As an old print journalist, I have little regard for tee-wee “news” – it ain’t news, it ain’t journalism; it’s local… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Category: Rants
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American Carnage: 10-Nov-17
Peckerwoods! What we learned this week: • Comedian Louis CK and Crusading Crazy Ass Roy Moore were accepted into that venerable old boy’s club, that newly-open-to-didlers-from-outside-the-church institution, The Ancient and Venerable Order of Priests Expecting Complete, Knightly Exoneration; Rewarded With Oodles Of Dancing Students (a.k.a. “P.E.C.K.E.R.W.O.O.D.S.”) Golf and Country Club. Greeting them at the door...
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To the Editor, Part Deux
In which we in the future answer “Letters to the Editor” of the Chicago Tribune written during the past that was called World War Two. “Globaloney Stamps. “Chicago, June 1. — Totay I received the shock of my life when I went to mail a package to my boy in service. I needed 20 cents...
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To the Editor (2017)
In which we in the future answer “Letters to the Editor” of the Chicago Tribune written during the past that was called World War Two. “Globaloney Stamps. “Chicago, June 1. — Today I received the shock of my life when I went to mail a package to my boy in service. I needed 20 cents...
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Sex Education Based on Abstinence? There’s a Real Absence of Evidence
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To the Editor
In which we in the future answer “Letters to the Editor” of the Chicago Tribune written during the past that was called World War Two. “Globaloney Stamps. “Chicago, June 1. — Today I received the shock of my life when I went to mail a package to my boy in service. I needed 20 cents...
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Physiological Responses to Rock Climbing in Young Climbers
Sed nec blandit nibh. Pellentesque commodo suscipit gravida. Sed sit amet ex sed mi dignissim elementum in ut.
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Welcome to October
Seen while mowing. Welcome to October! Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, October 1, 2016
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Downtown Music City Sunset
Music City sunset. Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, September 14, 2016
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Crescent Moon Chasing Sun
Crescent moon (upper left) chasing sun to the horizon over a hot Hermitage. Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, July 10, 2016
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The Cumberland Rolls
The Cumberland flows on between Gallatin and Lebanon on a scorching hot afternoon. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, June 13, 2016
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Bang Bang, Crash Crash.
Not surprised. Grieved. Shell-shocked. But not surprised. Worst death toll yet in Orlando, five in a domestic in hometown Roswell, another one averted in West Hollywood where friends are marching for our right to live and love today. It’s an endless list … they’re just like car wrecks now … 32,675 dead on the roadways...
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The Dawn of Childish Just Me
William Bradley’s ‘The Dawn of ‘Just Me’: Zack Snyder’s Neoliberal Superheroes’, just published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, contains a telling paragraph, the first part of which exactly sums up someone I personally know. I suppose it’s true of Zack Snyder, the person and the director, as well. Seems bang on: ‘In the...
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Tessa Wants Chickens
Tessa dog kept a close eye on her mommy's plate during dinner. Grilled chickens! Yum! Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, May 6, 2016
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AARP … NO!
Oh AARP, no you did NOT just address me as "AARP Grandparent"!! My siblings, my cousins are the grandparents (and proud… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, May 4, 2016
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Blinded by the Lights
Nothing techno, really. Just the LED colored lights over the deck as reflected in the shiny metal miniblinds in our patio glass door. Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, May 1, 2016
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Spring Deck Goodness
Naw, the deck's not on fire. Just the new fire pit column, patio furniture, LED lights and tiki torches. Never knew owning a deck could be so fun. And festive. Y'all come over anytime. Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, May 1, 2016
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Percy Priest Lake Dam
Crossing the dam at a picture-perfect Lake Percy Priest on a beautiful spring afternoon. Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, April 26, 2016
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Goosey Choices
Exhibit A: On the left, a specially designed combo dog toy, with rope tug and BPA-free chewing knobs, locally sourced,… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, April 4, 2016
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Springing Spring
Spring is springing upon Hermitage. Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, March 8, 2016
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Blooming Jeep
The tree in the driveway is in full bloom on this nice late winter evening in Hermitage. I'll take a better pic tomorrow. Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, March 6, 2016
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Ignorant and Doomed
Among savages incapable of retaining collectively learned experience, a perpetual infancy results. I can no longer figure out these days whether I’m reading history or current events. [Note to self: If it’s on the Kindle, it’s a history book. If it’s on the web browser on my laptop, it’s currently happening.] Berlin, 4-May-27: “Goebbels spoke...
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70 Years On
[Fair warning: Not a happy or basset-y post. (Didn’t help my, shall we say, outlook on life, that our water heater failed and flooded the den and we’re down to weak cold water in the bathroom and heating water in pots on the stove like we did in 1975.) And it contains opinion at the...
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WN345 Nose Gear Collapse at KLGA
“WN737-700 N753SW, operating as Southwest 345 from Nashville (KBNA) experiences nose gear collapse on arrival at KLGA.” …
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Sorry We Destroyed Your Life After You Saved Our Country
“Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker who took his own life after being convicted of gross indecency under anti-homosexuality legislation, is to be given a posthumous pardon.” …
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At Least One American Gets It
“America currently has no functioning democracy. ” James Earl Carter, 39th President of the U.S. “Amerika hat derzeit keine funktionierende Demokratie … Ich glaube, die Invasion der Privatsphäre ist zu weit gegangen. Und ich glaube, dass die Geheimnistuerei darum exzessiv gewesen ist. [Snowden’s revelations] wahrscheinlich nützlich, da sie die Öffentlichkeit informieren … nie zuvor dagewesene...
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I Believe …
“Individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity.” Edward Snowden “I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945 … Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace...
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Woo-Hoo! Occupy the Corporations! (2013)
Susan Ohanian’s piece in « Daily Censored » needs wider distribution. Here are two highlights: “In response to a poverty rate that tops 90% in many urban and rural schools –and 1.6 million homeless children—many in schools with no libraries–education reformers at the White House, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Governors...
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Woo-Hoo! Occupy the Corporations!
Susan Ohanian’s piece in « Daily Censored » needs wider distribution. Here are two highlights: “In response to a poverty rate that tops 90% in many urban and rural schools –and 1.6 million homeless children—many in schools with no libraries–education reformers at the White House, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Governors...
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Just Like Nixon
The person I personally refer to as Joey the Rat, Pope Ben-a-Nazi XVI, announced his resignation today. A review of his greatest hits is « here ». Interesting (on many levels) that his resignation letter is addressed, not once, but twice to “Dear Brothers,” with nary a mention to, oh I don’t know, all those...
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And?
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.” —Barack Obama [Meanwhile, his “gay brothers and sisters” tap their feet, waiting impatiently. Well,...
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Finally
I was the first registered Republican in my family. I cast my first vote in a presidential election for Ronald Reagan, the second for George H.W. Bush. I listened to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, thought I was a Dittohead, and was one of the few who watched and liked his television show. I actually cried...
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It is Difficult …
“How long? Not long. Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1965 … to keep up a blog like this one, which has, at various times in the past, been chock-a-block with details and observations from our lives. Living two years back in...
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The Final Passing of American Journalism
“And that’s the way it is …” Walter Cronkite It feels as if the last bit of actual journalism in America is now dead. In «What We Lose With Cronkite’s Death», Bruce Maiman sums it up pretty well: “… it’s a reminder, too, that the broadcasting style and journalistic credibility that Cronkite represents also seems...
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The Right Way
“The whole world is watching what we do here. We’re going to win or lose this war depending on how we do this.” Ali Soufan The story of the United States of America joining the long and black list of nations who abuse and torture prisoners and then invent all sorts of justifications for it...
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Two Right-Wing Terrorist Murders in Two Weeks
And now two right-wing terrorists have committed two political murders in two weeks. First Dr. Tiller in Wichita, a murder which was, from the point of view of the terrorists, successful in its aims. Now, an obscene attack on the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum begs the question, are we in for a Summer...
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Marriage Equality Arrives in Connecticut
The governor of Connecticut signed «marriage equality into law today». Equal protection under the law as provided in the U.S. Constitution was thereby affirmed by all three branches of the government. ‘Four years ago this week, Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed a bill allowing civil unions. Today, with the stroke of a pen, she abolished...
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The Bigots' Last Hurrah
It’s a great title for a great «column». Frank Rich of the New York Times sums up very thoroughly and very presciently the status of one of America’s favorite Culture War battlegrounds/sports grounds in which people like us are kicked around like political footballs (cartoon at left is from 2004, Steve Kelley of the New...
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Germans Join UN Racism Conference Boycott
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that Germany will join the U.S., Israel and other countries in a «boycott» of the upcoming United Nations World Conference Against Racism after “a draft declaration circulated earlier this year made Israel responsible for the entire Middle East conflict, while human rights violations in Muslim countries were largely ignored.”...
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Rarin' to Go
Gavin Newsom, the man who presided over our first civil union ceremony when he was still a San Francisco supervisor, wants to get a jump on gay marriages «the evening of 16 June», instead of waiting for the next morning: ‘San Francisco officials have asked the state for permission to begin marrying same-sex couples a...
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Reg Dwight Gets Hitched
High-profile celebrity civil commitment ceremony: check. Quaint British setting (the same location as Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles’ ceremony in April): check. Crowds of paparazzi: check. Almost as many everyday well-wishers: check. Only, the couple is Elton John and David Furnish, and for some reason, in the UK (and in Canada, and in a number...
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Mike Cox: Republican Hypocrite
Before I forget, I didn’t fail to notice that the « Fascist Michigan attorney general who is trying to strip faithful Michigan couples of all their health insurance is himself an adulterer »: ‘Attorney General Mike Cox announced Wednesday he had an extramarital affair and accused the state’s most famous attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, of threatening to expose...
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Just Married
Thank you, Canada! And thank you Neil Hodgins and all our wonderful friends! Pics are up: « The Wedding » « The Reception »
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Now Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Benefits!
Dear Fascist Michigan Voters-For-Prop-2: « Screw. You. »: ‘A Michigan judge ruled on Tuesday that a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage does not prevent the state from offering health insurance benefits to the same-sex partners of state workers. Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk said health care benefits are benefits of employment, not marriage. Twenty-two same-sex couples...