Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of a Violent Faith Jon Krakauer, 2003 Having torn through Krakauer’s earlier books, Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, I had every expectation that this book would be an up-all-night page-turner, and I wasn’t disappointed. What I didn’t expect, though, was that it would end up being [...]
As hag readers are mostly aware, I’m not much of a Christmas person. Years of spending that purportedly beleaguered holiday with my horrifying aunt Jicky and my crazy (and even more horrifying) grandmother Etta, I never found Jesus’ birthday to be a thing to which anybody in their right mind would ever look forward. The [...]
When I walked into the Bureau of Development Services, finding it packed as usual, I filled out my form to place in the first of five boxes, and settled in for a long wait. The plans I was submitting were for an extensive remodel, a rebuild, really, of a house that, had it not been [...]
As we approach the 2012 elections, I have to admit grudgingly sympathizing with the poor Republican contenders on some level; everywhere you look, one (hilarious) presidential aspirant after another has to deal with the fact that large blocs of their party hates them, for one reason or another. The reasons, to a sane person at [...]
There was this annoyingly triumphant song we used to sing in school about what a keen place Oregon was back in 1915 or so, and even as a kid I thought it was weird. The chorus ended with, “Forward on and on… Hail to thee, land of heroes, my O-re-gon.” Never mind that the lyricist [...]
I recently read a ridiculous “analysis” of the 2012 election that stated, not entirely incorrectly, that it amounted to a contest not of political philosophies but of purchasing preferences: Cracker Barrel vs. Whole Foods. Great swaths of data were trotted out about the voting habits of those residing near one or the other of these [...]
The jaw-dropping lack of accountability prevalent among our elites, no matter how enormous and damaging their quite public failures, has led seemingly reasonable people who ought to know better to, virtually en masse, unintentionally embrace the ludicrous farce that in my family we call the Gravy Boat Theory. Only with them, it’s a lot less [...]
It’s quite dispiriting to write a blog, particularly about things that matter, when the available media is so maniacally obsessed with things that, well, don’t. So successful have the Republicans been in creating their post-reality “empire” that even those few in the media who know better are constantly reduced to anointing, say, Newt Gingrich, as [...]
Whenever I’m working out of town, it’s always a treat to listen to a different lefty talk station; when I was in Napa over Thanksgiving I tuned in daily to Green 960, a San Francisco-based Clear Channel station which, though lacking any local programming, has a good mix of national shows I don’t generally hear [...]
America’s Dumbest State, Alabama, continues to be unfairly pilloried by the liberal media for its demented and draconian immigration laws. Last month, Alabama police arrested a Mercedes Benz executive for the newly-minted crime of driving without his papers; later, an Honda execuive was similarly jailed. Of course, to find any such liberal media, you do [...]