Guns r us
I like guns. I said it. I grew up adoring every gun slinger from the quick-draw cowboy to the chain-gunner soldier. I have fired a few guns too, from the standard Glocks at gun ranges to WW2 Mosin sniper rifles. I don’t own a gun and never intend to (unless the world somehow survives extinction […]
Politics and powerpoints
For the last two weeks, the only thing on the tube were the two political conventions. I caught a dozen or so speeches mostly by the main players. I had seen the conventions from the previous two elections too. Each time, the analysis and the buzz around the conventions increases tenfold. For every twenty minute […]
Missing from the debt ceiling deal
Of all the debates and all the name calling, not once has there been a mention of the biggest elephant in the room. A fifth of the budget each year in this country and therefore a fifth of all the debt is generated not from old or poor people but from the defense department. The […]
The tax cut scam
Common sense is often so uncommon that it can be heralded as a virtue. So can be said about the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%, it is simply a long scam being sold as a job-creating solution (and I know a long scam when I see one). One very simple thing I point […]
Please don’t kill NPR
This whole exercise in ridiculousness about cutting federal funding for NPR because of the Juan Williams incident has me seriously worried about the direction of this country. Over the years, the news junkie inside of me has taken me to a lot of nooks and crannies where I can get an update or opinion from, […]
A mosque in my old hood
Its apparently not a mosque. Its a cultural center. Regardless of what it is, this little non-issue has been blown out of proportion by the media to everyone’s detriment. This particular phenomena is now new – the castigation of many because of the actions of a few. Not to belittle the memories of the ones […]
Of Socialism
Read this today….. An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then […]
Four for Darfur
Two sundays ago, there was a rally for Darfur/Africa in my suburb. For the love of live music, excited townsfolk and the cheap thrill of being part of a rally, I participated for an entire block before realizing the pointlessness of the whole exercise. It just happened that the person walking next to me, carrying […]
Why is the news more polarized than ever?
Over the last three years, both the mainstream and online news media have become increasingly biased, siding more strongly than ever on specific issues and marching to the drumbeat of their respective parties. These differences have grown so deep and caustic that the news from each network almost sounds like its from a different planet. […]
Center-Left or Center-Right
There are two political parties in the United States – ok, there are two political parties that matter in the United States, but in reality, much like dialects within a language, there are numerous divisions within two main parties. Terms like social liberals, progressives, neoconservatives, etc are usually thrown around by the media as if […]