“long ago, I used to be a young man …” I love that line from Michael Peter Smith’s lovely song, “The Dutchman.” It’s a song that has been covered many times people and groups as varied as Liam Clancy, Jerry Jeff Walker and Celtic Thunder. The line is from the chorus of a song about …
PETERS’ ‘CORNFIELD’ BRINGS BACK GREELEY MEMORIES Read More »
A rotting, maggot-infested corpse? A seriously wounded man with a gangrenous leg that will require amputation? An old woman slipping further and further into dementia? There are doubtless other metaphors that would work, but all three of the above describe at least partially America 2022. A dozen or so years back, a historian in Russia …
Comedian Tim Wilson was interacting with his audience. “Youngster, did you play Little League?” The young man shook his head no. “What? You a puss?” For some reason, that was what came to mind when I heard about the disgraceful performance by the Uvalde police department while 19 children were being murdered in their classroom. …
NOT A WHOLE LOT FOR UVALDE POLICE TO BE PROUD OF Read More »
“On Tuesday morning, at least 19 children’s parents woke them up and helped them brush their teeth, fed them breakfast, made sure they had their little backpacks packed. They held their children’s small hands as they walked or drove them to school. Those children were alive when their parents waved to them and handed them …
“Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it’s the freest, most prosperous, safest country on Earth.” So sayeth Ted Cruz of Texas in response to a British journalist asking why the U.S. doesn’t do anything about guns in the light of more and more school shootings that don’t …
“I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.” — ERIC “OTTER” STRATTON Ever since the first time I saw “Animal House” in 1978, it has been one of my two or three favorite movies Friends and acquaintances who know me as a serious, mature adult …
Did you hear about the horrible school shooting in Australia? Or the one in Scotland? What about the one in British Columbia? And of course the massacre in Belgium? If you say you did, you’re either lying or delusional. Kids in those countries and most others have parents who love them enough to make sure …
I was reading a New York Times essay by David Brooks today when I saw a reference to a Gallup Organization survey on religion in America. Brooks was writing about how religion distorts politics these days, and the survey results were fascinating with one exception. There was one question from which we could have learned …
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.” Does anyone ever blame himself or herself for failure to succeed anymore? Or is it too easy to say it’s because of reverse racism and a cockamamie Great Replacement theory? I know someone who has applied for hundreds of jobs he hasn’t gotten. …
“Woke?” “Woke” is a bad thing? If you ask someone on the far right, being “woke” is almost as bad as being a child molester. It’s a lot worse than those peaceful tourists who visited Washington on January 6th, 2010. Being “woke” is … wait for it … un-American. So exactly what is “woke?” So …
