This morning I walked past a man about my age, sixty, who was wearing camouflage and a fatigue-style cap. He had two Bowie knives on his belt and was walking a ferocious-looking […]
Guns, knives, pit bulls and the new Gallup poll
The devil is in the details: WHICH Christianity are we making the official state religion, exactly?
Legislators in North Carolina recently introduced a bill to make Christianity the official state religion. That bill has now been turfed, but we can probably expect similar moves in the future. An […]
Trashing libraries just a bit more
Critic Boyd Tonkin had a piece in last week’s Independent recounting the sad fate of his local library, Friern Barnet Library, in the hands of the enlightened council of the London Borough […]
Dear "small government" conservatives: that Thoreau quote doesn't mean what you think it means
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, they say. How true, how true, especially when it comes to reducing the wisdom of brilliant, complex minds to their pithiest quotes. In a recent […]
Nota Bene #124: I'm a Doctor, Not an Engineer
“I don’t believe in this fairy tale of staying together for ever. Ten years with somebody is enough.” Who said it?
Stuart O'Steen is not a crook
But he is Richard Nixon. Stuart, longtime friend to S&R, is a veteran stage actor who portrays the former president in the Longmont (Colorado) Theatre Company‘s ambitious take on Frost/Nixon. I had […]
The political participation death spiral (by Paul Szep)
Nota Bene #121: Birds of an Ancient Feather
“Television is an invention whereby you can be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your house.” Who said it? The answer is at the end of this […]
NASA, American exceptionalism, and me: older, and less viable
Fourth in a series As a child turning teen in the late 1950s, the black-and-white RCA in the living room received only three channels … well, four, but we didn’t watch PBS. […]
The Fourth four years later: Nothing’s changed
As I predicted four years ago on the Fourth of July, little has changed. This year’s fireworks and barbecues offer only a brief respite from the problems of the nation, how they […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 