If 5,000 Canadians froze to death trudging across the snow fields of northern Minnesota to find work, how would you respond? Would you say, (a) “They deserved it. They broke the law.” (b) “What a horror. Pass the french toast.” (c) “We need to build a wall.” That many people have died…
DetailsIt’s not “‘Jon and Kate Plus Eight Attorneys.” It’s not, “on ‘Oprah,’ Sarah Palin unveils her road map for world peace.” That an American probe just discovered water on the moon is not big news, judging by what one hears. Still, you’d think we’d be hearing a lot about it. I’m not talking about the fact…
DetailsYou know a Republican primary is approaching when, like leaves falling in the wind, candidates drop nuanced positions on reproductive rights and lie prostrate before blustery anti-choice absolutists. That’s the case in Texas, where Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison seeks to return home to redecorate the governor’s mansion. Thematically, to that end she…
DetailsIn case you missed it, Allen Stanford is to be a knight no more. The Texas quick-buck baron is going to have his knighthood stripped by Antigua and Barbuda. Quite a fall for the guy — Sir Allen to you and me. He’d be a saint if a Caribbean nation were…
DetailsEver since it became a boil on the face of news gathering, I’ve been waiting for someone, anyone, to truly and convincingly defend Fox News — Faux News to those of us who defend news gathering as a craft verging on a profession. I keep waiting and waiting. But at every opportunity the apologists…
DetailsI remember being at many enjoyable places with my grandfather, M.K. Young. But I knew his favorite place, regardless of locale: the fence line. Wherever he was, he went to the stranger next door. Whatever the circumstance, he struck up a conversation. In the campground. In a son’s neighborhood. At a roadside stop.…
DetailsThis nation still can’t decide if war is a joint responsibility we all share, or if it’s something we hire out, like catering. Eight years in Afghanistan, six in Iraq, and we still treat warfare as just one of many service industries. The Bush administration ban on photographing coffins returning…
DetailsI still prefer to be barbecued. Or broiled — however it is that my remains can be reduced to the kind of dusty nutrient that makes fields and ravines grow greener. If it can’t be the Viking way — by floating pyre — let my bones retire the cremation way. That doesn’t…
DetailsA book from my childhood about Medal of Honor winners has a chapter about him: “Too Young to Fight.” The Texas boy lied about his age at 17, his face and physique betraying him to the Marines and Paratroopers who turned him away. Enlisting in the Army at the stroke of 18,…
DetailsWhat to do with a “failing” school: Summon a demolition party with torches? Convene priests and exorcize it of pedagogical demons? Convert it to a prison, the destination to which we assume students are bound due to the building’s failure? Yes, the building’s failure. All of the above fit neatly into…
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