Brian Greenspun

Story Archive

History foretells Israeli response to Iran attack

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Israel needs to strike back — hard! Whatever a few countries and the unknowledgeable and gullible left in the United States say about Israel’s right to defend itself against those who would ...

Where Donald Trump and his cult go, chaos ensues

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Who can forget the chaos? From the moment Donald Trump rode down the escalator of his golden tower in New York City, there was a new normal in American life. Chaos! ...

Hey, R-J, whose side are you on?

Sunday, March 31, 2024

As much as I have tried to refrain from commenting on the opinions of the other newspaper in Las Vegas (that would be the Review-Journal) and the family that directs the editorial board, I find it impossible to stay silent. There is just too much at stake ...

Oscar speech was an affront to Holocaust victims

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Everyone who watched this year’s Academy Awards on March 10 will remember that one moment of controversy when British movie producer Jonathan Glazer tried to equate Israelis with Nazis ...

McConnell surprises no one on the way out the door

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Mitch McConnell said “it should come as no surprise …” The lame-duck U.S. Senate Republican leader was talking about his endorsing Donald Trump last Wednesday immediately following Trump’s Super Tuesday rout of Nikki Haley, which all but locked up ...

Unity used to trump division in America

Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024

Since I am close to President Joe Biden’s age and earthly experience, I am comfortable talking about the way things were. This has led me to the conclusion that the disconnect that some Americans are legitimately indulging in this election season may be the result of what they don’t know or don’t remember.

Biden’s new Middle East doctrine a road map to peace

Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024

I have faith in Biden’s ability to calibrate the right action in a part of our world that few Americans really understand. He does.

Nathan Hale’s sacrifice echoes in ’24 election

Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024

When I was growing up and had to learn all about the United States and our Founding Fathers — men braver than most today, smarter than almost everyone today and blessed with the ability to see far into the future in ways few today can or even want to contemplate — the story of Nathan Hale animated us.

Trump’s chaos and bedlam? State GOP is already all in

Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024

If Nevadans want the saner choice of Nikki Haley, they can cast a ballot for her in the primary on Feb. 6. But even if she wins, she can’t get Nevada’s delegates ...

US leadership needed to ease world’s tremors

Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024

It’s a new year. How about some old thoughts? As in millions of years old! There are tectonic plates that have shaped our planet since the beginning of time. If ever there were a description of being between a rock and a hard place ...

Are young people up to the challenge? It’s not a stupid question

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023

Why are Americans so stupid? Relax, it’s just a question not an accusation. Not yet, anyway. I will leave that part up to you. Stupid — and only in this context — can be interchangeable with words like unknowledgeable, undereducated, willfully ignorant ... and millennial. ...

No buts about it: Right is right, wrong is wrong

Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023

“Yes, but” should never be confused with “yes, and.” Moral clarity demands we understand the difference. I will explain by using the horrific murders and kidnapping of innocent Israelis on Oct. 7 and what Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill called ...

Raising a finger to civility is no way to move America forward

Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023

Since this is still a family newspaper, I will try to be respectful of what should be family values. And even though almost everybody — even those who claim never to use such words but every once in a while just can’t help themselves — has heard or said it before, I write today about the F-word.

Las Vegan says world must not stay silent this time around

Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023

My name is Jerry Engel and I am a proud 93-year-old Jew who has lived in Las Vegas for 70 years (since 1953). Despite my age and Jewish identity, I am not a Holocaust survivor, and I am grateful that I have never experienced ...

Would our misguided progress roil the Pilgrims?

Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023

As Thanksgiving approaches, it is reasonable to think about the trials and tribulations that the Pilgrims encountered when they landed at what would become the new Plymouth Colony in 1620.

GOP support for Israel a morality lesson for Democrats

Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023

The only Democrat in the Nevada congressional delegation to speak out against this scourge of hateful and life-threatening rhetoric was Rep. Susie Lee.

Halloween not the only thing that should scare us

Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023

It is that time of year, again. Halloween. The time when people like being scared.

Like FDR, Biden has stepped into the breech

Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023

Israelis saw the real America this week in the person of President Joe Biden. They saw and heard the leader of the most powerful country on Earth has their back.

‘Never again’ means NEVER again!

Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023

As I consider those two words that ever since the Holocaust have been the guiding admonition for Jews around the world — that never again will Jews anywhere stand silent, do nothing and allow the next group of Nazis to march them to the ovens of destruction — I am struck by the ease with which so many others, especially young people, can pay them no heed.

Distrust sown a generation ago comes home to roost

Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023

What was bad with the congressional Republicans' 1995 "Contract with America" was the requirement — unwritten as it may have been — that from that time forward members of the GOP in Congress were no longer free to consort with the enemy. The enemy, as it turned out, was anyone in the House ...

Americans don’t deserve what is happening in our House

Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023

There are so many questions to ask this morning, assuming the government has been shut down by an out-of-control, bordering on stark-raving-mad House of Representatives that is not being led by its speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Some sins are a struggle for man to forgive

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023

If we are to forgive, there is so much to forget. Perhaps too much. Tonight, the Jewish world begins the observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is the most solemn reminder that people make mistakes ...

Rosh Hashana, looking for light in a dark world

Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023

Jews around the world celebrated Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, this past Friday night. Ten days of observance will end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, during which the Jewish world will ask God for forgiveness with the prayer to be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year.

Mud, muck set off climate alarm at stormy Burning Man in Nevada

Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023

In rains that poured months’ worth of water onto the desert floor in a matter of hours, man witnessed firsthand the “science” of climate change and the potential ...

With drones and webcams, volunteer hunters join a new search for the mythical Loch Ness Monster

Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023

Mystery hunters converged on a Scottish lake on Saturday to look for signs of the mythical Loch Ness Monster. The Loch Ness Center said researchers would try to seek evidence of Nessie using thermal-imaging drones, infrared cameras and a hydrophone ...

Trying to stay calm as others lose their cool

Sunday, July 30, 2023

August is upon us. That is good news for Las Vegas Sun readers. This is the time I go in search of cooler climes. I have also searched for cooler heads from our community and state to fill in for me while I am gone. This year, out readers ...

It’s time to defend our country, not Donald Trump

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Frankly, I don’t care about what happens to Donald Trump, which makes me more of an anomaly in today’s politically charged world. There are people who want to “lock him up” and there are others who want to deify him. And they are all passionate about their beliefs.

GOP has lost its way, and its credibility

Sunday, July 16, 2023

If you need another real-time example of the defection of the GOP from the leadership of the “keep the United States of America and everyone in it secure, safe and free” caucus, just look at the humiliating debacle that is Tommy Tuberville, the senior senator from what used to be the great state and should now be the “most ashamed” state of Alabama.

Don’t let modern-day dinosaurs doom us to extinction

Sunday, July 9, 2023

There are dinosaurs in our midst. It should not be lost on anyone living in Las Vegas this past week that 115-degree days are approaching what should be unbearable. And these days are just the beginning ...

Bernie Yuman is ‘Awakening’ to his next act

Sunday, July 2, 2023

This past Friday night — after an early start and a brief time-out to make it so much better — “Awakening” opened at the Wynn. Together with his incredibly talented co-producers, Baz Halpin and Michael Curry, Bernie Yuman has brought to life what I believe will be the next bar-setting Las Vegas entertainment spectacle.

Choose hope and unity over division and darkness

Sunday, June 25, 2023

I am not in the “I think President Joe Biden is bad for America” fan club. That is a club, as best as I can tell, that meets in the darkest corners of the web and on Fox News. And it has little going for it other than everyone in it agrees to be mad all the time ...

George Washington would not be happy today

Sunday, June 18, 2023

The father of our country would be greatly disappointed in some of his children. He’d also be appalled at the behavior of one of his successors, a man who always puts himself before his country ...

Why put our faith in political opportunists?

Sunday, June 11, 2023

We can start right here in Nevada where our governor, Joe Lombardo, recently tried to force the Legislature to approve his plan to use the public’s money to fund nonpublic education. He thinks it is OK to use our tax dollars to pay forreligious school education.

There are no ‘good people’ on the side of antisemitism

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Antisemitism is the oldest form of hate. But it isn’t the only hate that we experience on a daily basis. Pick a group by its color, ethnicity, religion, place of origin or any number of other qualifiers, and there will be hate directed toward them. Worse, there will be hate acted upon them.

Americans just want government to fix the potholes

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Americans have a simple, long-held expectation.

Founding Fathers’ ideals require mothers’ lead

Sunday, May 14, 2023

This is not a Republican versus Democrat thing but, rather, a uniquely American thing. In a land of plenty, in a land of overabundance, we seem to have lost our ability to surmount the most simple challenges. And we have plenty ...

Fox News is a sorry lot. Just not sorry.

Sunday, April 23, 2023

As much as most of America expected Rupert Murdoch to apologize to the country for lying and damn lying about the 2020 election, it was never going to happen. Not because he and all the rest of the fake news people at Fox aren’t responsible for deliberately misleading their viewers — because they are — but because telling its viewers that they had been duped was bad for Fox’s business. And we couldn’t have that, could we?

Time to pull the weeds choking our democracy

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Into the weeds of a free and responsible press is not where most people want to go. I get it. But it is the weeds that are choking our ability as a country to work from a common set of facts ...

Illusion of Trump turns to disillusion in America

Sunday, April 9, 2023

The fall of Donald Trump — at least the beginning of a fall that may ultimately be heard in the forests of our federal courts and in the state of Georgia — is no longer an illusion.

Trump indictment is embarrassing but necessary

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Instead of slinking away in shame like any other clouded-up ex-president, Donald Trump seeks the reward of another term in the Oval Office. And his sycophantic army of political chameleons ...

Will no indictment indict Lady Justice?

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Will he or won’t he — be indicted. That is not the question. I suppose it says a lot about our country and where its head is today that a person can’t go too far down the street without someone asking that question about former President Donald Trump ...

Lessons from my father that we can bank on

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Last week, two lessons from my youth merged in a way that made me grateful that Joe Biden is leading the country as its president.

‘Kissing planets’ give us hope; petty earthlings give us pause

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Venus and Jupiter kissing? How can that be? Well, it can’t be. That’s the point. But this past week it has looked that way to those of us on planet Earth who dared to look up. So, since this column is about perspective, let’s gain a little when it comes to kissing planets and what I thought about ...

Secret trip to Ukraine a display of real leadership

Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023

If ever there were a case to be made for President Joe Biden’s potential decision to run for reelection, I believe his recent secret trip to Ukraine should put the naysaying to rest. In the dark of night, with a measure of secrecy recently unknown in Washington circles, and with a determination to do what was right and necessary for the under-siege and under-gunned people of Ukraine, the president of the United States made a command decision to lead

When America wins, all of us should cheer

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023

There was a time when people on both sides of the political aisle in Congress came together for the good of the country, applauded for what was good for the country and stood up to support what represented all that is good about our country. That is not what I saw this past week when President Biden reported on the state of our union.

Ready or not, AI is spreading. Prepare yourselves.

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

I am now going to wade into an area about which I know nothing and understand even less. But the idea of artificial intelligence turning out the next generation’s medical doctors is, at the very least, intriguing. Besides, musing about a future ...

The Yanks are coming, just in time

The Yanks are coming, just in time

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023

Just like all of Europe was celebrating the Yanks coming to their defense 80 years ago, this most recent decision to arm-up Ukraine with the capability to not only defend itself but to repel the invader is a reason to celebrate the fact that our country, the United States of America, still stands for something.

Personal responsibility is no accident

Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023

The news last week that Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin has been charged in New Mexico with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins on a movie set in 2021, while not unexpected, has taken the airwaves by storm.

It’s time for a little pill-ow talk about abortion

Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023

Where can we buy prescription drugs in the United States? From a pharmacy. What are the two largest pharmacies in the United States? CVS and Walgreens, by far. What happens when CVS and Walgreens are closed for business?

GOP debuts the ‘can’t do anything’ Congress

Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023

Nevadans, unlike many voters in sister states far to the east and more to the south of us, turned away the extreme, election-denying MAGA Republicans (well, most of them) in the 2022 elections.