Recent items in the news: The commandant of the marine corps said a few days ago U.S. forces will likely be at the “war on terror,” or whatever it’s called now, for a bit longer, maybe another decade. Or more. The marine leader’s remarks echo those by an obscure defense official overseeing undercover doo doo. [...]
What a frightening place America has become in the past decade or two, and I’m going to go ahead, risking the sterling credibility of CHNN, and blame the bombings at the Boston Marathon (as well as nearly all the other such mass casualty events) on the righties. From guns to bombs, Republicans have an inordinate [...]
When I was growing up, my mother had a particularly diplomatic form of reprimand, probably learned as a first grade teacher, that was very effective, so much so that we gave it a name in later years: The Surely Routine. When Joan would come home from work in the afternoon and find that, contrary to [...]
Prostitution in the old Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628-92), which then ran north into southern Maine and included the seaside town of Kennebunk (“So Close, Yet Worlds Away”), was a hanging offense. Times have changed however. And so on Friday a state judge in Portland accepted a plea deal from alleged Zumba dance madam Alexis Wright [...]
Back in 2004, a blog commenter at Daily Kos made a video that compared Bush to Hitler, and there was a immediate run on smelling salts that lasted for weeks. At the time I was working for a couple who were regular Fox News watchers, and they were naturally horrified. “Really?” I responded. “Aggressive wars, [...]
As I wrote about last week at FDL, I’m still gobsmacked, flabbergasted, you name it, over Supreme Court Justice (!) Antonin Scalia’s comments about the Voting Rights Act, and to my considerable delight, so was the often flaccid and boring Saturday Night Live. Sorry to all about the lame posting, but I’ve been so busy [...]
“Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It’s time to start thinking.” – Ernest Rutherford, British explorer – quoted sometime after 1910 Political analysts unaffiliated with The Onion suggested Monday that Silvio Berlusconi and upstart challenger Beppe Grillo may have enough votes between them to form a new, coalition government in Italy. If this [...]
Like 10% of the US population, I am what is commonly known as a “lapsed” Catholic, making me part of what would be the third largest denomination in America. Although I’m probably not all that representative of my brethren, given that from about age 8 on I didn’t believe a word of what I heard [...]
Today former President (!) Richard Nixon would have been 100, and I’m sorry the ol’ creep isn’t still around; since he would undoubtedly be in a very bad mood. You see, his most infamous legal doctrine, “if the President does it, it is not illegal,” once a shockingly outrageous statement, is now comfortably enshrined [...]
The endless loop-de-loop of crazy has finally reached its apogee; soon Glenn Beck may spawn the next generation of hippies, if only his followers (and sadly, their talk radio interlocutors) weren’t so slow on the uptake. Although I was painting and couldn’t take adequate notes, a cracker caller mansplained to Ed Schultz on his radio [...]