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I don’t wanna get married. Never have, never will. OK, I know. Never say never. How ’bout this: I seriously doubt I’ll ever want to get married. That work? Good.

I tell you this because I’m about to talk about marriage, specifically same-sex marriage or (in the fine tradition of making sure you don’t say what makes sense and therefore must go ahead and say what you don’t want to say anyway) marriage equality. I’m about to ramble on about “marriage equality,” and I’d prefer you don’t think my position in favor is simply a case of wanting something for myself.

A crisis or two from disaster … That’s how most folks live. Modern conveniences have spoiled the self-reliance right out of us. Thanks to stores like Kroger and Publix you can get most anything you need. Ease, however, extracts a price.

We’re nowhere as self-sufficient as our grandparents were. They lived in an era when folks made do. Not us, we drive to the big box grocery stores and plop down a credit card or sign a check. That’s how we keep life moving forward. It’s a tenuous way to live.

You want someone like William Pinckney on your side. The Beaufort County South Carolina native, who would have turned 98 tomorrow, is such a hero that the U.S. Navy named a destroyer after him, the USS Pinckney.

On Oct. 26, 1942, during the Battle of Santa Cruz, Pinckney was a Navy cook on the USS Enterprise when two Japanese bombs hit the ship. Pinckney, born in 1915 in the Dale community, was knocked unconscious when a five-inch shell exploded in the magazine he was manning.

What are we to believe about the size of government and the level of government spending? Republicans say that the U.S. government has become way too big and that Americans are grossly overtaxed. Is that true? In the United States, the rate of taxation is lower, and the size of government in relation to the size of the economy is smaller, than in just about every other nation like ours—rich, free, capitalistic, democratic societies.

O, come all ye faithful. The latest must-see Florida attraction to compete for your tourist dollars is The Holy Land Experience. It is comfortably situated in the Greater Orlando-Kissimmee theme park district chock-a-block with hotels and “family dining” style restaurants. Owned by mega-giant Christian broadcasting network TBN (the T is for Trinity), this biblical theme park features a recreation…

When the dogs rustle and I awake in the wee hours of the night, I find it soothing to get up and come out into the quiet of the house. It is in these moments when I am so alone with my thoughts that I can wander through some puzzles and wonder what tricks my mind has played on me in my sleep.

In my wild ride of dreams just a few hours earlier, I was back at Mr B.’s side, preparing him for his day, listening and laughing at his stories, marveling that I had such a job. We were en route to a discussion with a group of young officers who were assembled to hear from one of the legendary ones.

A discussion on NPR’s Talk of the Nation (TOTN) opinion page this afternoon focused on the use of surveillance cameras for security in the wake of last week’s Boston Marathon bombing and aftermath.  The show’s summary read, “Investigators in the Boston Marathon bombings were able to identify the suspects using footage from surveillance cameras. Some believe that this shows the need for surveillance cameras in public spaces, while others believe that such cameras encroach on our civil liberties.”