“Bech at Bay” by John Updike
by James Patrick

“Bye-Bye Mr Bech”

The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges
by James Patrick

This book has everything from Angels to “The Zaratan”.

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
by James Patrick

Don’t worry, this intelligent debut novel has nothing to do with that awful Tom Cruise film.

Creation Myth
by Karen O'Mara Voytas
1 Comment

The waves of the sea were black with the blood of the Mother, and all the creatures of the sea were covered in her blood.

Need a $500 or $1000 Tax Deduction for a Good Cause?
by Rosie Skomitz
3 Comments

Need a tax deduction for a good cause?

Hospital Accounting: It’s Complicated
by Lynn M. Petrovich
9 Comments

 For the Love of Universal Health Care
Some time ago I received a letter from my employer regarding its health insurance policy which said there would be some changes to it.  First of all, that’s never good.  Second, I wasn’t sure what the letter meant.  I was confused.  I thought it meant whatever I had been […]

When You Have “Reform” Things Should Get Better
by Dorothy Reilly
1 Comment

Corporations are the only ones benefiting from healthcare “reform.”

Reflections on Religion in the Western World
by Jack Lindeman
3 Comments

The fangs of a famished tiger two inches from one’s throat is something quite different from a genial discussion among friends of the lethal potentialities of certain members of the cat family when beset with hunger.

Two Poems
by Barry Greenawalt

Two from an old friend and respected contributor to CommonSense 2; Barry sent these partly to say goodbye to a departing editor.

Summer Is Dying
by Michael Lee Johnson

How hard it is not to look a few months ahead to the deep cold, when summer seems to belong to another lifetime.

No!
by Will Kiffer

On the painful application of received truth - some of which is actually true - to the lives we have known and know now.

Shavings
by G.K. Thomas

We finished stuffing the animals.
The work went well.
They appear so lifelike
you must look close
to tell the difference.
Centuries from now
the children will come,
and they will see the animals,
how they once were
in their various habitats.
There are still some
animals left alive.
These we will stuff,
when they are gone,
so the world will not lose them.

Away With Words/The Talking Heads
by Mark Soifer

Mark Soifer hails from Vineland, New Jersey. He’s the PR and special events coordinator for Ocean City, NJ.

Quotes to Ponder on a Rainy Afternoon
by CommonSense2 Editor

On Corporations

To Which Flag Do You Pledge Allegiance?
by Ron Stouffer
11 Comments

You have to decide to which flag you pledge your allegiance - the corporate flag of America or the flag of the United States of America.

Why Am I an Optimist?
by Karen Feridun

A couple of weeks ago, I had dinner with an old friend I hadn’t seen in almost 20 years. She said she had no hope for the world. She wasn’t depressed. She’d just gotten to the point where she couldn’t see a way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves. I told her I was still optimistic about the future. I guess I’ve been trying to figure out why ever since.

Shining the Light of The New Colossus Into Arizona
by Walter Brasch

The Arizona law is mostly based upon the fear by Arizonans that the state is being overrun by Hispanic illegals, and that the federal government isn’t curbing the problem.

Zeitoun (pronounced “zay-toon”)
by Chuck Brown
3 Comments

At the overpass, civilians were being collected for evacuation under armed guards, looking for all the world like prisoners in captivity rather than people who were being liberated.

LeBron James, the Media, and the American Soul
by Walter Brasch

In other basketball franchise cities, millions of fans who thought their team would have a chance to sign the man who wears a tattoo, “Chosen 1″, across his back, wailed incessantly, as if their high school’s Prom Queen had just rejected their mournful bid to go steady.

Views From Death Valley & Mono Lake
by Lauren Brown
3 Comments

Jimmy and I live and work in Las Vegas, Nevada. Working for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), we are fortunate enough to get to see amazing and beautiful places every day, in the vast deserts surrounding Sin City. However when the sweltering summer heat of Las Vegas became too much for us, we decided […]