Goya and the Sleep of Reason

Goya and the Sleep of Reason

In the late 1700s the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) created a series of eighty etchings he titled Los Caprichos (The Caprices). An irrational thought or action can be a “caprice,” and Spanish society at the time provided Goya with myriad examples of ferocious caprices. For instance, Goya created paintings and prints that wryly scrutinized the Spanish…

Macron, We Give You May ’68
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Macron, We Give You May ’68

Today’s chaos in France evokes vivid memories of President Charles de Gaulle repressing the student and worker rebellion of Paris, May 1968. As you may or may not know, French President Emmanuel Macron used Article 49.3 of the French Constitution to ram a bill through the National Assembly without giving the Parliament the right to vote on it. That bill…

A Cowboy at Rest with the Rough Riders
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A Cowboy at Rest with the Rough Riders

In December 2022 my wife Jeannine and I fled Lost Angeles, California to vacation in the wilds of Arizona. The following impressions and photos will describe our adventures in the Wild West of the Union’s 48th state. We first visited Prescott, the historic city in Yavapai County. The population of Prescott is around 45,800 souls, which is just about the…