Lee Leslie

Posts by Lee Leslie:
Life
Wisdom from the dirt
Ed and Harriet have a zip line that begins at the top of a six-foot ladder tied to a 300+ year old live oak at one end of their backyard. It dead ends 100 feet later into a blanket padded tree at the other end.
High speed zipping through the yard while screaming at the top of one's lungs is great fun, but not a team sport. Only one thrill ride can occur at a time. Fighting for who goes next gets old faster than they do. Watching is totally tame. Ed, who just turned nine and sister, Harriet, who turns ...
Politics, Shared, Views, Voices
Reason for optimism
A few months ago a certain head of a certain private SC university and Dew reader called me a “fatalist.” I’m not. I’m an American. Americans are always optimists. I’m just happen to be near the top of my personal bell curve of cynicism. It seemed at the time, for good cause, but not now.
A new study just out for 2009 says that despite the record unemployment, layoffs, furloughs, downsizing, off-shoring, Wall Street crash, real estate crash, and worst depression since Prozac was allowed to advertise on TV, it seems that millionaires in the US grew by 16% to 7.8 ...
Voices
Did you see The Warning?
For anyone who would like to know how the economic meltdown could happen and when it will happen it again, you just have to see this show: PBS Frontline: The Warning. As you'd expect, it stars a bunch of rich powerful middle-aged white men in courageous battle to protect Ayn Rand's dream of unfettered capitalism against one woman, Brooksley Born, who dared to raise her hand and suggest that the super secret, totally unregulated, multi-trillion dollar derivatives markets needed adult supervision. It is riveting. Find out how we hunted down those responsible and made sure they can't do it to ...
Voices
Get Me Off The Road, Please
Driving on the interstates is inherently irrational. To think that the drivers of all those other cars would voluntarily and routinely entrust theirs and their family’s lives to me is nuts. Based solely on a ten minute driving test in high school, with no knowledge of my driving skills, my car maintenance or my attention span, and regardless of whether I’m returning a call, Twittering, checking email, drinking coffee or booze, locating an iPod playlist, picking my nose, watching a DVD, lost or lost in thought, they have enough faith in me to share the highway at speeds guaranteed to ...
Life, Politics, Views, Voices
Jubilee for the middle class
The American middle class is dying off in huge numbers. It has been going on for more than a decade, but we are facing a catastrophe of biblical proportions. I have a plan to stop it and to save those left.
Hyperbole? You decide.
When someone speaks for the middle class, most often they continue to use a post-World War II snapshot. Average salary. Average house. Average everything. Most Americans believe they are a member. Because of the enormous changes in concentration of wealth, they are wrong. More Americans than they realize are actually poor by prime time standards. More are joining ...
Politics
It’s the stupid jobs bill, stupid
Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. Washington's focused on them like a laser. Yesterday, Harry Reid (soon to be former Democrat Senator from Nevada and current Majority Leader), announced the revised Senate bill designed for bi-partisan appeal and to help create the nine plus million jobs needed to offset just those that have been lost since the worst depression since the great one began.
The cost of the total package, according to estimates released by Reid, would be about $15 billion over 10 years. This is what he said was actually in the bill (I'm not making this stuff up):
A payroll tax holiday that ...
Food & Drink, Talk
A survival recipe for Valentine’s Day
Mostly for the guys... Like the other major holidays, pretending is critical to the success of Valentine’s. On Christmas, we must believe in Santa and that they’ve been good. On Easter, that the Bunny delivers eggs. On her birthday, that she looks younger. And like anniversaries, on Valentine's, we must pretend that we are capable of deep romantic thoughts. This is very important, because on Valentine’s, it is the thought that counts. This year, it will be harder than normal because Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday. No room for empty gestures here. It will last all day. So here ...
Dewings, Thoughts
Your Southern Thoughts
Scroll to the bottom of our home page, and in between our shared videos and recent comments, is something new on the Dew: Your Southern Thoughts.
We finally have a place for you to post and discuss what you’re thinking. Ideas. Sayings. Mini-blogs. Tweet-like posts. Similar to Facebook wall posts sans the banal activity. Comments on the site. Things you've heard. Something you saw. The odd thought. The even thought. What got your goat. What gave you glee. Whatever, post your comment here, but keep pretty clean, please.
You don’t have to be registered to post, just a name (please don’t abuse ...









