STORYTELLING, especially for epics featuring super-heroes, need to have villains. How else can the sometimes underdog hero triumph and seem larger than life if not by trouncing an evil foe?

AMERICANS have always been conflicted about political dynasties.

IF YOU LIVED west of the Mississippi at the dawn of the 20^th century, there must have been a moment when it became clear that the Wild West of old was no more. Perhaps it was the arrival of the railroad, or the last stagecoach robbery, or the introduction of a federal income tax.

George Orwell’s novel, 1984, told of a society whose citizens were under constant surveillance by the government, their daily activities monitored and their actuations and attitudes controlled, with sanctions imposed on those found guilty of independent thought. Thought Police made sure that the entire citizenry abided by government mandates and behaved accordingly.

BACK IN my days as a web developer, we did our development and testing in porn mode. Those outside the industry might refer to this as an “incognito window,” but the phrase “porn mode” is universally understood because usually no one opens an incognito window unless they’re about to load something unseemly.

Although I have met Vice-President Leni Robredo a few times, I have never had a lengthy conversation with her. Nevertheless, she has always struck me as having a strong backbone. Her uncanny ability to make bold but well-considered decisions and to stick to them was demonstrated when, after giving it a few days of thought and reflection, she accepted the Liberal Party’s left-field offer to run for vice-president. She then worked herself to the bone all over the country, and amazingly won the post and got confirmed by the Comelec. I guess her daughter had solid basis for saying that we should not underestimate their mother’s influence on their late father, Jesse Robredo, who had been my choice for next president after PNoy.

To quote Former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban: “Trial courts are the dispensers of justice closest to the poor.” But when the demand for justice is clearly disproportionate to that of the number of our judges in the lower courts, how can justice even be dispensed?

The third quarter performance of the agricultural sector provides a glimmer of hope for the irregular growth pattern of the industry.

MANAGING your financial life requires following three rules.

MeToo is a movement against sexual violence -- it calls out perpetrators of violence and places them in an arena of shame. Unfortunately, in most cases, those who come out and share their MeToo narrative are met with doubt, blame, and are shamed themselves; in other instances, they are lauded by some for their courage amidst tragedy but they turn a blind eye to perpetrators whom they know.

The tax reform is well underway, but just as it had in 2018, it hit a snag yet again. In fact, it hit the same snag it had back then.

Volcanic areas are among the most beautiful places to see in the country -- Mayon, Pinatubo lake, Bulusan lake, Taal lake, etc. They are beautiful when the volcanoes are at rest, but when they rumble and erupt, they are among the worst places in the planet to be due to the many dangers they pose. Among the most active, most violent volcanoes in the Philippines and their explosions since 1600 are listed in Table 1.