In response to your missive of May 8th, in which you lament: “Most blogs to me, seem to just be splogs. Logs of spewed thoughts. Just stuff, and most-often not well-considered… [S]orting through spew to get at the meaningful thought is a burden I neither want to get into, not participate in by adding to it.” ________________________ Sure, there’s a

A defining characteristic of intelligent people at the present historical moment is that they’re perpetually appalled without ever being remotely surprised. Discuss. :xpost:

David Hackworth, Vietnam vet and military analyst, dies at 74 HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and an advocate for military reform, has died, his wife said Thursday. He was 74. … Hackworth, a syndicated columnist for King Features, advocated a streamlined

I’m pulling this exchange with who_is_sylvia up out of the comment threads and to the top board, because I want to make sure it’s clear that I know my generation has its issues, too. ____________________________________ >>I don’t think you’re opposed to any of my beliefs–in fact, we seem to have most of the same ones. But you certainly do expect

Braggart You are 57% Rational, 71% Extroverted, 42% Brutal, and 85% Arrogant.

As marked in Ken Bielen’s piece earlier this afternoon, today is the 35th anniversary of the Kent State shootings. I’m sitting here on the last day of classes at the end of my first year as a university professor, and it occurs to me that much has changed since the National Guard opened up on all those unarmed students back

I’m posting this little piece from Ken Bielen, who doesn’t have a site of his own. Thanks for remembering. ______________________ The news spread word-of-mouth. Four were dead in Ohio. Spring was showing itself. Dreaming of summer, and shots like a knife. Jeffrey, Allison, Bill and Sandy. And more injured. The next day there was an evening rally in front of

Does the phrase “wet drive crash” mean anything to you?

Verily, we’re following up yesterday’s first snow of May with today’s second snow of May. My cup runneth over.

Brian Angliss over at the Daedalnexus reflects on the loss of ritual in his life here. I hear where he’s coming from, although for me, the real sense of loss in walking away from Christianity was less about ritual (hey, I was a Southern Baptist, and while we had our rituals, it was nothing like a high Catholic Mass) and

What could be more enchanting than sitting here, as I am, staring out the window at the first snow of May….

Nick Kristof said it, not me: As a baby boomer myself, I can be blunt: We boomers won’t be remembered as the “Greatest Generation.” Rather, we’ll be scorned as the “Greediest Generation.” Our influence has been huge. When boomer blood raged with hormones, we staged the sexual revolution and popularized the Pill. Now, with those hormones fading, we’ve popularized Viagra.

Dr. Frank Venturo, dad-in-law extraordinaire and chief of the Pit’s Gunnison Valley Desk, sends along this commentary from Bob Benz and Mike Phillips at the OJR. In general, they raise interesting questions about the AP’s “April 18 announcement that it would start charging newspaper and broadcast clients an additional fee for using AP content on their web sites,” a move

Dear WNY Business Owner: What the hell is wrong with you damned people? I refer to the fact that there seems to be some kind of feckin’ cultural and economic taboo up here against accepting credit and debit cards. We noticed this aberration shortly after moving here last fall – we were surprised to learn that an unusually high number

Yup, after months of inexcusable shagginess, Ronan visited the salon yesterday. Underneath all the fur we were shocked to discover a terrier.