Perhaps I’m jaded. Maybe I’ve read “A Rose for Emily” once too often, researched a tad too much about dismemberments in Memphis, taught one class too many on “A Good Man is Hard to Find,†and indulged myself too uncritically in the fictive Carolina childhood of T.R. Pearson. Maybe there’s something deep and dark and twisted in me. I don’t
Read moreLet’s say this guy was running for president on a third-party ticket: proven track record for getting country out of wars strong foreign policy diplomat who forged stronger relationships with powerful developing (and enemy) nations implemented the first significant federal affirmative action program dramatically increased spending on federal employee salaries organized a daily press event and daily message for the
Read moreQ: How can you tell when politicians are lying? A: When they say they aren’t. As we wade deeper into the silly swamp that is Electoral Trainwreck ’08 I realize that most nights I wind up giggling myself to sleep. My old friend Disraeli famously observed that people tend to get the government they deserve, and as I’ve noted before,
Read moreI told you yesterday that it was supposed to be in the 70s. Actually it topped 80. Here’s the view from my porch right now.
Read moreSpringtime has come to Colorado. Which means it’ll be in the 70s today and they say it could snow tomorrow. But let’s enjoy the nice weather, shall we? I took the dog over to the open space at Davidson Mesa this morning and snapped a couple shots from the overlook at the west end of the park. This first shot
Read moreI was born and raised in the South, a region that’s often misunderstood and mischaracterized by those who’ve never been there. When I moved to the Midwest for grad school I encountered people whose knowledge of the South was pretty much confined to The Andy Griffith Show, The Dukes of Hazzard and Hee-Haw. And they called us stupid. I’ve tried
Read moreIdiots. Jonathan Walton puts it this way: I confess that I find this somewhat tragic, as I too have Southern pride.
Read moreIn the mid-1970s Graham Parker was portrayed as a quintessentially Angry Young Man®, a pub rocker with an attitude who helped shape the British New Wave (a movement that remains perhaps the most creatively vital five years in recent rock history). 15 years later he had matured into a Responsible Adult®, with 1991’s Struck By Lightning offering us songs about
Read moreSomething big happened a few nights ago in Iowa. Barack Obama began the evening as one of the top two contenders for the Democratic nomination and by the time people went to bed he was John F. Kennedy. This might sound like hyperbole – and to be sure, the race is far from won – but if the results we
Read moreOur friend Sara over at Orcinus is one of those people who gets it. Big picture, long view, and a perspective that’s as deep as it is broad. Her latest examination of our collective predicament is a great example. As long as that core vision holds — as long as people in the group remember who they are and what
Read moreWelcome to the fifth and final installment of the Scholars & Rogues year-end wrap-up. Today we tackle the dirty, but oddly riveting world of politics. We’ll take a couple shots at the even dirtier world of media that makes it all possible. Let’s start at the top, shall we? George Walker Bush: I’ve been telling my Republican friends for five
Read moreWelcome to part three of S&R’s first annual year-end round-up. I’ll begin by apologizing for my colleagues, who have wasted a lot of their time (and yours) yammering about “important” issues. Of course, I admire their intellectual gravity, but let’s be honest – that sort of seriousness is really misplaced when the intended audience is the American public. As we
Read moreHey, what’s that in our stocking? It’s Ron Paul! Oh joy – we got The Truth® for Christmas! Ahem. So those of you who thought Ron Paul was going to go away once the big boys got serious have probably been surprised by his staying power so far. He’s polling in the high single digits (something Ronald Reagan Fred Thompson
Read moreA colleague has notified me that I’m under indictment by a previously unknown blog calling itself the St. Louis Skeptical Society, a site that “was founded on October 11, 2007 by a handful of physics graduate students in order to promote skepticism and science.” These enterprising students have taken exception to my earlier thoughts on democracy in America, concluding that
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lullaby pit 