappointed with American cities:
“Don’t tell anyone… but the 20th-century city is over. It has nothing new to teach us anymore. Our job is simply to maintain it.”
I live in Old America — the Northeast, the Rust Belt — and in decades to come, the rest of America will also […]

In an election year where Americans are analyzed in terms of demographics (black or white, young or old, “educated” or “uneducated”), with candidates choosing which ones “matter,” depersonalization seems to be the spirit of the times. In Myanmar, the government is pretending that hundreds of thousands of its cyclone-hit people are not really there, […]

This is the best commentary I’ve read on the whole “small town America” brouhaha lately…
…Struggling towns are props, not issues. One side rushes to drape themselves in flags, guns and the kind of Norman Rockwell hagiography that is far removed from the 2008 reality of meth labs and foreclosure frontiers. The other side says religion […]

Is it possible to speak to all Americans at all times?

Three Men in a Room are breaking up. Who gets the kid?

The presidential campaign is going out of tune.

A dystopian glimpse into the future.

The lady and the tiger.

Counting the cost of this presidential election.