Category: Steve

I’m not sure why I’ve been leaning towards supporting John Edwards this primary season. Perhaps its his populism and anti-corporatism (although I’m realistic about his chances to actually do anything about it once in office). Or perhaps it’s because it’s refreshing to hear reasonable, quiet, calm, realistic talk during times of international crisis (as opposed…

A very moving, and very sad, slideshow of the «Benazir Bhutto assassination» has been posted at the New York Times. A horrible end to a horrible year. The «complete collection of photos» is available for viewing (and purchase) at Getty Images. Meanwhile, her 19-year-old son, «Bilawal» is purportedly named her successor. What a huge burden…

The only end-of-the-year list I ever pay any attention to (and agree completely with) is the list of the 50 most loathsome people produced by «Buffalo Beast», which features The Boy Emperor firmly in spot el numero uno, up from el numero tres in 2005 and 2006: ‘Is it a civil rights milestone to have…

Since I wasn’t posting during the last few months, I missed noting the saddest day of the year, which made me weep. Molly Ivins is no longer with us. The Nation collected a beautiful «salute to Molly Ivins»: ‘The country was founded by dissenters, and if as a doubter of divine authority Molly inherits the…

There were some remarkable people who left us in 2005: ‘When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.’ —Shirley Chisholm, who died 1-Jan-05 ‘“We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the…

The year that was: « Goodbye Hunter S. Thompson »: ‘‘Politics is the art of controlling your environment.’ That is one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it the hard way. Anybody who thinks that ‘it doesn’t matter who’s President’ has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die…

Stuff like « this » makes me wonder if my desire to return to my home state is really all that wise of an idea: ‘An essay contest at a New Mexico high school asks students to explain why preserving marriage between men and women is vital society and why unborn children merit respect and protection. The…

“Rabbi Yoffie! You’re my new hero!” We need more courageous heroes like « Rabbi Eric Yoffie » to speak more truth to power: ‘The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them “zealots” who claim a “monopoly on God” while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler’s….

“Jesus, save us from your followers!” I’ve been meaning to blog this for weeks, to read it into the record, so to speak. But what with grad school hell, I just haven’t had time. I’ve long thought that we need to take Jesus back from his followers. And Bill McKibben wrote up « some persuasive arguments »…

Thank you, Canada! And thank you Neil Hodgins and all our wonderful friends! Pics are up: « The Wedding » « The Reception »

I’m melancholy tonight, listening to « Harry Connick Jr.‘s » Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?, Basin Street Blues and, especially, City Beneath the Sea, his love song to New Orleans, which is one of a handful of my favorite cities on the planet. Tears my heart…

Gosh. I feel so … honored. « Jerry Falwell now approves of me getting my master’s in elementary education », as long, of course, as I don’t ‘recruit’ the little buggers … whatever that means: ‘“I don’t think homosexuals should be granted a special minority status,” he told the paper. However, he said that gays, including teachers,…

Just as on 11-Marzo, we were all Madrileños and on 11-September we were all New Yorkers, as of 7-July we are all « Londoners ». ‘Once the shock had settled, I started to feel immense pride that the LAS, the other emergency services, the hospitals, and all the other support groups and organisations were all doing such…

So. « Ayn Clouter writes movie script treatments ». Who knew? ‘What is really needed to refresh the medium is to bring in, not “politically correct” references to current society, but real down-and-dirty politics filled with Red State values. Hence this treatment for a much better remake of the original material, meant to be financed by a…

Undaunted by the « autopsy », Terri ‘Schiavo’s brain damage “was irreversible … no amount of treatment or rehabilitation would have reversed” it, said Jon R. Thogmartin, the pathologist in Florida’s sixth judicial district who performed the autopsy and announced his findings at a news conference in Largo, Fla. Still unknown is what caused Schiavo, 41, to…

On Memorial Day, I always think back to 1989, when as a newspaper reporter, I was privileged to meet a great group of heroes: Memory Of WWII Still Vivid For Vets (Part I of the Wake Island Story) ‘Considering the power accumulated for the invastion of Wake Island and the meager forces of the defenders,…

Wives Cope With Husband’s Memories (Part II of the Wake Island Story) By Steve Pollock The Duncan (OK) Banner Sunday, August 13, 1989 MARLOW – It all came back to them this weekend – fists lashing out during nightmares, the traumatic memories, the attempts to catch up on lost time. The wives of 10 Wake…