When I was a kid back in the 70′s, it was easy to believe that racism in America was on the way out; no one I knew, and certainly no one I respected, was openly racist unless they were old, dumb, and/or ignorant. Racism still existed, of course, but it was as embarrassing in polite [...]
UPDATE: The completely unpredicted blizzard that started as I wrote this post is getting bigger and bigger. Picture below. Elephants have always made a problematic mascot for the GOP: they’re fat, which raises uncomfortable associations with the fat cats the party tirelessly champions; they supposedly have excellent memories, which means that if they were humans [...]
It’s difficult to pinpoint when the Right figured out that lying was the path to victory, but in the years since Watergate, it’s become not just an expedient stalling tactic for difficult situations, but a way of life. Lying was still considered somewhat distasteful back then, as was the case when, inundated with a wave [...]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeXrMRf25U8 It makes no difference what anyone says about flying these days because you just have to suck up all the airport rules, or don’t fly. Tell me about it. Having flown last week-end, just before the little terrorist wannabe tried to detonate something between his legs on a flight into Detroit on Christmas Day, [...]
During my teen years in the ’50s I was a believer in Christ and fortunately my Lutheran Synod pastor was radical in asking us to follow the humanitarian teachings of Christ and the moral values that bind a culture together in compassion and love of your fellow human beings regardless of their religion or status. [...]
Christmas is a time for family, and, depending on your family, that can be good or bad. Growing up, I considered it the most important day of the year; my brother and I started crossing off the days on the calendar from the time the Sears toy catalog arrived until the big day, and even [...]
I’ve been watching the liberal revolt against health car reform with suddenly renewed interest, since, wonder of wonders, the usual rollover didn’t occur. It’s like the dog that didn’t bark. What a difference an astonishingly demoralizing year makes. Back when Obama utterly capitulated on FISA, way before the election, liberals were still so alarmed by [...]
I’ve lived on the South Park Blocks for a total of ten years, longer than anywhere I’ve lived in my adult life, and for good reason. My front yard consists of a dozen blocks of parks, planted with neat rows of elms planted in the 1890′s, some so tall that they are higher than my [...]
Fittingly or not, on Christmas Day, those who love George Clooney and pay attention to movies bound for the Academy Awards will either find the need to examine their lives more deeply or dig deeper into denial of the life they are living if they go see Jason Reitman’s third movie, Up In The Air. [...]
Florida Rep. Alan Grayson was on Thom Hartmann today, and in a brief but quite unconventional interview that included caller questions, he made some profound points about our current political situation, which were as enlightening as they were depressing. Responding to a question about the glaring obviousness of the corrupting influence of money on the [...]