Dying for a mirage: ­ Yesterday I saw Ellen McLaughlin’s play “Helen,” based on Euripides’ play of the same name…  Just like in real life, the bloodiest wars are fought for things that exist only in men’s minds: “eternal Israel,” “free Palestine,” “jihad,” “Tamil homeland,” “Aryan supremacy,” “the American way of life,” etc. Pretty perceptive, that Euripides. I hope he writes some more. 2002.03.24

Thurow obliquely supports a thought I have long held, as to why the industrial revolution began in England and Scotland and not in Asia, or central Africa, or Mexico or the Andean highlands, or even England’s European neighbors Holland, France or Spain —…  (1999)