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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Reading: Opinion

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Tartan Tambourine





Love Means

Forty Miles Of Bad Road

by | 2 | 17 hours ago
Forty Miles Of Bad Road

Julie wouldn’t look me in the eye. She tore off bits of paper napkin and rolled them into little balls. Every few seconds she’d glance at her girlfriend pleading for help. She was trying to explain what happened to her marriage. And then she broke down. Tears welled up in her eyes and she put her head on my shoulder. Her girlfriend reached out and stroked her blonde hair.

Julie’s 41 with two teenagers and she’s alone and scared, not to mention devastated. A neighbor ended up with her husband. The road to love and happiness: what a brutal road.

"Anti-" Sentiments

Bill Downs on the Recent Elections in Europe

by | 1 | May 15, 2012
Bill Downs on the Recent Elections in Europe

The recent elections on the other side of the Atlantic continue to cause concern around the planet and news coverage in the United States is both short on explanation and perspective. That is why I asked Dr. Bill Downs to help sense of it all. Downs serves as Associate Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Georgia State University and is the author of numerous books and articles on contemporary politics in Europe. His most recent book, Political Extremism in Democracies: Combating Intolerance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) examines xenophobia and anti-immigrant parties across the continent.

They Don't Believe in Science

The Wrong Horse

by | 2 | May 15, 2012
The Wrong Horse
The apparently irresistible campaign contributions and lobbying that seduced national and state legislators into signing onto privatization and deregulation schemes over the past decades brought us the current economic mess. The push for nuclear power is ... Read on →

People Are Corporations

How Willard Creates Jobs

by | 4 | May 14, 2012
Lynn Tilton, Chief Executive Officer, Patriarch Partners
By prompting people like Lynn Tilton to decide that "enough is enough." Well, to be honest, as a neighbor tells it, Lynn Tilton is responsible for the rescue of the paper mill in Gorham, NH because her ... Read on →

Billion Dollar Questions

A Draperesque Vision of America

by | 10 | May 14, 2012
A Draperesque Vision of America
Can an anti-woman, anti-black, anti-senior, anti-sick, anti-worker, anti-unemployed, anti-poor, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-education, anti-union, anti-peace, anti-environment, anti-science, anti-Wall-Street-reform, anti-Geneva-Convention, anti-world presidential candidate win?* That seems unfair. Let me re-phrase it. Can a candidate wishing to robo-sign teapublican ... Read on →

Vending Machine Legislation

Republican Corruption, Taxes, and Our Children

by | 0 | May 11, 2012
Republican Corruption, Taxes, and Our Children
I am a Democrat, and I am proud of it. However, the S.C. Press Association distributes this column, and neither they nor I want it to be a weekly partisan rant — there’s far too much of ... Read on →

Courthouses of Georgia

The Seat Of Power

by | 1 | May 11, 2012
Lincoln County Courthouse (Photo: Keith Hair)
I can't speak for crooks, drifters, and others standing before a judge, but law-abiding Georgians love their courthouses and well they should. Georgia has one of America’s great collections of courthouses. The buildings range from Greek ... Read on →

Guilty or Innocent?

Does CSI undermine common sense in the jury box?

by | 1 | May 8, 2012
Does CSI undermine common sense in the jury box?
Science says no, but court officers not reassured. If real-life technology solved crimes as easily as the methods seen on "CSI" and similar TV shows, there’d be a lot more convictions for criminal offenses in the U.S. "CSI," ... Read on →
  • DewTubes

    Watch videos at Vodpod and more of my videos

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Funny

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Hospitality

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Life

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    News

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    People & Places

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Politics

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Sights & Sounds

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Views

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.

    Dewings

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    • Photo: Promotional photo for "CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION" episode "Death & the Maiden" by Sonja Flemming/CBS.
  • Art in the South

    Crystal Bridges Museum’s art and design are magnificent

    by | 0 | May 7, 2012
    Lots of people have visited Bentonville, Ark., home of Walmart, for commercial reasons. Now there's another major reason to visit: to go to a new museum with a superb collection of American art. ... Read on →

    The Good, Bad, & Ugly

    Southern Road Names

    by | 4 | May 6, 2012
    How often we drive along giving no thought to the road we travel. And more often than that we give no thought to how the road got its name. In my case, I’m ... Read on →

    The Common Good

    How Liberals Think

    by | 19 | May 5, 2012
    I recently served on a panel at the 64th Annual Conference on World Affairs that was titled “How Liberals Think,” a question I’ve pondered as long as I can remember. Beyond the classic dictionary ... Read on →

    Take & Take

    The Conservative Dilemma

    by | 2 | May 5, 2012
    Government by the people is the ultimate DIY enterprise. Mainly, we benefit each other by taking turns. Conservatives are people who, for whatever reason, do not know where their interests lie. And, having ... Read on →

    Keepin' Us Safe For Ads

    Self-appointed saviors

    by | 1 | May 4, 2012
    Remember Ronny Zamora, the Miami teenager who shot and killed an elderly neighbor in 1977 and then ignited a national debate about television’s influence on behavior when he and his lawyer argued that ... Read on →

    Literally

    Huey P. Long is Re-Assassinated!

    by | 4 | May 1, 2012
    Huey P. Long is surely the most assassinated figure in American political history. Although he was murdered only once – bullet holes still visible ... Read on →

    Or What?

    Do South Carolinians Hate Government?

    by | 8 | May 1, 2012
    Do South Carolinians hate government? Is there something within our political DNA here in the Palmetto State that causes us to hate government – ... Read on →

    Hardly Neutral

    The Nurturing of Fundamentalist Ideology

    by | 11 | Apr 30, 2012
    The term "fundamentalist ideology" probably evokes the idea of Islamic fanaticism to many, Christian or Jewish extremists to others, but rarely are the promoters ... Read on →

    Simpler Good Times

    A1A, The Road To Burma-Shave

    by | 4 | Apr 30, 2012
    Long ago we took great vacations. Simple trips beyond imitation. This might be a column to save especially if you remember A1A and Burma-Shave. — Despite ... Read on →

    Celebrating Goodbye

    Le Pot de Départ

    by | 0 | Apr 30, 2012
    With my teaching assistant contract drawing to its close, and my life in Vannes, France also nearing its conclusion, there remained one final French ... Read on →

    Rights & Not Rights

    Irony and Interposition, With A Bourbon Chaser If You Please!

    by | 1 | Apr 27, 2012
    Since the South’s interactions with the rest of the country are simply replete with examples of “incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the ... Read on →

    Know Before You Owe

    Obamas at Ft. Stewart, Georgia

    by | 3 | Apr 27, 2012
    A two-fer, if ever there was one. According to the White House Press office, both the First Lady and the President spoke. However, despite Republican carping about the ... Read on →

    Southern Inferno

    Lost Wax

    by | 2 | Apr 26, 2012
    4th Century BC Greek Cup Depicts Lost Wax Foundry I tagged along with painter and sculptor Richard Cecil, friend and former Pine Lake neighbor, when he picked up the ... Read on →

    Prosecute the Malefactors

    Running Out of Time

    by | 28 | Apr 25, 2012
    I have come both reluctantly and late to the belief that President Obama will lose re-election unless he moves, and moves quickly, to prosecute the main Wall Street ... Read on →

    Evil Reporter Chick

    Tallahassee

    by | 1 | Apr 25, 2012
    The place where you spend your formative years can draw you back with the pull of a magnet to metal. Or it can repel, the desire to divorce ... Read on →