It 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 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 moreMemorial Day has become our most conflicted holiday. I’m bothered by it, and I know I am not the only one.
Read moreWatch the two TED talks below. The question, which represents 100% of your final grade, follows. First, Nick Hanauer in 2012.
Read moreA little knowledge is a dangerous thing, they say. How true, how true, especially when it comes to reducing the wisdom of brilliant, complex minds to their pithiest quotes. In a recent thread on what has become of the GOP, one commenter went all-in with Henry David Thoreau’s famous (and greatly abused) edict: that government is best which governs the
Read moreFollowing up on yesterday’s post about how unfair it is when progressives fight fire with fire… One of the architects of the modern conservative boycott movement back in the day was the now-deceased Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the “Moral Majority.” His strategy was simple. Identify those television and radio stations whose programming “promoted” a “liberal agenda” or “secular humanist”
Read moreI don’t know when the very first boycott of a product or company happened, but I suspect the tactic has been around in some form or another for a long time. I do remember the onset of the modern form of the practice, though. Back in the ’70s and ’80s, social conservatives began going after businesses who advertised on shows
Read moreLast October, country music star Hank WIlliams, Jr. made a remark about Obama and Hitler playing golf, touching off a controversy that saw ESPN end its relationship with Williams (who had been singing the Monday Night Football intro song for what seemed like 100 years). Williams reacted predictably: After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” he wrote.
Read moreThe more I watch modern politics (and economics and the culture wars and science “debates”) the more it all reminds me of pro wrestling. You know how it goes. Tough match, back and forth, both the good guy (the “face”) and the bad guy (the “heel”) getting their licks in, and then at the decisive moment either the heel “accidentally”
Read moreMy colleague Michael Sheehan recent offered a tip of the cap to a local staging of Frost/Nixon, which starred our old friend Stuart O’Steen. If anything, Mike was understated in his praise of the show and O’Steen’s performance. Anytime the big-city Denver Post says nice things about a community theater production up in the hinterlands of Longmont you know something special
Read moreWhile our country has in recent times engaged in a relentless policy war against the working class I grew up in, there was a time when honest labor was a thing to be celebrated. America became the greatest nation on the planet for a period of time thanks to its workers, not its CEOs or its bankers. Our character is
Read moreEleventh in a series
Read moreAs I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I now live in a development on the site of Denver’s old Elitch Gardens amusement part, which operated from 1890-1993. In addition to the really cool new urban community, there’s also some historic preservation going on, as they renovate the old theater. I’m being told that at this stage they’re doing basic
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lullaby pit 