I continue to choose not to speculate about the motives (or lack thereof ) or sanity (or lack thereof) of Jared Loughner. And I sadly wish I had been wrong in my speculation about the reactions of right and left to the cruel violence inflicted by Loughner and its sad aftermath. That there are those …
Clearly Nebulous avers “They keep talking about “all the rhetoric” — but they never cite a single specific example.” I appreciate the anxiety and in my original post I had hoped to avoid exactly the tit-for-tat left right citations and actually suggest that it is much more complicated. But since CN seems honestly unsure here, …
On Saturday January a gunman in Tucson Arizona shot and critically wounded US Representative Gabrielle Gifford and killed US Federal District Court Judge John M. Roll, and he also killed five others and wounded another 15. This news interrupted my Saturday afternoon, otherwise filled with the improbable Seahawk’s victory over the Saints, in the way …
Oh, what a little fantasy it is to imagine that all one’s thoughts were or even could be one’s own. Credit (and blame) would be uniquely ours, whether the witty bon mot or the crude faux pas. But what we add to most conversations is almost never a wholly new product, rather some collection of …
The politics of that last few years have had their particular rancor and tone not because of Pres Obama or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, but because of a political party gone off the rails, leaving the Democratic party to be its own loyal opposition since the Republicans have ceded the field. Leaving me with …
So much gets presented as a challenge to President Obama, but his leadership style really asks more of his base and the American people: patience, a sense of history, an understanding of the modest limits of politics and our governing institutions. Obama seems to have these—do we? – Lawrence Spaulding Now, doesn’t that feel better? …
Some have somewhat correctly labeled the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a “starting point,” where my point is that it shouldn’t have been a point at all. Holy Moley, when you step back and look at it, it’s amazing to note how our country goes so far out of its way to prove …
. Please, please, please tell me that you are not ready to be co-opted by the naive and even dangerous view that is being adopted by too many already that the tax cuts/unemployment benefits deal that Pres. Obama just worked out with Republican leaders is somehow a bad deal, that he got rolled, or that …
. . I watched this movie last might. Loved it. Saddam didn’t like the physical act of headbanging because, according to one of the musicians, the movement is similar to when Jews pray. Saddam wanted men to have short hair. The musicians later persevered under Occupied Iraq, but checkpoints, snipers, tanks, unemployment, and overall risk …
. Many of the songs in Tom Lehrer’s small, dark canon of work still seem relevant today, though nearly all of them were written in the 1950s and 60s. Lehrer often wrote about subjects that were in the news of the day. For example, his song “Smut” (which may be heard in the video below) …
. Did you see the outrageous report regarding Chris Matthews and MSNBC’s election coverage by the usual suspects? This is beyond belief and simply crazy stuff: Goldberg echoed many of those complaints in his appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor.” “They broke the cardinal rule of journalism: You don’t have partisans covering hard news events, and …
Thanks to Colette Moran for the link. The improvised comic prose is East Portland’s alone (Colette would never jest about energy drinks.): . “In Archie, Obama v. Palin – PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK Obama is dubbed “The Chicago Kid” while Palin gets named “The Thrilla from Wasilla” on the new Archie covers.” Complete story …
It is truly amazing to realize that the retarded can type, let alone use a computer. The retarded seem to have been called out of the woodwork in recent, post-Bush months: they litter the comments section of any newspaper in the country, and their passionate, if not correctly spelled proclamations of patriotism, fury and resentment …
How Conservatives and the GOP Destroyed the “Traditional Family” They Claim to Treasure Thanks in part to the GOP’s failed policies, America is such a hard place to raise a family that many people are delaying getting married and having kids. [August 30, 2010] For decades, social conservatives have had a lot to say about …
U.S. was born a Christian nation Evangelical writer and thinker, Robert Knight, author of “Fighting for America’s Soul: How Sweeping Change Threatens Our Nation and What We Must Do,” and one of the drafters of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, has prepared for CNN.com an essay asserting that America’s creation was, in fact, rooted …
From the Huffington Post: Barack Obama: Closeted Non-Believer? by Ali A. Rizvi “Before we get carried away, let’s read our Bibles now,” said the young first-term Senator from Illinois in his speech to Call for Renewal, a liberal Christian group. “Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles!” It was June 2006, and it wasn’t long before …
It was the Spring of 1967. I was having lunch with Buddy Guy and his band at Stanford. Buddy was on his first West Coast tour, picking up gigs on an ad hoc basis. At that time, Buddy was almost unknown outside the blues scene, but he was determined to change that. He had left …
From Pathography to Pluralism In, Hear My Voice: A multicultural anthology of literature from the United States, editor King (1994) anthologizes multicultural stories and then asks students reflective, open-ended questions about literary elements for which they must think critically. King claims that individual voices have been suppressed in the United States for generations. “Movies, mass …
By Emily Pothast To me, it’s quite telling that Glenn Beck essentially illustrates every negative point that Liberation Theology could possibly make against mainstream white Christianity in his attempt to defend it. “Christ is a conqueror, not a victim,” he says. Of course, Christ is either a conqueror or a victim, or both at once, …
Click here. Dedicated webpage found at http://wardiary.wikileaks.org.
From the Huffington Post: “…In addition to describing James Carville as “a space alien,” Beck said of [Urlacher,] the 2005 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and frequent Special Olympics volunteer, “I think this guy’s a neo-Nazi…” For the full story, click here or on the photo below.
Frank Schaefer, author of “Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back” has a great piece about the “counterintuitive contradictions” of the tea partiers bringing down their movement: Thank God For Sarah Palin’s Picks! (Good …
Website for the film can be found at http://www.mostdangerousman.org * * * * * * From Vietnam to Afghanistan
From Komonews.com: “Three days after he was shot, Pfleider received a Purple Heart. Almost two years later, he received a bill from the military for missing equipment. The sum of the bill, which includes interest, is $3,175. It itemizes a list of gear the military issued to Pfleider that did not come back with his …
An oldie but a goodie:
Confirmation Bias, Regional Elitism, and Narrative Seeking J-School Students Impede Quest for Unbiased Journalism… Is there such a thing as “unbiased journalism?” Should there be? Where is it found? by Foster Kedzie III First, we should distinguish between opinion journalism (even if its characterized as entertainment) and reporting. Opinion journalists are supposed to have opinions. …
A few points to not talk about, for once 😉 It seems so many are working their little minds so hard in fruitless avenues, so it should be noted that: 1. The government will not be getting “smaller” – no matter what you define “smaller” as. Why? For one thing, the country is getting bigger, …
by Thomas Paine Retiring Indiana Senator Evan Bayh is right on. The original concept of the public servant is dead. All we are left with is career politicians whose only ambition is to either hold their office forever or seek higher ones. There is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. In addition to voting out …
By Foster Kedzie III What is behind the Chinese government’s ideology that it needs to repress religion and cultural diversity? This question came up in the context of the supression of Tibet and the objections raised by the Chinese government when world leaders meet with the Dalai Lama. With regard to the “religion” issue, it …