March 2013

[This comment was posted in response to a liberal friend’s observation that Obamacare is actually helping some people.  It’s a reasonable point, but I still felt compelled to remind my friend of the precarious moment that America is in.] I have very mixed feelings on the ACA/Obamacare. Like this presidency in general, I think the law represents a missed opportunity… Read More »GOING FOR SUCCINCT: A Facebook comment sums up my thoughts about President Obama and the 2013 American moment…

[And now, if the reader will permit a brief interruption in my latest blog series, let’s take a quick, surreal walk on the slightly weird (if not totally wild) side.  This one goes out to CJ, Carl & Frank, and sports enthusiasts everywhere (“Crikey, Frank, didja’ see that?  His hook shot missed the net, the hoop, and the entire bleepin’… Read More »Basketball & Politics Fantasy Camp — my March madness REVEALED!

UPDATE: In researching the new pontiff’s past for a recent blog, I found the following passage from a Washington Post article particularly interesting with respect to (then Father) Jorge Bergoglio’s support for the dictatorship of General Jorge Videla, during the 1970s and 1980s.  This passage deals with Bergoglio’s reluctance to participate in later judicial investigations into this dark chapter in Argentina’s history: “Bergoglio… Read More »Just one more thing about the new pope… VOX POPULI!

Part II: OPUS DEI & THE CIA, THE DEATH OF HUGO CHAVEZ Moving on from the matter of the migration of the papal miter (the migrating-miter matter), I’ll nonetheless remain on the subject of the Catholic Church, particularly its less than immaculate record in Latin America.  The Church has long been a major cultural/political force in Latin America, and over… Read More »Hitting some highlights of my recent NEWSing activities (cont.)

Part I: MEET THE NEW POPE, SAME AS THE OLD POPE… Okay, that’s not really fair, even if it is too close to the truth for comfort.  But let’s make the due distinctions between the two popes currently living in the Vatican, shall we?  The ex-pope, Benedict XVI (Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger), was the imperious, divisive, and extreme loose-cannon with the… Read More »Hitting some highlights of my recent NEWSing activities

Lately I’ve been catching up on a few missed episodes of The Daily Show, finding some worthwhile segments and interviews along the way.  I found particularly interesting last Thursday’s (2/28/13) interview with MSNBC superstar Rachel Maddow.  Having recently lumped both Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Ms. Maddow into a class I (somewhat disdainfully) dubbed “Establishment Liberals (or ELs),” I… Read More »Jon Stewart interviews Rachel Maddow — featuring bright moments, some shilling, and sins of omission

Part 1: “IT, the Creature That Dismantled My Country!” For my recent weeklong trip to Arizona, I packed just two books: one was Lawrence Lessig’s (non-fiction, political) Republic, Lost, and the other was a Theodore Sturgeon short story collection titled Not Without Sorcery — a mélange of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy.  Although I’m as impressed as ever with Lessig’s excellent… Read More »Of Metaphors and Men… or A Tale of Two Metaphors