Mitch McConnell is having quite a week. Earlier this week, Senate Majority...
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Telling History vs. Making Art: The Civil War’s great storyteller
Part six in a series. No written work embodies the tension between art and history more fully than Shelby Foote’s mammoth three-volume The Civil War: A Narrative. Few people realize Foote was a novelist before he became the “warm and folksy raconteur” of anecdotal Civil War history; his novel Shiloh sits almost forgotten in the shadow of his magnum [...]
Outrageous Conduct verdict against Thomas Wierdsma, Sr. V.P., GEO Group, Inc.
Back in September S&R pointed everyone to the story of Thomas Wierdsma. We began that piece this way: Let’s see, what have we here? Private prison corporation executives: check. Abusive husband: check. Witness tampering: check. Threats to use political clout to have abused spouse deported if she doesn’t keep her mouth shut about being slapped [...]
Tournament of Rock IV: REO Speedwagon vs. Def Leppard
In our first Sweet 16 matchup, Aerosmith laid a beatdown on Bad Company. Probably no surprise in that. Congrats to BadCo for making it this far, and we send them off with a copy of our home edition and a year’s supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat! Up next, a match we expect to [...]
The Tech Curmudgeon – iMacs “Assembled in USA? Don’t make me ROTFLMAO….
Some iMacs are now apparently “Assembled in USA.” The Tech Curmudgeon doesn’t think that phrase means what you think it means….
Tournament of Rock IV: Aerosmith vs. Bad Company
We finished up the preliminary rounds with a bang. The Eagles forged a big early lead, but tenth-seeded Meat Loaf staged a furious comeback, nipping the Country Rock icons at the wire. And now we arrive at the Sweet 16. The procedure is simple and relatively painless. You know the artists (unless you’ve just recently [...]
Saturday Video Roundup: Shit Southern women say
My little sister sent me this the other day and I’ve been having flashbacks ever since. There’s only one false note: no Southern woman in history ever said “is my hair too big?”
Is Paul Ryan a “Global Thinker?”
This explains so much. Foreign Policy magazine, that impressive and deep-looking tome that stands out on magazine stands because it looks, well, really serious, has published a list of the most important “Global Thinkers” in the world today. Since I’m not a regular reader, I don’t know if this is an annual list, like the [...]
Tournament of Rock IV: the Meat Loaf pod
The results are in: pod 15 saw Stevie Nicks going all Iron Man on Ozzy and the rest of the competitors, really inflicting a beatdown that we didn’t see coming. Where are all the Ozzy fans, dude? In any case, Stevie moves on to the Sweet 16. Now we arrive at pod 16, our final [...]
S&R Poetry: “Crepuscule,” by Adam Sirgany
In the twilight of the night, in the rain-fog at summer’s edge, when the skunk comes amble-burrowing in the compost heap for scraps of marrow to deep to suck from bone, when the rain comes on the cement porch steps, a-pat-it a-pa-tit a-pat-it, when the skunk runs rumba to its rhythm and off into the [...]
Can somebody ‘splain to me how the heck Klout works?
I have a Klout account. If you don’t know about Klout, it’s basically a new, high-tech way of stroking your ego and keeping track of how important you are. And I am all about that. Problem is, I can’t figure out how it works. Oh, I get the basic concept: the more people like and follow [...]
Afghan military killings of American troops underscores absurdity of our Afghan adventure
Nothing is sadder than dying at the hands of those you’re sworn to protect. In an article for the Los Angeles Times, David Zucchino writes about the incident at Kabul International Airport in April 2011 when an Afghan Air Force colonel killed nine Americans. The nine killings remain the single deadliest incident among insider attacks [...]
Getting ready for the next disaster
One of the many surprises resulting from the carnage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy was how ill-prepared the US northeast—well, the entire US East Coast, for that matter—was in terms of defending what passes for its infrastructure. New York City has yet to take any initiative whatsoever on any plan to deal with rising oceans from [...]
An open letter to former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney: STFU
On Sunday, the University of Colorado fired head football coach Jon Embree after two seasons. Reaction has been mixed and at times heated. Some point to the results, noting not only the 4-21 record but also suggesting that the program was actually regressing. Others argued that Embree inherited a dumpster fire from previous coach Dan [...]
Annals of Corporate Citizenship, #41,244.
Any guesses how corporate America is preparing for the impact of the resolution of the negotiations currently in the works on resolving the horribly- (and inaccurately-) named “fiscal cliff?” Well, if you guessed that there was a fire sale on giving money to shareholders before there are any changes to the current tax code, you’d [...]
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 [...]
I rafted the Nile
Last weekend, I went white water rafting on Uganda’s Nile River. Fear filled my bones for days leading up to the trip, along with most of the five-hour voyage down the mighty waterway. But, I refused to leave Africa without exploring this historically famous river. So, I did it. I rafted the Nile. White water [...]
