John Warner (1927–2021)
John Warner, who served as a U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1979 to 2009 and the Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974, died on May 25th at the age of 94. His funeral was held at Washington National...
View ArticleIndependence Day 2021
Happy Independence Day! (This post is mostly reruns of good stuff.) First up, here's NPR's annual reading of the Declaration of Independence: Next up, in 2020, NPR asked descendants of Frederick...
View ArticleRIP Mike Finnigan
I was very sad to hear about the death of my friend and blogging colleague, Mike Finnigan, due to kidney cancer at the age of 76. Mike was a superb musician and a fantastic, generous guy. Celebrity...
View ArticleBanned Books Week 2021
Happy Banned Books Week, celebrating banned and challenged books! Here's the category in my archives, with posts covering issues of censorship but also specific books. The site linked above tends not...
View ArticleThe Graveyard of Democracy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in...
View ArticleArmstice Day 11/11/21
(Click on the comic strip for a larger view.) In 1959, Pogo creator Walt Kelly wrote: The eleventh day of the eleventh month has always seemed to me to be special. Even if the reason for it fell apart...
View ArticleJon Swift Roundup 2021
(The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves) ( An appropriate Jon Swift picture for the year.) Welcome to the 2021 edition! This year was a little saner than 2020, at least. This...
View ArticleMaus Banned
Just in time for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a Tennessee school district has banned Maus, an amazing, Pulitzer-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman about his family but especially his...
View Article2021 Film Roundup: The Oscars and the Year in Review
I was able to see a handful of the nominees this year, but still not that many. Going to the movies is safer than it was before a COVID-19 vaccine was available, but it's still a bit daunting. Many of...
View ArticleNational Poetry Month 2022
National Poetry Month is almost over, but as usual, I wanted to link the Favorite Poem Project and feature a poem. I was looking for good choices and came upon this one, a lovely piece I hadn't read in...
View ArticleL.A. Primary Elections 2022
The California primary elections are rapidly coming up on Tuesday, 6/7. Many Angelenos might have voted already by mail or in person, but the following resources may prove useful for the general...
View ArticleBanned Book Week 2022
We're at the tail end of Banned Books Week, which celebrates banned and challenged books. My archive in this category is here. This year witnesses some familiar trends and some troubling new...
View ArticleArmistice Day 11/11/22
(Click on the comic strip for a larger view.) In 1959, Pogo creator Walt Kelly wrote: The eleventh day of the eleventh month has always seemed to me to be special. Even if the reason for it fell apart...
View ArticleLast Call for the Jon Swift Roundup (2022 Edition)
It's time once again to continue a tradition started by Jon Swift/Al Weisel, the "Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves." Jon/Al was a fine writer, but also a nice guy and a strong...
View ArticleThe Worse Demons of Our Nature
In calling for passage of the Voting Rights Act, LBJ was summoning what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. He was asking – no, he was demanding – that we transcend bigotry and make good at...
View ArticleJon Swift Roundup 2022
(The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves) ( A Jon Swift picture.) Welcome to the 2022 edition! It's been an interesting year for elections and investigations, among other things....
View ArticleConservatives Are Still Awful (Feb. 2023 Edition)
The state of the union and its responses earlier this month were revealing for both rhetoric and policy. President Joe Biden started his state of the union speech on a collegial tone, saying nice...
View ArticleNational Poetry Month 2023
April is National Poetry Month, and before it's over, I wanted to feature a poem. As usual, I'll link the wonderful Favorite Poem Project. I'll also link the Academy of American Poets website, one of...
View ArticleThe Oscars for the Films of 2022
The pandemic has certainly changed movie-going, at least for me. I used to see 20 to 30 films a year in the theater (more in earlier decades), but in 2022, didn't see any. I did catch several Oscar...
View ArticleAll Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
The 2022 version of All Quiet on the Western Front is a decent war film. I just wish it wasn't called All Quiet on the Western Front, because it keeps only the basic framework of the novel and makes...
View ArticleThe Tyranny of the Minority and The Extremism of the Republican Party
Part One: The Tyranny of the Minority Two government professors at Harvard have a new book out called The Tyranny of the Minority, which accurately warns that the Republican Party has been increasingly...
View ArticleBanned Books Week 2023
It's Banned Books Week, which celebrates banned and challenged books. My archive in this category is here. Last year, we looked at how LGBTQ issues have been targeted, especially in Florida....
View ArticleThe Iraq War in 2023
The 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War was earlier this year in March, so the war seems like a fitting subject for this Armistice Day or Remembrance Day or Veterans Day. My 10th...
View ArticleArmistice Day 11/11/23
(Click on the comic strip for a larger view.) In 1959, Pogo creator Walt Kelly wrote: The eleventh day of the eleventh month has always seemed to me to be special. Even if the reason for it fell apart...
View ArticleJon Swift Roundup 2023
(The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves) ( A Jon Swift picture, which always seems timely during Republican presidential primary season.) Welcome to the 2023 edition! It's been...
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