Muhammad Ali: The Champ for racial equality and social justice

Not everybody loved The Greatest: what Muhammad Ali meant to one racist Southern kid That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation. – Hunter S. Thompson

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Clinton's agenda for first 100 days is underwhelming. And predictable. And paid for by the usual suspects.

On infrastructure and immigration, half measures and vested interests dominate Hillary’s planning. Duh. There’s news about what would-be President Hillary Clinton has planned for her first 100 days in office. Pending details, there are things to be cautiously optimistic about. A Clinton aide indicated today that within her first 100 days in office, the likely Democratic nominee would send Congress a

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Big Bang Theory band names, pt 4 (Saturday Video Roundup)

Thor and Dr. Jones LIVE! And we arrive at the final installation in our series of lines from The Big Bang Theory that would make good band names. I love the first one. Liquor and Poor Judgment The Unified Theory of Comedy Malibu Koothrappali and His Totally Bitchin’ Dream House The Wolowitz Coefficient Tangy Bowl of Cheerios

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Cerebellar ataxia and me: trying to live while the brain is dying

Spinocerebellar ataxia sucks the joy out of another day… As I have mentioned before, I have a degenerative brain condition. It’s called spinocerebellar ataxia, and is essentially an atrophying of the portion of the brain that coordinates and regulates muscular activity. If you read the details at NIH you’ll probably understand pretty quickly just how nasty it really is. It has

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Is Clinton really the practical choice to beat Trump? The data says no.

Conventional wisdom says only Clinton can beat Trump. All the polling data says otherwise. I keep being told that I have to get behind Hillary Clinton because she’s the only one who can beat Trump in November. That would be a more compelling argument if there were any evidence that it’s actually true. Instead, every single poll I have seen shows the

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My Memoir: Dodgeball

It was the greatest moment of my life. I attended a high school in rural North Carolina that was probably typical of rural high schools in every way, up to and including the sadistic coach/science teacher archetype. At our school it was Coach Kelly. He ran the wrestling program, was an assistant football coach, and, of course, an educator specializing

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My Memoir: ice cream

When I was a kid my grandparents and I would sit on the couch and watch television in the evenings. We had all kinds of favorites. Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith, All in the Family, Hee-Haw, Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, The Rockford Files, The Partridge Family, Laverne & Shirley, you name it. Those were great times, even though we only had black and white. And over the air, so usually

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My memoir: Sam vs Peaches

I’m the Forrest Gump of apples. My favorite desserts often involve apples. Apple pie, apple cobbler, apple crisp, apple tarts, baked apples, apple dumplings, stewed apples, apple danish, apple butter, apple kugel, applesauce, apple cake, apple cookies – especially those soft Archways… [sigh] I’m sort of the Forrest Gump of apples. But my childhood was a frustrating one. My grandmother

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