Matthew Arnold Stern » politics

Language and Politics

Matthew Arnold Stern — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:40:39 +0000

The quote of the day comes from Roy Peter Clark’s Help! for Writers. This is an excellent book that gives plenty of practical writing tips from organizing your research to editing for clarity. He also makes an important point about political language. Our political discourse has devolved into a war of slogans from the left …

The Problem with Writing about Politics

Matthew Arnold Stern — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:11:49 +0000

Even though I’m finishing a novel about politics, I find it increasingly hard to write directly about current political issues. I started writing a post for this blog about the 99% who are occupying Wall Street, Los Angeles, and even Minneapolis to protest against the 1% wealthiest Americans. There is now a new group, the 53% who …

Imam Rauf and what’s wrong with America today

Matthew Arnold Stern — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:26:23 +0000

I could only bear to watch a few minutes of a debate on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 about the proposed construction of Cordoba House in New York City. It was enough to show me what is wrong with America today. The problem is that we talk at each other. We don’t listen. The debate was …

Things I learned this decade

Matthew Arnold Stern — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:25:49 +0000

Another decade is almost in the books. It’s natural for all of us to look back and share our insights. Here are ten things I learned this decade. 1. The War on Terror won’t end anytime soon. The Fort Hood killings and the attempted attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 make clear what we should …

Town Hall Disruptions — Just Stop!

Matthew Arnold Stern — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:13:31 +0000

One of the things that makes democracy possible is the free and respectful exchange of ideas. This is why I’m appalled by disruptions of town hall meetings. My disgust has nothing to do with my opinion about health care reform, although I don’t see why having a public option for health insurance is “tyranny.” Tyranny …

Religion and politics

Matthew Arnold Stern — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:42:17 +0000

I recently surprised people in my Toastmasters club, as well as myself, by giving a table topic speech about Easter. One of my fellow club members was impressed. He said, “I think it’s great that as a Jewish person, you can give such a positive speech about Easter.” Still, I found it a difficult speech …