[ Posted Wednesday, January 5th, 2022 – 16:56 UTC ]
Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a speech today to his fellow employees at the Department of Justice. The occasion was to mark tomorrow's anniversary of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and on American democracy. In essence, it was a progress report from the attorney general, and a defense of his own department's actions since. The speech broke no real news, but then it wasn't really designed to. Whether it will change any minds is doubtful, although it might at least give Garland the benefit of the doubt for another few months.
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[ Posted Tuesday, January 4th, 2022 – 16:59 UTC ]
Hopefully, as we approach the one-year anniversary of both the most serious attack on our democracy since the Civil War and the most serious attack on the U.S. Capitol since 1814, we may be about to enter a new phase of uncovering exactly what went wrong and holding those responsible to account. I say "may," because at this point nothing is guaranteed.
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[ Posted Monday, January 3rd, 2022 – 17:32 UTC ]
Yes, it is that time again, folks! The time when we check in with the learnèd word mavens of Lake Superior State University in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan to see what they've put on their annual Banished Words List. So if you're ready to Gitche Gumee on (so to speak), let's all take a look at the overused phrases to be "banished" from the vernacular, shall we?
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[ Posted Tuesday, December 28th, 2021 – 18:03 UTC ]
'Tis the season.
What season? Well, that depends upon your belief system, doesn't it?
For Christians, it is the season of Advent, the season of Noël; in short, the season of Christmas. For Jews, the season of Hanukkah. For Muslims, the season of Eid.
For others, joining in the mirth has now come to mean celebrating the season of Festivus, a made-up holiday from a made-up television show. And even the Flying Spaghetti Monster adherents are getting in on the fun this year.
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[ Posted Thursday, December 23rd, 2021 – 19:12 UTC ]
Welcome back to the second part of our year-end awards column! If you missed it, please feel free to check out [Part 1], too.
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[ Posted Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021 – 16:08 UTC ]
I know it runs counter to the prevailing storyline out there, and the evidence is in no way complete yet, but I think it's time to get just a wee bit more optimistic about the overall effects of the Omicron mutation of the COVID-19 virus. Because it (or perhaps the next Greek-lettered variant to follow it) could wind up being our way out of this whole pandemic mess.
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[ Posted Monday, December 20th, 2021 – 17:44 UTC ]
[With apologies to Theodor Geisel
Since he could do this so very well.
I will not try to follow him to the letter
Since he could do it ever-so-much better...]
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[ Posted Friday, December 17th, 2021 – 17:36 UTC ]
Welcome to the first installment of our year-end awards!
We do have to warn readers, right up front, that this is an insanely long article. If you're one of those "tl;dr" types of people, we would strongly advise you to go find a short listicle somewhere else, to read instead. Because this will be a marathon, not a sprint (as always).
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[ Posted Wednesday, December 15th, 2021 – 15:48 UTC ]
While reviewing the past year's news in preparation for my year-end columns, I came across something interesting, but didn't mark it down for any special mention. It just seemed one more bit of flotsam in the tsunami of idiocy emanating from the Republican Party over the course of a year. But then today the New York Times provided an update on the situation, so I was left thinking: "that was then, this is now," and I decided to juxtapose the two. Call it a textbook example of Republican hypocrisy.
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[ Posted Tuesday, December 14th, 2021 – 15:43 UTC ]
California Governor Gavin Newsom has decided that the way to fight fire is with some fire of his own. This can be a valuable political tactic at times, to show the opposition party that their own schemes can be used by the other side in unforeseen ways. But doing so always runs the risk of sparking a conflagration that burns everything down. And this could be one of those times.
It's understandable what Newsom is trying to do and the message he is trying to send. It's an important message, and its intended targets are the six conservative justices on the United States Supreme Court. Plainly stated, this message is: "Be very careful what legal tactics you decide are constitutional, because they will be used in ways you do not like or approve of."
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