"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
The form of the destructor
The media occasionally report on Christian evangelicalism and proselytization in the military services, particularly at the military academies. One journalist who tracks stories about non-believing and minority religion servicemembers coerced into Christian worship is Ed Brayton, who blogs about this and other issues at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Last week he published a letter […]
Oh for Christ’s sake. Back in April, President Obama signed a law establishing September 11 as an annually recognized “National Day of Service and Remembrance.” Reaction on the right? Uh, about what you’d expect: The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 […]
I can’t tell you how many times friends have declared, apparently believing what they’re saying, that the times are worse than ever: the kids more insolent, the wars more horrific, the price of goods never higher, the future never more uncertain. My response has always been to ask if they’d like to trade lives with, […]
My personal thoughts on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates? You probably think I’m about to say I agree with President Obama that the Cambridge police acted stupidly. No, actually, I think they acted predictably. Racism is a given in situations like this. Whites know it; people of color know it . . . if […]
Boy, I remember how upset my parents were when I told them I was marrying an Italian girl. “How can you turn your back on your own species?” they cried. But I was blinded by love and wouldn’t listen. Oh, we suffered for our love. Society turned its back on us. Restaurants wouldn’t serve us. […]
I sure get a kick out of the Tucson Weekly Police Dispatch column. This one is from the July 2, 2009 issue: A WHORIBLE SPELLER A woman freshly out of a messy divorce found alleged proof that her ex-husband is both mean and a lousy speller, a PCSD report stated. The victim said that about […]
One morning when I was a first- or second-grader in Mascouta, Illinois, our teacher announced a special recess. We spilled out onto the school grounds, along with kids and teachers from all the other classes, just as a little car towing a little trailer drove in through the gate and stopped in the middle of […]