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So there’s a new book out: Area 51: an Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, by Annie Jacobsen. On Tuesday, May 17, Annie discussed her book with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Naturally, I watched. You can watch too, if you wish: Most of what Annie had to say about Area 51 […]
Here’s another neighborhood mystery to keep me up nights. Once in a while road crews dump piles of dirt alongside county roads near our housing subdivision. I don’t know for sure, but presumably workers come along later and use the dirt to repair erosion damage along the shoulders of the roads. Perhaps it’s some special […]
Last week Jon Stewart weighed in on the Republican/Fox News hissy fit over the White House inviting the rapper Common to a poetry reading. Stewart’s segment — especially his masterful takedown of the deeply stupid Sean Hannity — was brilliant. If you missed it, here’s a link to the video. Then, last night, MSNBC’s Ed […]
I’ve mentioned prison book restrictions and bannings in previous roundups. The last such item I covered was a South Carolina jail’s policy of banning all books other than the Bible. The ACLU is now challenging that policy on behalf of an inmate. Reading is a civil liberty? Damn right it is! Here’s a related article […]
A friend lent me two hard science fiction novels, one sword & sorcery fantasy novel, and one Arthurian romance. I thought I’d enjoy the hard sci-fi (and I do) but her brand new paperbacks are in such perfect condition I’m afraid to open the pages wide enough to read because I’ll crease the books’ spines […]
Today they call it SERE, for Survival Evasion Resistance Escape. When I went through the training in the mid-1970s, it was called Survival School. What prompted the memory was last night’s Netflix rental, the epic survival movie The Way Back, a story about escapees from a Siberian prison camp who trekked 4,000 miles across Russia, […]
First some background, from a post I wrote on 30 November 2010: Yesterday, listening to an NPR report on the DoD’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell survey of military personnel, it hit me that if gays are permitted to openly serve, the thorny issue of same-sex marriage will soon follow. I probably don’t know what I’m talking […]
Some say it started with rock’n’roll. Others blame Dr. Spock. Me, I think it goes back to Sam Peckinpah’s 1972 movie The Getaway, one of the first mass market films to glorify and glamorize criminal behavior. Saturday morning we rode our bicycles down to Tucson’s 4th Avenue. It was our weekly ride and coffee-shop run, […]