You know my penchant for using regular Americans’ letters to the editors of their hometown newspapers to make a point or to support a position or issue. Of course, such is not an entirely objective method, but what is, and who is…. Anyway, here are two gems from today’s Austin American-Statesman: Re: Oct. 29 article “Cheney will back Hutchison.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney...

Miss Kimberly Munley, the mother of a three-year-old daughter, and a civie policewoman, is in stable condition, with injuries to the upper leg and thigh. General Cone said her fearless response to gunman at Fort Hood, had saved countless lives. Trained in active-response tactics, she rushed into the building where Major Nidal Malik Hasan began firing on comrades as they prepared to deploy to Afghanistan and...

Jayson Blair, who resigned from the New York Times in 2003 after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories, was the featured speaker at Washington and Lee University’s 48th Journalism Ethics Institute this afternoon. That got him on NPR this morning, and Fox News Sunday this weekend. I’ve not found what he said in the speech but, from the story on NPR, his could be construed...

The TV screen today looks like the vision of a demented performance artist. You can click from images of wildly cheering crowds in a Manhattan canyon celebrating what 25 young man did on a baseball field to talking heads and replays of a massacre of other young people in Texas and then suddenly to an Orlando, Florida office building for the familiar confusion in the first moments after another shooting spree. This...

November 11 is Veterans Day. A day—a celebration—to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good. This is the first of three articles honoring those men and women. Two months ago, in “Leave No Man Behind—65 Years Later,” I praised the spirit and culture of our military as reflected in the creed that you don’t...

Is there something in the water, is this a coincidence…or what? Yet another mass shooting…this time in Florida: One person was killed and at least seven others were wounded in a shooting incident inside a downtown Orlando high-rise building Friday morning, authorities said. Quoting emergency dispatchers, NBC station WESH-TV of Orlando reported that the incident began about 11:30 a.m. ET on the fourth...

There is seemingly no rest. No tragedy where people can put politics aside, even for a minute. I mean, REALLY…

It is important we do our best to catalogue moments of joy.  We must write joy down and  proclaim joy to those who will listen.  We need records of joy, monuments of joy, places of joy we can revisit.  We must contend for joy, or the bitter water will overwhelm us all. Last night my two little boys turned joy into a dance.  Nathaneal is seven and Samuel is three.  Each boy has his own personality.  They...

The massacre at Ft. Hood. A pipeline explosion in the Texas Panhandle. A grain processing plant explosion in western Missouri. What the hell? I’m certainly not suggeting these events are related; nor am I suggesting the explosions are comparable to what happened at Ft. Hood — not at all. It just seemed to be a disproportionate morning of bad news, and from such disparate places. UPDATE: And...

Photo Credit: Ben Sklar/Getty Images Investigators and journalists are now slowly fleshing out some details about yesterday’s Fort Hood military-base massacre that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded — and about accused shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The big question is “why” — a question increasingly asked as more tidbits slowly emerge. The detail that is and will get the...

In 1960, President Eisenhower warned us of the growing influence and power of the Military Industrial Complex. He was right and we ignored him. Today our country has the world’s largest total annual Military Budget of over $650 billion, additional defense-related spending of over $350 billion, more than 1.5 million people serving in its Armed Forces in over 100 countries around the globe, and is currently...

“An Uncommon Love,” sung by Carole King and K.D. Lang

There have been multiple shooting attacks at Fort Hood according to MSNBC, KCEN-TV and KTVT-TV. At least 7 people are dead and 30+ are wounded. One shooter is in custody and 1-2 more are being sought. FBI is on the way. Both the shooters and victims are believed to be military rather than civilians, at least the shooters were wearing military fatigues. 4:30 pm EST: More shots just reported according to MSNBC-TV. 4:40...

Washington voted for domestic partnerships, but Maine, a similarly blue state (despite having two Republican senators), voted against same-sex marriage. There is no denying that the vote in Maine is a setback for gay rights. Simply put, the anti-gay forces of the right mobilize well, as they showed in California last year, playing to lingering bigotry and fear, and they did again here. Furthermore, there was...

Pakistan, rightly or wrongly, is generally described as an “exporter” of terrorism. Now it is trying to export something different – its famous Murree beer produced at the nearly 150-year-old Murree brewery, Pakistan’s sole producer of beer. “Understandably, making beer and whiskey in a Muslim country, where 97 per cent of the population is officially banned from enjoying your...

“V” for Vilification: Liberal Paradise, Obama Nightmare by Rick Moran Want to piss off the left? Everybody watch every single episode of the new ABC mini-series “V.” Drive the ratings through the roof. Make the show the hottest cultural happening since Seinfeld. Copy the hairstyles. Ape the fashion. Start bidding up the action dolls on Ebay. And most especially, actually...

I didn’t vote on Tuesday in Phoenix, Arizona, my residence for almost the past 4 years though I voted in the National Elections last year. I was pleased to see that the local school funding and bond issues all passed with comfortable margins across the metro area. Had I voted, my other choice would have been for a city council position wherein I did not know either candidate. ARIZONA Heavily Democratic...

Some teens got in cited for “disorderly conduct” for “rapping” their order at a McDonald’s. Details: So you can get in trouble rapping your order at McDonalds (because the person to whom you’re rapping may feel their life is at risk — but if it’s rap, isn’t it that their EARS are at risk?)..and you can order a wrap at Subway. It sounds like the teens got...

Two of the 53 American Embassy workers being held hostage with the approval of the Iranian regime, after the facility was stormed on November 4, 1979. Thirty years ago today, the American Embassy in Tehran was stormed by followers of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is a day that the current regime commemorates every year as a celebration of victory over what the leaders of the country like to call...

Yesterday, I received a note (on my Facebook page) from Vanessa Grigoriadis, author of the Nancy Pelosi profile in New York Magazine that I critiqued here. The note says:

Eric Roux, a ‘legal representative’ of the Church of Scientology in France, seems relieved after the Criminal Court of Paris returned a verdict of fraud against the church – without imposing dissolution. Days ago, a long-awaited verdict was handed down in the French criminal trial of the Church of Scientology. In the opinion of German columnist Dietrich Alexander of the newspaper Die Welt,...

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Tuesday’s elections were a rebuke to the right wing and a warning to Democrats. They were also a timely reminder that President Obama needs to tune up his celebrated political organization and find a way to make Americans feel hopeful again. The night’s biggest loser was the national conservative political machine — the wealthy tax-cutters at the Club...

At the very same time Maine voted to repeal same sex marriage, they approved a bill that expands the state’s existing medical marijuana law. With that Maine becomes the third State to License Medical Marijuana Providers: “This is a dramatic step forward, the first time that any state’s voters have authorized the state government to license medical marijuana dispensaries,” said Rob Kampia, executive...

A note of caution, I am not an expert on Maine politics and the way the results are being tallied make it a bit harder for me to analyze things. However with 76% of the vote counted  the Yes vote is leading by a 52-48 margin which means that once again loving couples are denied basic human rights.

So much for Beijing’s past pronouncements about the exclusively peaceful use of outer space. Days ago, the commander of China’s Air Force, Commander General Xu Qiliang, made a number of comments that have created a genuine tumult amongst defense analysts and China watchers. According to Malaysia’s Straits Times, with some additional quotes from the People’s Daily, General Xu said in...