Clifford Bob

1 month ago | post-gazette.com | David Mills |Clifford Bob

As I steer my way through the back nine of life — which is more generous and less truthful than saying the ninth inning of life — I thought that I would derive boundless joy from my favorite sports teams. Oh cruel fate. The Steelers, Bucs, Pens, and WVU’s football and basketball teams bounce between terrible and mediocre. Where, outside of family, to look for unbridled joy? There’s no obvious answer.

Jan 2, 2025 | post-gazette.com | Clifford Bob |Gerard Nadal |Lisa M. Jarvis

Last month, a bungled health warning over black plastic spatulas didn’t help faltering trust in science. First, researchers warned us to throw away the ubiquitous utensils because the recycling process might have incorporated toxic contaminants beyond the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limits. Then someone pointed out the researchers had made a big math error. The black plastic warning turned out to have been based on incorrect information.

Jun 4, 2024 | post-gazette.com | Bruce Ledewitz |Clifford Bob

Last week’s unan­i­mous de­ci­sion by the U.S. Supreme Court in Na­tional Ri­fle As­so­ci­a­tion v. Vullo pro­vides a needed breath of fresh air in an at­mo­sphere that has been heavy with suf­fo­cat­ing ar­gu­ments for pun­ish­ing speech. More­over, the fas­ci­nat­ing con­cur­rence by Justice Ketanji Brown Jack­son of­fer hints about the big so­cial me­dia cases ev­ery­one is await­ing. First, as to Vullo it­self.

May 29, 2024 | post-gazette.com | Clifford Bob |Michael Hiltzik

In 2022, European monitors who track Russian disinformation spotted an ambitious online influence operation they called Doppelganger. The Moscow-run effort cloned the websites of legitimate newspapers, magazines and news services, including Britain’s Guardian and Germany’s Bild, posted replicas under similar domain names and filled them with Kremlin propaganda. The campaign was not shocking, given Russia’s kitchen-sink efforts to manipulate Western public opinion.

Apr 26, 2024 | post-gazette.com | Clifford Bob |Michael Bociurkiw

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives fi­nally over­came MAGA op­po­si­tion and ap­proved a new aid pack­age for Ukraine. Like many ob­serv­ers, I was si­mul­ta­ne­ously re­lieved, ashamed, an­gry and wor­ried by what has hap­pened. I’m re­lieved that a na­tion un­der siege will prob­a­bly sur­vive, at least for a while, some­thing that was in­creas­ingly in doubt given over­whelm­ing Rus­sian ar­til­lery su­pe­ri­or­ity.