Archive for 2005
Congressman John Murtha Tells Truth about Iraq, GOP Bleats, Demos Bolt
Tough and forthright Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha recently told the truth about United States involvement in Iraq and for that good service was bombarded by vitriol from Republicans and the stampeding feet of retreating fellow Democrats. Evidently, most leading Democrats in congress either agree with the current fight-fight-damn-the-consequences policy of President George W. Bush or…
Read MoreIn a House as Hurricane Katrina Blew
Louise loved the beaches and historic mansions, and nearby rivers and bayous, and living just down the road from her daughter and son-in-law. The slower Southern pace also soothed her, and after a few months in Gulfport, Mississippi she’d resolved to stay forever. Why would she leave? Local veterans said no reason to. Sure, in…
Read MoreWilliam Bennett on Ultimate Morality
“It is most ironic and unfair that I, a supremely righteous man and the epitome of moral rectitude for a generation of divine white conservatives, am currently being pilloried for making an immoral statement. My statement was in fact taken out of context. And that is the only immorality in this tale. What I said…
Read MoreHurricane Katrina Pushes Woman East then West
At age nine Linda began babysitting and cleaning homes, quit high school at sixteen, had her first child two years later, married a man who bombarded himself with drugs, divorced him, and began moving the other way. For eight years she managed residential properties of a private investor, and eventually lived in one of his…
Read MoreThe Toby Keith Nation
Do you like tattoos? You’ll see plenty before a Toby Keith concert, especially if it’s outdoors in August in the Inland Empire, an exploding conglomeration of hot and sandy city-towns inhabited by those who can’t afford or don’t want to live near Los Angeles an hour to the west. Out east in the desert, this…
Read MoreNew Orleans Cries for New Priorities
As thousands of human and animal corpses decompose in waters contaminated with the detritus of a recently great city now synonymous with devastation, there is – as in every catastrophe – an implicit and utterly overwhelming demand to learn something, to avoid or at least diminish the horror of a similar experience. So what are…
Read MorePoverty and Kidnapping in a Luxury Theater
You’re weary of suburban cineplexes and their silly car-crash-and-explosion movies with banal characters you watch while eating eternal candy, popcorn, and hot dogs. You want a different movie experience. Where do you go? Get online and read about the ArcLight Theater. Its location is certainly enticing – Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, still the epicenter…
Read MoreJackie Robinson is Alive in Pasadena
Be careful. Don’t get online and type in words that could summon photos of a gray and disintegrating Jackie Robinson days before his death at age fifty-three in 1972. Even if you’ve just seen “National Pastime,” the acclaimed play about his life, resist the urge to research. Instead, buy a large, home-baked cookie as you…
Read MoreImmigration Reform – Debate II – George Thomas Clark v. D.A. King
In April my online debate about immigration with D.A. King, founder of The American Resistance, attracted many readers, a stack of letters, and interest from other online publications. Now Mr. King and I are going to discuss the border security and immigration reform legislation proposed by, among others, Senator John McCain and Senator Edward Kennedy. I support this legislation. …
Read MoreLetter to President Bush: Try to Stabilize Iraq, then Leave
Dear President Bush, Let’s relax a few minutes and acknowledge that you are the most powerful man in the world, and the United States is fighting another war in Iraq, and the war is already more than two years old and the insurgency more deadly than ever and that your strategic reasoning for putting troops…
Read MoreLiberals and Conservatives Calling each other Nazis
A few days ago I opened my email inbox and was surprised to see a message, from a member of a conservative online publication, stating they’d used my column “Sixty Years after Hitler” but had forgotten to tell me – much less ask permission to use it. The member further noted that many people had…
Read MoreOpponents of Immigration Hurl Letters and Insults
Who are the angriest people in the United States? Are they the supporters or opponents of war in Iraq, neocons or neoliberals, the devout or the secular, disrespected homemakers or overworked career mothers? No is the answer to each of the aforementioned inquiries. The most outraged people in the land are those actively opposing illegal…
Read MoreSixty Years after Hitler
Sixty years ago tomorrow gasoline fumes jolted Adolf Hitler and his new bride Eva as they exited their suite to walk a solemn line. Staff members shook hands with the mentally and physically shattered Fuehrer who was unable to speak. Eva took each man’s hand and hugged the women, urging one to try to get…
Read MoreFantasizing on Highway 99
Pretty soon you’ve got to drive from Bakersfield to Sacramento. You are, of course, thankful you don’t have to start further south in Los Angeles and thus crawl up and down scorched and barren mountains that separate the city of glamour and poverty from the rest of the state. Your journey, instead, will take you…
Read MoreGeorge Thomas Clark Debates D.A. King about Immigration
This is my recent online exchange with D.A. King, founder of The American Resistance Foundation, a national coalition of citizens actively opposed to illegal immigration. Mr. King spends lots of his own money as he travels and speaks and takes part in rallies and debates all comers. George Thomas Clark – Don’t you think the Bush administration,…
Read MoreWhy Israel Should Help Build an Independent Palestine
Last week in Texas, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made simple statements that are simply incomprehensible: Israel will be withdrawing from Gaza this summer; but his nation must build new housing in the West Bank to establish an “unbroken presence” from Jerusalem to a community called Maale Adumim. Unfortunately, by so doing, Israel would be continuing…
Read MoreAnimals in Captivity – Two Chimpanzees Attack
I’ve been to zoos many times and always enjoyed them but my memories are most influenced not by casual visions of great creatures from the wild but by two more somber observations. The first was about thirty years ago at the Sacramento Zoo where I watched a big cat – not like a lion or…
Read MorePoliticians Condemn Your Debt, Deepen Theirs
I wasn’t looking for anything controversial, just a few quick early-morning facts before I began work. I suppose I should have been reading an almanac instead of a newspaper, for on one page an article explained why many people are sinking in credit card debt and on the other side a headline announced the United…
Read MoreExplosions and Elections in the Middle East
Several days ago Iraqi insurgents in Hilla detonated a massive car bomb scattering body parts and clothes onto a street puddled with blood. About one hundred twenty people died and many more were wounded. Most of the victims – typically – were unarmed, unprepared, and lightly guarded recruits for the army and police. They were…
Read MoreHunter Thompson and Mental Health
Since Hunter Thompson put a gun in his mouth and shot himself last week, I’ve been digging deep into the Internet and reading lots of articles about him. The first wave of stories commended his hard-punching, eye-gouging, “gonzo” style of insightful political writing in such books as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Kingdom…
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