The truth is that I have never really cared for most of the American poetry canon. Yes, there are exceptions. If you count TS Eliot as an American (and since he was born in St. Louis, you kind of have to), then he was my favorite (although, since he abandoned the US and went to Europe, I also wound up
Read moreWalt Whitman once said, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us.” You could look it up. – Annie Savoy My grandfather used to tell stories about his sister, my aunt Janie. She played baseball. Not softball, but baseball. And was better than most of
Read moreI am not anti-gun. I am, however, anti-NRA, which isn’t pro-gun so much as it is the advocacy wing of the arms dealer industry. Anyway, the organization has now released a compilation of National Organizations With Anti-Gun Policies (aka an enemies list). In their words: The following organizations have lent monetary, grassroots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations.
Read moreWe have heard, over the last 24 hours, all kinds of comment on the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Predictably, much of the public response has taken the form of outrage over the broad availability of the weaponry used in these murders, to say nothing of other high-profile mass killings in places like Aurora, Colorado.
Read moreBlack Friday is under way – has been since midnight, in fact. In many places around the country, retailers started kicking off the festivities at yesterday: over a quarter of Americans said they planned to go shopping on Thanksgiving. Or, as it will soon come to be known, Black Friday Eve. Or Black Thursday, maybe. Want to hear some fun statistics?
Read moreEverybody seems to be so negative about campaign season. They hate the ads, they hate the mudslinging, they hate the lying, they hate the candidates. Not me – I LOVE campaign season. Why? Because it’s an opportunity to learn stuff that not only didn’t I know before, but that I’d never learn any other way.
Read moreDiscussion boards across the UK are a’splodin’ and some Very Serious punk fans are up in arms over the sainted Johnny Rotten’s decision to do a series of commercials for Country Life Butter. Like this one.
Read moreCredit Joshua Holland with that headline, which I’m stealing gleefully. Rush really is the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t he? In case you missed it: Rush Limbaugh went on a tirade today about how “feminazis” and “chickification” are to blame for the fact that he has a tiny dick the average penis is 10 percent smaller than 50 years ago:
Read moreIt was July 20, 1969. I was eight years old and, as I recall, I was supposed to be in bed. But my grandparents got me up and sat me down in front of our little black and white television. Watch this, they said. This is important. Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the moon, is dead at
Read moreI wake up, log in, and see this headline in my news ‘gator: Suspect in Yuma County double slaying was aspiring comic, necromancer Then our boy Frank Balsinger turns up with this bit of lunacy: Ku Klux Klan protests Westboro Baptist Church No, seriously. Watch.
Read morePart two of a series. In part one, I offered an overview of why I think the time has come to partition America – shake hands, go our separate ways, and let two (at least) groups of people follow their own paths according to their very different values. Today I want to briefly tackle the hard part and present some
Read morePart one of a series. This past week AlterNet published an interview with Chuck Thompson, author of Better Off Without ‘Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession. In brief, Thompson argues that the United States has become two very different countries (or perhaps that it was always two very different countries) and that perhaps the time has come to shake hands and
Read moreRoger Federer yesterday earned his seventh Wimbledon men’s singles title, defeating Scotsman Andy Murray in four sets. It was an excellent match, if not an epic one, and the victory was well deserved by the man some believe is the greatest tennis player in history. For me, though, the defining moment of the 2012 Championships came not during the match,
Read moreI suspect I am not alone in saying that for me, Andy Griffith was like family. It’s not just that he was from North Carolina, my native state, or that Mayberry was based on his hometown of Mt. Airy, maybe an hour up the road from my little burg. It’s not just that he wove an idyllic little haven off
Read moreThere have been a lot of douchenozzles (DNs) in the news lately. A jury acquitted Fat Bastard of perjury (although this is one of those verdicts that feels a whole lot more like “not guilty” than it does “innocent,” if you hear where I’m coming from). Tiger choked like a…you know, given his recent history, let’s just stay clear of
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lullaby pit 