Today Cleveland celebrates the return of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. We feel a collective sense of gratitude and amazement at their survival and reappearance. I listened to versions of their story covered locally, nationally, and internationally and that feeling seems nearly universal. But they were gone for a decade. Gina disappeared when […]
Author Archives | Cat White
Showdown looming between the NRA and 3-D printed guns
There’s about to be a really interesting showdown: the NRA versus 3-D printed guns. The NRA had its national convention during the first weekend in May in Houston. NRA Vice-President Wayne LaPierre proclaimed, “We will never back away from our resolve to defend our rights and the rights of all law-abiding American gun owners.” Well, […]
A quick history lesson: Falklands or Malvinas, it’s complicated
Thirty years after the Falklands War, the islands where the sheep to people ratio is 200:1 are back in the news. First, 99% of the voters in the March 12 referendum voted to remain a British territory. Second, many of Margaret Thatcher’s papers relating to the war were released on March 22. It seems that […]
Mississippi is fat and wants to stay that way
Mississippi Republican State Senator Tony Smith, who, as a restaurant owner as well as a state senator, conceivably profits from the poor nutritional choices of his constituents, has proposed a piece of state legislation being dubbed the “anti-Bloomberg bill.” The act’s official title is “An act to reserve to the legislature any regulation of consumer […]
The short, useful life of Downton Abbey’s Matthew Crawley
[Spoiler alert] Poor Matthew Crawley. He survives World War I, early 2oth Century medicine, and plows into a milk truck just after becoming a father. How very British. How very Lawrence of Arabia. Americans were (are) furious. I realize that I should not admit my love of Downton Abbey. But it is the only show […]
Do we need winter storm names?
For those of you who have not noticed, the Weather Channel has decided to start a new trend: named Winter Storms. I had not realized this effort was being made until a colleague referred to the current storm heading towards the Great Lakes as “Draco.” “Draco” as in “Draco Malfoy” from Harry Potter. Actually the […]
Time to push back against gun disinformation
One of these days it will be time to start pushing back against the disinformation, propaganda, and lies of the gun lobby. I don’t know if today is the day, but I hope so. Twenty little kids and six educators are dead–isn’t that enough? Here’s the gun lobby argument in a nutshell: the solution to […]
A company’s right to lie?
Yesterday federal District Court Judge Gladys Kessler issued a ruling requiring tobacco companies to use their own revenues to inform the public that they have lied about the dangers of tobacco use: “Defendants have known many of these facts for at least 50 years or more. Despite that knowledge, they have consistently, repeatedly and with […]
Give that moderator a striped shirt
Before the next Presidential/Vice-Presidential debate, I’d like to make a modest proposal: turn the moderator into a referee and bring in the rule-enforcing accoutrements of sports. Tonight’s debate was a textbook example of candidates running over the moderator, the parameters, and sometimes each other. Poor Jim Lehrer–he looked embarrassed, especially when Obama congratulated him on […]
Was there a Mrs. Jesus?
In case you don’t regularly visit the “Entertainment” section on the main Google News page, you may have missed the article published yesterday afternoon with variations on the headline, “A Faded Piece of Papyrus Refers to Jesus’ Wife.” Harvard historian, Karen L. King, presented her findings yesterday at a conference in Rome. Dr. King has […]
Todd Akin lacks a legitimate brain
In case you missed the headlines before the inevitable retraction, Todd Akin, a 6-term Republican Congressman who is hoping to defeat Senator Claire McCaskill, demonstrated his extreme anti-abortion stance and, simultaneously, his deep understanding of medicine and female biology with his comments on rape and pregnancy: “It seems to me first of all from what […]
Battleground Parma: latest skirmish in the War of 2012
As Dr. Denny so eloquently put it yesterday, “Political warfare by any name is still war.” That point was brought home to me this morning on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal were sent by the Romney campaign to steal Obama’s thunder in Parma, Ohio in yet another […]
RIP Andy Griffith: he was more than Mayberry
The Andy Griffith that I grew up with was the kindly, somewhat bumbling sherriff of Mayberry, North Carolina. I can’t remember whether I was introduced to him first on the Andy Griffith Show or Gomer Pyle. Given my Appalachian roots and the innocuous safety of the shows, the distinction is minor. The shows were increasingly […]
Texas GOP makes a critical error
This week the Texas Republican Party “accidentally” included opposition to critical thinking in its education platform that will be in effect until 2014. Under the topic of “Educating Our Children” is this plank: We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a […]
Just what Cleveland needs: lousy terrorists
Thanks, guys. You are just what Cleveland needs: another bad headline: “FBI arrests 5 accused of plotting to blow up Ohio 82 bridge in Cuyahoga valley.” Another in a long string of too-public humiliations: the Cuyahoga River catches on fire, the mayor catches on fire, the Drive, LeBron’s Big Kiss Off. And you wanted to […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- “Where Girls Grow Strong” – and Boy Scouts follow
- Atheists in heaven? Vatican spin machine leaps into action
- I-5 bridge collapse: reflecting on our crumbling infrastructure
- UPDATED: Pope Francis says atheists can go to heaven: Sweet Jesus! The College of Cardinals done elected a hippie
- Magic Hat vs. West Sixth brewhaha: will MH win the battle that costs them the war?
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Frank Balsinger: From what I can gather (with the usual caveats abo…
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Henry Earl: Incorrect, West Sixth has offered to make changes …
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dmitry solovyev: I am russian and about because of two cruel war be…
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Lex: That's what i say when people quote the Bible, sin…
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geral sosbee (@gsosbee): Thanks for the report; pls see a few of mine which…
