Every year that I am able I pay a visit to Big Sur, California, one of my favorite places since I was very small. I love the scenic drive up the rugged coast on the winding WPA-era highway One through the land where the mountains meet the sea. You've seen it in car…

I just learned that one of my favorite musicians, Gil Scot Heron has died. Gil. and his band performed on the 7th episode of Saturday Night Live ( the one with Richard Pryor), and their music so moved me that I ran out the next day and bought their album, "From South Africa to South…

If you pay attention only to the commercial and so-called "public" media in the United States, you'd get the impression that the response around the world to President Obama's proposed escalation of the decades old U.S. war on Afghanistan has ranged from tepid to positive. Inside Afghanistan -…