Neal Starkman's Blog

What can be done about the Taliban taking over Afghanistan? Why, after decades of American support, both in training and supplies, hasn’t the Afghan military been able to defend its country? Is it that a sufficient number of the Afghan military, and maybe even the Afghan population, agree more with the Taliban than with their

(My first piece for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, back in 2003, was “The S Factor”. After that got quite a bit of publicity—interviews, international publications, etc.—I was asked to contribute [nonpaid] essays. The piece below is my 305th. My understanding is that it will be the last because the P-I will no longer be publishing essays,

Granted, I’m not the most impartial observer, but it seems to me that many conservative Republicans believe the following: 1. The COVID vaccine is a plot to control people, and the virus itself is all made up. There is no reason to get the vaccine and plenty of reasons not to get it.2. Donald Trump

It’s not that I’m going to die soon or anything like that—at least, I hope not—and it’s not that I’m about to change my blogs from sarcastic political and social commentary to earnest suggestions for living better. Think of it as a slight break in the usual format. Why? I don’t know. Maybe now, when

Until we can address the points made by the following person, we will continue to be in deep trouble. “I can’t tell you how much I miss him. I mean, I look at Biden, and he’s everything that Trump fought against: a politician, someone who cares only about himself and looking good and sucking up

Back in 2015, I wrote and published a short fiction/nonfiction, political/humorous book titled Forked and subtitled “How the Greedy, the Over-Religious, and the Dumb Make Life Miserable for the Rest of Us—and What to Do about It”. In the book I presented facts/nonfacts about the three tines of a fork cited above that really vex

I have an idea for a better Olympics, though I doubt anything will come of it. The Olympic Games have traditionally stood for nationalism: each country pitted against the others. People root for their country in team events—basketball, hockey, luge, etc.—or individual events, such as archery, boxing, diving, and skating. But what if it were

I’ve been finding it exceedingly difficult to understand why some folks believe what they do. First example: “I’m not going to get my vaccine. This is a hoax. It’s just companies making money and government officials taking away our freedom.” So, yeah, all those videos of people dying and hospitals being stretched to the limit

There’s so much information available these days from so many sources that it’s really difficult to assess what is true and what is either willfully or ignorantly false. The problem, of course, is that people share a lot of the false information. Consider which of the following you believe (I’ll provide the sources for the

The deaths are mounting: People accidentally shooting themselves or a loved one. Crashing their car into a tree while texting. Sticking a fork into a toaster. Running with scissors. Just when we think we’ve gotten a hold on doing dumb things, we experience another surge. This doesn’t have to happen. We have ways of preventing