Author Howard Weiner

*** See Related CNN Article ( here ) *** I have a “hate-love” relationship with Facebook. Note I gave preference to “hate.” There are two reasons for my contrarian position on Facebook. First, people who really know me recognize I’m an introvert by nature. I don’t like sharing personal details and anecdotes. And, I’ve never understood why so many of my friends, acquaintances, and colleagues are forever posting their private thoughts and acts on Facebook. Experience has taught me to disregard my initial motivation to say or write something. Almost always, and only if I feel strongly about something, will I write a draft or rehearse my thoughts. And just as often, I’ll delete the draft and keep well-rehearsed thoughts unsent, undelivered, unspoken. This works for me. I am compelled to apologize less frequently and cringeworthy circumstances are minimized. Facebook postings tell me that my standard is atypical. Second, and in my opinion, Facebook is determined to moneti...

My graduate training in public policy has permanently tinted my figurative glasses and damaged me forever. It wasn’t always that way. My undergraduate education was in Computer Science which, back in the day, was a blend of theory and application in mathematics and electronic engineering. Out of 120 semester hours in a four-year program, I took six semester hours (two courses) in the social sciences and another six hours in the humanities (again, two courses). I was a science nerd and I (wrongly) believed I benefitted from a liberal undergraduate education. It wasn’t until my doctoral training I realized how my narrow science and engineering education hampered the way I saw life and rigged my critical thinking framework. I readily categorized too many things as black or white, right or wrong, just or unjust. My color palette didn’t include any of the shades of gray. And the absence of all grays meant I did little reading and inquiry to help me sort out the issues of the day. I...

Like much else from American culture these days, the holiday season is front and center in cynical political posturing. A very sad state in our national discourse. Every year following Thanksgiving, I find myself humming and even singing popular Christmas songs from my youth. These songs of my youth lift my spirits and restore my sense of renewal and hope—two things I welcome in these days of the challenging news cycles. And family drama centers on national and Presidential politics. Every family has one of those people among them. If you’re a Trumpist, it’s the crazy Democrat. If you’re not a Trumpist, then your suspect relative is a crazy Trump follower. In my extended family, we have “one of those.” This person believes the Clinton Global Initiative was shuttered by the authorities, while the Trump Foundation was not.  What??? Before continuing, let me note that I have a very cynical view of the CGI. True, CGI has done, and continues to do, good works in...

For most of my life I was a registered Republican. There. I said it. Confession is good for the soul. So what happened? Until 2012, I was what used to be called a Rockefeller Republican. I was conservative on the size of government and public spending, and I was a moderate on social programs. My graduate school training in Public Policy caused me to view social programs with skepticism that focused on actual outcomes and verifiable societal returns. I believed in the superiority of the marketplace over collective local, state, or federal action. I truly believed in cost-effective social networks to extend a hand to those deserving of opportunity and assistance. I did not believe in programs perpetuating intergenerational poverty and deprivation. I’m a direct beneficiary of some of these public programs. I attended and graduated from public schools. I attended public institutions of higher education where public expenditures made tuition affordable. I drive on roads...

Yikes! I use Google Analytics to watch over access and use of my web site. For the last several weeks, a substantial number of visitors hail from Russia, Crimea, and Yemen! If you’re unfamiliar with my work, let me note that many of my novels contain characters who are members of Russia’s military intelligence, the infamous GRU. Saint Petersburg University is the alma mater for some people of note in Russia. Mr. Putin is a graduate.  Petersburg is also the home of the Internet Research Agency. This is the outfit responsible for the use of Facebook to influence public opinion in the run-up to our presidential election in 2016. So, how does that make me feel? First, every author welcomes readers, and where those readers reside is seldom an issue. I like readers. If not, why bother writing? Second, it’s unfair to condemn any geographic locale just because the activities I attribute to the GRU (and in my forthcoming book, If at First, the Internet Resear...

Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich My rating: 5 of 5 stars Stephanie Plum, By the Numbers At my age, I shouldn’t have to confess to guilty pleasures, but I have two in the literary realm. One of those is reading each new Stephanie Plum novel immediately upon publication. Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich is the latest. I could say the Stephanie Plum novels are formulaic. Each features a predictable set of recurring core and supporting characters. In each novel, Evanovich manages to add a quirky collection of Trenton, NJ citizens who’ve run afoul of the law. They fail to appear for a scheduled court date in violation of their bail. Formally known as FTAs (Failure To Appear), Plum is assigned to hunt them down, deliver them to the Trenton PD, and Plum’s employer issues a new bond to guarantee future court appearances.  There are some things we know to be true of Ms. Plum. First, despite her college education, she cannot secure conventional employ...

Past Tense by Lee Child My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wendy and I saw Child at an interview hosted by the NY Times Magazine at the Time Warner Center in 2009 (I think). We had just moved into the Upper West Side. We awoke very early on a Saturday and made our way to the Time-Warner Center for a 9 am start. There are few authors for whom I would stand in line at an ungodly hour on a Saturday. This was especially true in NYC. By 9 am, the Dept of Sanitation hasn't hauled away the debris from a Friday night's revelry. The November morning was cold. Our line outside the Time Warner Center, then an unpleasant construction site, was not the garden spot of NYC--far from it. Several years later, I learned that Child also lived on the Upper West Side. I think we also took the occasional weekend morning meal at the same French place near 86th Street. So, we had at least that in common. :-) I'm currently reading Past Tense, the most recent Jack Reacher novel. I've read all of t...