Censorship Just Shows Ignorance
Earlier this year, the American Library Association held their annual “Banned Books Week,” a well-meaning but inherently pointless demonstration that all over the country, and all around the world, people…
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NaNoWriMo: A Set of Jumper-Cables for Your Brain
An Open Letter: To Whom It May Concern: National Novel Writing Month has claimed my sanity. Starting on November 1, 2011, I will begin the insane task of trying to…
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Creation Myth
The waves of the sea were black with the blood of the Mother, and all the creatures of the sea were covered in her blood.
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Debunking the Debunkers of Conspiracy Theories
When most Americans hear conspiracy, their knee jerk reaction is to immediately denounce whatever’s been addressed. Because our citizens have been well trained not to consider the merits – slash that – the probability – of information contrary to our lock step media’s version.
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Where Many a Man Dare Not Go
I don’t know much about baseball. I know even less about other sports. It probably has something to do with the fact that when I was growing up, there weren’t any organized sport activities for girls. Not a one. In fact, when I graduated from high school in 1974, there was “talk” of a girl’s basketball team forming sometime soon.
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Err-America
The conservatives, embraced by Fox News and talk radio, solidified their hold upon the listeners by playing to irrational fears of their base-that the media were controlled by liberals, and that government was out to get them.
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THOUGHTS FROM AN UNQUIET MIND VII
If ever a man was the author of his own mythology, Hemingway was that man. We know everything about him except what he was really like.
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Book Collecting, First Editions and You
Let’s say you are lucky enough to have a copy of the first edition of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road – which is considered the anthem of the “Beats”. One day you see an advance reader of this same book on sale at a reasonable price. After you stop turning cartwheels, of course you are going to pick it up because it raises the quality or standard of your collection.
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Greed, Corruption, and Hate Crimes in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Nearby Schuylkill County, specifically the people of Shenandoah, played a critical part in an April 2009 “Law & Order” hate crime story about the beating and murder by teens of an undocumented Hispanic worker. In Shenandoah, 25-year-old Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, an undocumented Mexican with no criminal history, was beaten by a gang of high school football players in July 2008.
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The Courage of Michael Vick
Each of the 32 NFL teams annually honors one of its own with an Ed Block award, named for the Baltimore Colts head trainer who was an advocate for improving the lives of neglected and abused children; the Foundation says it celebrates “players of inspiration in the NFL.” Unfortunately, there is no stipulation that football players who abuse animals are ineligible receivers.
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