Something has been irritating me about the discussion over AI-generated images and the presumed potential impact on artists. — Yesterday, I drove through America’s “rust belt.” As I look at the once thriving cities and towns of America’s coal and steel country, what I see now resembles a war zone. …

My life has been a mess these past two months, and I’ve been away from my writing. Here’s what’s been going on for me in my life: My wife and I split, and I moved out. I’ve had to travel across the country to sort out my dad’s many problems…

Language is deeply connected to cultural identity — In the preface of his 1914 novel Travel Across Three Continents in Twenty-Nine Days, father of Afghan journalism, Mahmoud Tarzi notes: “Although age has its normal limits, it may be extended by two things-the study of history and by travel. …

Another old college paper rewrite… — I figured I’d write up another rewrite of an old college paper. This one is from a Political Science class I took in February 2011. It’s on the normalcy of political violence. Looking back on it, I find it a little boring, but that doesn’t mean I can’t spiff it…

Some of what I’ll be reading in the coming weeks — Things have been complicated in my life lately. Due to pressing family-related matters I must attend to on the other side of the country, I’ll be traveling out East in the next week or so. Subsequently, I’ve been putting a lot of my time into planning. …

Why the disintegration of nuclear-armed states could contribute to nuclear weapons proliferation — Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, there’s been a small but continuing cycle of chatter surrounding the potential for nuclear escalation. A lot of this chatter has taken on the tone and character of old Cold War era fears. For a variety of reasons that I won’t go into…

We must seek not only to remember the past but to understand it. — This is the fifth and final part of my attempt to clean up an old term paper on history vs. political memory pertaining to Holocaust history and memorialization. This segment focuses on returns to Peter Novick and concludes what was picked up in the last four segments. Part 1 can…

As in America and Israel, dominant European frameworks of holocaust memorialization serve to reinforce national cultural tropes at the expense of interrogating messier features of historical truths — This is part 4 of my attempt to clean up an old term paper on history vs. political memory as it pertains to Holocaust history and memorialization. This segment focuses on European Holocaust memorialization. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. …

Israeli memorialization of the Holocaust has trended toward opportunism while ignoring some inconvenient historical realities — This is part 3 of my attempt to clean up an old term paper on history vs. political memory as it pertains to Holocaust history and memorialization. This segment focuses on Israeli Holocaust memorialization. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 here. …