131 Articles

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Say No to a New Nuclear Bomb Plant
(3 comments) If you love our world, drop everything for ten minutes and visit http://www.Y12SWEIS.com. Leave a comment there telling the US government to get behind a vision embraced by unlikely bedfellows who have envisioned a nuclear-weapons-free future. Specifically, ask our politicos and bureaucrats to drop plans to build a ruinous new weapons complex in Oak Ridge, TN.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
On Obama's role in New Millennium Writings
(1 comments) Perhaps childishly, some of us looked to the new millennium as a time when humans would emerge from our planetary nursery and set aside childish things such as war, economic hooliganism and environmental abuse. Our species would graduate to embrace the shining chalice of our Whole Earth and drink deep her royal blue promise. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

Friday, October 9, 2009
Obama wins Nobel Prize... but can he live up to it?
(4 comments) President Obama's selection for the Nobel Prize, announced this morning, caught many by surprise, but can he live up to it?

Monday, September 21, 2009
To all the late lamented boys and girls of summer, come back, go away, come back...
(2 comments) When John Lennon died my youth curled up and fed itself to Grief. Doubtlessly millions took one or another of the many public deaths of spring and summer, 2009, in just such personal ways. In any case, the list is incomplete, status-based, broken on both ends. Still, here it is...

Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Kennedys' dark tragedies never eclipsed their lofty lunar glow
(1 comments) Even as astronauts navigated their way toward the moon a quarter-million miles distant, JFK's younger brother Edward took a short drive toward a dark drink of water with a young woman not his wife. Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. The event robbed the moon of Kennedy luster, and Edward of any real chance at the presidency.

Friday, August 21, 2009
On 'death panels,' 'socialized medicine' and other red herrings
(4 comments) Ain't it a shame our so-called liberal media is obsessed with "death panels" of fevered imaginations rather than death panels that exist in the real world, notably in our present health-care system?

Thursday, August 6, 2009
Our mountains are not for sale
(7 comments) Sen. Lamar Alexander's bill would halt the practice of blasting the tops off mountains to get the dirty coal. Miners threaten to boycott Tennessee tourist areas, such as the Great Smoky Mountains. To which I say, please do. We don't want you near our mountains.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Obama As Spock? Beam Me Up Scottie
(3 comments) Newsweek recently featured a cover story suggesting Obama must be a Vulcan. Let's hope not, at least not in director J.J. Abrams' dark film. In the Sixties, kids like me believed the Whole Earth as seen from space just might be our salvation. Star Trek was not only symbolic but catalytic of such change. Each Friday it offered new ways of understanding The Other. This movie embraces the dark side.

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Shout it from the rooftops--Al-Libi--keep his torture story alive
(4 comments) Al-Libi was living proof that torture doesn't work. Now he's dead proof. It's up to us to keep his story alive, for al-Libi was tortured into telling lies that Bush/Cheney used to start a war that killed, damaged and displaced millions.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Suddenly Public Debates Turn Toward Sanity
(2 comments) Just when you began to wonder whether public debate would ever be conducted on sane ground again, lo and behold the world changed.

Thursday, April 9, 2009
'It could've been all different, Jack... You got to believe that'
(1 comments) But those who would try and take the measure of their humanity as we march our Bernie Madoffs to guillotine or country club prison could do worse than read Inman Majors' novel, The Millionaires (W. W. Norton, 2009, $24.95.).

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
You say the New Deal didn't work? Prove it
(29 comments) The usual suspects declare that Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal didn't end the Great Depression. World War II ended the Great Depression, they cry in harmony, and so we shouldn't buy into President Obama's stimulus spending plan. But what was WWII if not the ultimate in spending, jobs and protectionism?

Thursday, February 26, 2009
On Cormac's Fire, Updike's Passing, Planets Like Dust, And MOuntaintop Removal
Sometimes ideas explode to bounce around like beads from a broke necklace, so that you have to help restring them all in order to get your footing. Herewith, beads on a string....

Friday, February 13, 2009
Terrorist in my home town 'with up so floating many bells down'
An out-of-work truckdriver brought a guitar case into a Unitarian church where I teach, pulled out a shotgun and shot eight people. He smiled as he pleaded guilty Monday to killing two and wounding six last summer because he hated liberals. Don't tell me our former president kept us free from terror.

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Obama as Savior? He'd better be
(4 comments) Our challenges are existential, not in some mysterious, intellectual way, but in the sense that our very existence--as a nation, a species, as individuals--has been put at risk. And it's been put at risk mostly by forces that have grown from the darkness inside our own hearts.

Monday, December 22, 2008
Go ahead, hang a shining star upon the highest bough and... you know...
(1 comments) I pose a question from the Ghost of Christmas Past. Did you "hang a shining star upon the highest bough" or merely "muddle through somehow" this Christmas season? It's important to answer.

Saturday, December 20, 2008
A word about Easter Island and other calamitous feedback loops
(16 comments) Like islanders who fed their entire beautiful world to stone idols, we feed ours to idols of commerce, high finance, fossil fuel and armaments, hastening our own demise.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Just How Blessed Am I Anyhow this Thanksgiving?
Around Thanksgiving 2005 I gave a talk "On Moonwalkers and Tree Huggers" at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, a talk I wrapped up with the following life-altering advice....

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama Wins! And Nothing You Can Say About That Quite Nails It
(3 comments) Barack Obama president. Say you know what this means and you're a liar you betcha. Now scuse me while I kiss the sky...

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Wake me up, I must be dreaming, Obama's still ahead and it's November
(4 comments) My God, can it be true? Barack Obama, person of color, is about to be president!

Friday, October 10, 2008
On Obama and the Fears We Dare Not Name, Revisited
(2 comments) It's time we named our darkest fears, regarding Obama. Here's mine: Sarah Palin's fear-mongering just might get him killed.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
At Last, Talking Heads Acknowledge Obama Won
(3 comments) What a relief. Maybe the media's been chastened for pretending the last two debates were draws, even when snap polling told all with eyes to see that Obama owned the first presidential and Joe Biden won the one and only vice-presidential debate.

Friday, October 3, 2008
Biden wins debate, yet MSM insists on calling it a tie
(10 comments) Joseph Biden won 51 percent to 36 percent over Sarah Palin among undecided voters in an early CNN poll based on random sampling, and yet...

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Rebel Repubs tell Bush Where to Stick It, and Markets Plunge
Yeah! Attboy! Attagal! Tell Wall Street where to stick it. We'll not throw good money after bad. Your orgy of high-living at our expense is over. Wow, that felt good. Now, what I really think

Monday, September 22, 2008
Ah, look at all the golden parachutes, as Dubya socializes the losses
(1 comments) Everybody sing along. "We're all socialists now, we're all socialists now. Dubya's nationalized the economy, we're all socialists now."

Thursday, September 11, 2008
So many pigs, so much lipstick--the sad legacy of 9/11
(2 comments) Each year we dress 9/11 in red, white and blue and trot it out for vigils by candlelight and excruciating video. And each year such shows become less meaningful as we recall what we did in the name of 9/11.

Friday, September 5, 2008
McCain's heroic story isn't the whole story; questions need asking
(8 comments) It won't be easy to challenge a living icon of military heroism, as McCain is positioning himself, but a baker's dozen questions need asking before it's too late. Is MSM up to the job?

Saturday, August 30, 2008
Oops! Seems 'Voodoo Christians' conjured wrong storm
(3 comments) It's one thing to pray up a storm. It's quite another to make God's dart hit the bulls-eye.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Hillary Supercharges Convention with Electrifying Support for Obama
"I love you. I love you. I love," former President Bill Clinton mouthed toward Hillary shortly after she began speaking Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. And as she finished, many in the hall were chanting the mantra aloud. "We love you Hillary." Ah, what might've been.

Saturday, August 23, 2008
Obama/Biden's a brilliant ticket, but only if they win, natch
The logic is hard to assail with one obvious exception. First, here's why it's sorta brilliant.

Friday, August 15, 2008
Putin and Bush doomed to waltz through history lost in each other's eyes
(2 comments) Bush looked in Putin's eyes and "got a sense of his soul." Yes, Putin's someone Bush could work with. Together, they just might bring on World War IV.

Friday, August 8, 2008
Bush puts big Double-I brand on Olympics--Insulting Incoherency
(1 comments) Just hours ago George W. Bush put his distinctive brand on the 2008 Olympics in China. You know the brand. It marks all Bush initiatives. The big Double-I. Insulting Incoherency.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Church shootings and candle lights vie beneath 'Bible black' skies
(1 comments) The sky was Bible black and ringing with thunder last night above Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in West Knoxville. You know it as the building where Jim D. Adkisson carried a shotgun inside a guitar case Sunday morning and shot nine people during a children's performance of the musical "Annie." None of the children were shot, but two adults later died.

Monday, July 21, 2008
Can you feel it? America's turning red, white and GREEN
From T. Boone Pickens to kids building windmills while Christians turn green, the signs are clear, Miss Tipping Point has entered the building.

Monday, July 14, 2008
Fannie Mae mess is just latest layer on Chef Dubya's tottering cake
(1 comments) This is only the latest layer in a tall leaning cake historians will someday deconstruct like archaeologists at a dig to try and figure how we could've allowed such a chef as George W. Bush in the kitchen to begin with.

Monday, July 7, 2008
On Barack Obama and 'the art of the possible'
(3 comments) You hung it all out there for your latest hero, Barack Hussein Obama. So how does he repay you? He does the utterly predictable thing and steps down off the pedestal you put him on.

Saturday, July 5, 2008
Caught inside an electrical storm, a terrible beauty is born
(3 comments) Trapped exposed as a thunderstorm sweeps past, two deserted runners get a lesson in Earth's pure and terrible beauty.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Three reasons Obama will beat McCain; charisma, charisma, charisma
He's tall, youthful, chiseled, athletic, sincere and exotic. When has either party offered such an attractive nominee? Go down the list. Johnson? Nixon? McGovern? Ford? Carter? Dukakis? Mondale? Obama's the rock star of politics. His time is now.

Saturday, June 7, 2008
What a sweet, gracious, generous speech; Hillary endorses Obama!
(29 comments) Hillary Clinton can flat deliver a speech, and her latest is for the ages, because there was nothing flat about what she said or how she said it Saturday shortly before 1 p.m., when she endorsed Barack Obama and pledged to work her heart out for him!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Hillary Supporters Reject 'The Missionary Position' on Demo Ticket
(5 comments) How could I resist this figure of speech, offered by a Hillary supporter? It's too succinct and layered, too rich a summation...

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Is Obama big enough to ask Hillary onto ticket despite RFK gaffe
(2 comments) Asking Hillary to be his running mate would demonstrate an almost transcendent big-mindedness, largeness of spirit and good will on Obama's part, and that's what he's been running on isn't it?

Monday, May 5, 2008
Hillary's Words Provide Cover for Bush War Crimes
(1 comments) Should George W. Bush send missiles screaming across ancient Persian skies in coming weeks or months, he might well cite remarks by Hillary Clinton when justifying his latest crimes.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
It was just laying there--a scoop in broad daylight
(10 comments) Robert Gates' confession that his mistakes brought on 9/11 and our war in Afghanistan was ignored by Big Media, and so I scooped it up. Not the first time....

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Barack knocks Rev. Wright's remarks out of the ballpark
(34 comments) It might've been strike 3 for Barack Obama, but he knocked the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments out of the ball park in about as clean and forceful a swing as you're likely to see in the World Series of politics.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Bush Defense Secretary Admits 9/11 Was Blowback
(20 comments) Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the following jaw-dropping statement: "We were attacked from Afghanistan in 2001, and we are at war in Afghanistan today, in no small measure because of mistakes this government made." That's an astonishing confession, even if mine was the only jaw that dropped.

Saturday, March 29, 2008
If McCain, Hillary and Obama all face Strike 3, is it really baseball?
(1 comments) You want to cry out, "Say it ain't so, Barack. Say it ain't so...." But Casey's at the bat, the pitch is on its way. And there is no joy in Mudville.... Since I wrote those words in my last column, both Hillary Clinton and John McCain made blunders that could be called Strike Two.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
With Obama at the bat, is there no hope for joy in Mudville?
(2 comments) You could see it coming from the top deck. Obama's had 20 years to take aim at this pitch, but like Casey in Ernest Lawrence Thayer's perennial classic, "Casey at the Bat," Obama let it sail right across the plate. Until Tuesday that is...

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Obama swamped by perfect storm as Hillary blows in
Barack Obama ran into a perfect storm of bad publicity, scandal, crossover Republicans, energized women, a resourceful and hard-working opponent in Hillary Clinton, and remorseful media bending over backwards to throw her a lifeline.

Sunday, March 2, 2008
CAN WE TRUST OUR GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT OBAMA?
(1 comments) A lifetime ago a friend asked, "What do you make of Barack Obama?" My unrehearsed response: "When I see Obama, I see a dead man walking. Do you honestly believe they'll ever let him be our president?" "They who?"

Saturday, February 16, 2008
Obama Would Rid the World of Nukes, Hillary's Not So Clear. What Say You?
(3 comments) It's a deal-breaker for those with the imagination to envision a future in which the world is not put at risk by human folly. Hillary won't call for a world without nukes. Obama did so long ago. Naive? Not according to Kissinger, Shultz, Nunn and Perry, four Cold Warriors calling for an end to the age of nukes.

Friday, February 8, 2008
Mysterious friend makes the case for Camelot
Mysterious friend appears on deadline and makes columnist rethink some things.

Thursday, January 10, 2008
On Obama and Fears We Dare Not Name
(2 comments) We've known others who swept America off her feet with youthful looks, charisma and idealism. How well you know their fate. So let's leave it at this: When I look at Obama's family, I can't bring myself to believe America will allow these sweet, attractive people of color to occupy the White House.

Friday, January 4, 2008
Obama, Edwards wash away Hillary's bogus claim of "change"
Friday morning I heard Hillary say this: "When we talk about change, we need somebody who won't just SAY change... What we need is somebody who can PRODUCE change, just like I've been doing for thirty-fiiiiive years." Never has a phrase sounded so tired.

Saturday, December 29, 2007
Here are some leftover presents, dressed in red, white and green
Leftover gifts from under a magical tree, if only I had the power to give them....

Saturday, December 22, 2007
Though sailing blind, still the pilot cries 'Full speed ahead'
(2 comments) The crash and oil spill at the Golden Gate Bridge might be the perfect metaphor of Dubya's presidency, if there were only a board of pilots to hold Bush accountable.

Saturday, December 22, 2007
Though sailing blind, still the pilot cries 'Full speed ahead'
(2 comments) The crash and oil spill at the Golden Gate Bridge might be the perfect metaphor of Dubya's presidency, if there were only a board of pilots to hold Bush accountable.

Thursday, December 6, 2007
John Lennon's death, Dec. 8, 1980, hit hardest
(2 comments) John Lennon's public death hit hardest of all. Youth was over. Idealism lay slain.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Oh Frabjous Day! Nuke Iran? World War III? Ooops! Nevermind....
Is that the Earth moving under our feet? The basis for war on Iran is undermined. Could Bush be ready for some peace?

Monday, December 3, 2007
An unfinished holiday list of things I'm grateful for
(2 comments) It's a dad-blamed beautiful, savage and confounding world, in fact, the best one yet.

Saturday, November 24, 2007
UFOs? That's a good question, Tim, but I've got even better ones
(2 comments) The most condescending question in any debate this year was addressed to the candidate who's been right about more things than any other.

Monday, November 12, 2007
Lessons from the past and our ever-dawning future
Knowledge that the US meddled in Iran, gave Pakistan the bomb and the means to deliver it should inform future policy decisions.

Friday, October 19, 2007
Al Gore drew a circle that brought us all in...
Let us now praise biased judges, vote suppressors, mudslingers and superficial media for casting Al Gore from the circle of power in 2000. They just might've helped save the Earth. Al Gore drew a circle that took them all in.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Bush's War Has Only Begun
Once again, America is swallowing a big, fat lie.

Friday, August 31, 2007
A Coal Miner's Last Words Resonate Still
Even before 9/11, Bush's arrogant tactic of appointing foxes to run henhouses alienated many of us. Bush has placed energy and arms merchants in charge of foreign policy, lumber executives in charge of forests, polluters in charge of the EPA, a yes-man in charge of justice, and he named Stickler--a former mine executive with a flawed saftey record--Mine Safety Czar. I wonder if he's read the dying words of a lost miners....

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Dear Dubya, So You're Saying Vietnam Just Didn't Go On Long Enough
(6 comments) Dubya, Good for you. You've finally admitted what some of us have been saying since 2003. Iraq is like Vietnam. Of course your memory of Vietnam's a lot different from most of ours. You could say it's new and improved. Like most works of creative nonfiction--

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Fess Up, Karl, Like Atwater Before You--An Open Letter
Karl Rove could learn a thing or three from Lee Atwater's deathbed confession.

Friday, August 10, 2007
The Simple and God-Awful Truth
(1 comments) I'm supposed to speak truth to power, but can't seem to work up the old outrage, though there's no end of things to get angry about. Just now it's all beside the point. Just now I want to bask in memories of Edisto... a darkly bright island.

Thursday, August 2, 2007
On Williams Jennings Bryan, the Monkey Trial and False Patriotism
What chance did I have in a town where a majority believe Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs. To this day, the sort of Biblical creationism Bryan defended holds sway in this country. Like jingoistic patriotism, it's a sort of tribal truth. True even if it didn't happen.

Monday, July 9, 2007
On Scooter Libby, the War Dead, and Impeachment
(1 comments) The Scooter Libby case embraces the very sort of abuses King George III visited on America 231 years ago. It's about nothing if it's not about human rights abuses, war crimes, bearing false witness, lack of participatory democracy and worse.

Monday, July 9, 2007
Mileage Standards Fine For Chasing White Rabbits
(1 comments) At first glance the new mileage standards passed June 21 reflect a country waking up from nightmares induced by poor leadership on climate change and defense. But look through the surface glare, and you'll notice the bill is way too little, way too late, as greenhouse feedback loops begin unraveling this elegant Earth.

Friday, June 15, 2007
Free flowing money and a dammed humanity...
Is it right to allow free-flowing capital to cross all borders, while damming back the free flow of human beings at the same borders? Is it even practical?

Friday, June 1, 2007
The Hard Rain of Depleted Uranium is Already Falling
(2 comments) If ever a man's been 10,000 miles in the mouth of graveyard, Dr. Doug Rokke has, for when you really look into Depleted Uranium, as he has, time and space open wide to reveal tombstones of future generations.

Friday, May 18, 2007
Dick Cheney--slicker than crude
But is he too slippery to escape impeachment?

Friday, May 11, 2007
Mysterious Friend Brings Parable of Springtime
I've had a revelation, a vision you could say, but I swear it's true, happened less than an hour ago. There's reason to celebrate.

Friday, May 4, 2007
See how they run--from the only questions that count
(2 comments) Only Kucinich, Gravel and Paul have asked these most crucial questions of all: Who's most likely to start a nuclear war? Should our leaders be held accountable for the quagmire we find ourselves in? For covering up evidence of global warming? Is there a way to break the cycle of war in the 21st century? We ignore them at our peril.

Friday, April 13, 2007
Logic 101 could break the cycle of war
(1 comments) Political Correctness from the right is far more damaging our country than PC from the left. Take the notion that opposing the war in Iraq is not only impolite but that it's damaging to our troops. People who say that fall prey to two logical fallacies, at least, and Big Media should not let them get away with it.

Monday, April 9, 2007
Our Three Stooges from the Middle East
(5 comments) Chant it like a mantra from hell. Three stooges lied us into war: A man named Curveball, whom we bribed. A man named Chalibi, who conned us. A man named al-Libi, whom we tortured into telling lies.

Saturday, March 24, 2007
Fire! Polite Applause
When a journalist acts courageously, it's as if someone stood in a crowded restaurant, shouted "Fire! Somebody do something!" and everyone applauds politely.

Friday, March 16, 2007
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's Unbelievable Confession
(1 comments) Is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed guilty or innocent of the 30 or so allegations by the Pentagon. I don't know and neither do you.

Monday, March 5, 2007
Lots of money for terrorists
(3 comments) For some, new revelations that President Bush is funding groups linked to al-Qaeda prompts an awakening, for others it leads to a weird reaction known as cognitive dissonance. Then the name-calling begins.

Friday, February 23, 2007
21 Years and Snip--My Column Ends at the News-Sentinel
(2 comments) After 21 years as a weekly columnist in a red state, a message on the answering machine brought about the end of my career at The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Why looky here, Mama, I've made the honor roll.

Friday, February 9, 2007
2007 Already A Crucible for Change
Lucky '07 is casting off norms of the past--in politics, cityscapes, athletics, environment--and much more. Just in time.

Friday, February 2, 2007
Cracked? No, Iraq is an Omelet Face Down on the Kitchen Floor
Now our declared enemies in Iran---seek to make common cause with Iraq. This is a cracked egg? Unh-unh, this is a broken omelet face down on the kitchen floor.

Friday, January 26, 2007
My Plan: Getting Smarter Faster About the Middle East
(9 comments) If you're not ignorant, then answer me this. Why are we spending over $1 billion to build an embassy complex in Baghdad? I don't know the answer, and neither do you. That's called ignorance my friend.

Friday, January 12, 2007
Bush's Gamble; Your World
(7 comments) We'd best get ahead of the Neocon curve and deal them out of the game. Otherwise our world's headed for chaos. It's up to people like us.

Friday, January 5, 2007
Saddam and the Great White Whale--Bush's Un-magnificent Obsession
(1 comments) Like that edgy, storm-tossed storyteller, Ishmael, in "Moby-Dick," we've borne witness to our own national tale of obsession, destiny and ruin. For years we've watched George W. Bush threaten, mislead and browbeat others into following him through uncharted waters, like some latter day Captain Ahab. In the end, Bush handled the killing of Saddam Hussein about like Ahab handled killing that whale. He bungled it.

Friday, December 29, 2006
Big Media Should Not Be A Tool In The Cycle of War
Get ready for Act Two. The same tired drumbeat for war--this time against Iran--is beginning to echo in the land. We in the heartland, where so many of our young sign up for military service, should not be fooled again. Rather we should resist, read up, think critically, and take back our country.

Friday, December 15, 2006
Don't Be A Party To New Nukes
(2 comments) How many nukes does one country need? Say no to new nuclear weapons.

Friday, December 8, 2006
Send Email Saying No to New Nukes
(2 comments) Tell Uncle Sam to drop plans for new nukes. We have too many already and it's rank hypocrisy, plus violation of treaties we've signed to move forward. This fragile world needs fewer, not more, nukes. Email Now.

Friday, December 1, 2006
The final unraveling in Iraq
Anyone who spent 15 minutes Googling, say, "History of Iraq" should've seen years ago how this would play out. As I wrote in August of 2003, "if majority rule flowers in Iraq, Shiites will run the place, as they do in Iran. That's who the majority is." That's the reality, and given enough time, reality will trump dogma every time. Witness the final unraveling, this week, of Bush's plans for Iraq.

Friday, November 17, 2006
Gates cast long dark shadows at CIA
Like Rumsfeld before him, Bob Gates helped create the very enemies he'll be charged to fight, if confirmed as secretary of defense. Except for Gates, and people like him, several wars that killed millions, involving Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan might have been avoided. Funding Saddam, Iran-Contra, arming al-Qaida and the Taliban. It's likely Gates had a hand in it all. 9/11 was just one of the consequences.

Friday, November 10, 2006
Kris Kristofferson Caught The Spirit Of A Day
(1 comments) If you haven't found yourself on the losing end of close and corrupt elections for too many years in a row, you won't understand the immense sweet sighs from so many on Wednesday. Such collective relief wafted me through a day of phone calls, spotty work, and into the mystical embrace of an ancient, Rococo movie palace... recently restored. There, I watched, listened and cheered as Kris Kristofferson caught the spirit of a day

Friday, November 3, 2006
Kerry Botched A Joke; Bush Botched A War
Kerry botched a bad joke about a war. Bush botched the actual war. By splitting over Kerry's remarks, Democrats are missing an opportunity to do what they could've done in 2004--mount a solid front against the mishandling of our security, and demand accountability from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice. This election should be a referendum on failed policies, especially when it comes to war, global warming and civil liberties.

Friday, October 27, 2006
Can You Vote For A Black Man?
Well, can you? Real question. The contest between Harold Ford, Jr. and Bob Corker for the seat soon to be vacated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, is freighted with issues-Iraq, the future of this over-heated planet, use of torture, repeal of habeas corpus, presidential accountability, reliability of voting machines, energy dependence, nuclear proliferation, many more. Yet this tight race could come down to race....

Friday, October 20, 2006
Save us from total darkness falling
(2 comments) The path we're on is so destructive, so devoid of light and intelligence that change is a moral imperative. Every day our current leadership takes us deeper into darkness. The loss of civil liberties, crimes against humanity, economic inequality, destruction of the Earth, dishonesty, corruption, greater oil dependency, insecure ports, horrors in Iraq and other disasters and insults await at every turn. So vote for change!

Friday, October 13, 2006
GOP Should Lose Seats for Crimes Greater Than Foley's Lust
(5 comments) A friend likes to say, "These are not your daddy's Republicans." They're radicals who should be turned out. But not because Foley lusts after pageboys. Rather, for issues like these: * A current foreign debt greater than that accumulated by all previous 42 presidents combined. * Suppression of reports on global warming. * A war based on lies gathered in part through torture. Google "al-Libi" for more. * And many more...

Friday, October 6, 2006
'Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable'
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist used to lure stray cats into his home, feed them, pet them, then operate on them. George W. Bush used to stuff firecrackers in the mouths of living frogs, light them and toss them into the air to watch them explode. Such stories should have served as warnings. You don't put animal abusers in positions of high power, where abuse and torture can only get worse. And so it has....

Saturday, September 30, 2006
Tell Them Torture's Not Right for Us
(1 comments) Al-Libi. Remember that name. Better yet, learn to say al-Libi. It isn't that difficult. Our government forced a man by that name to tell a pack of lies that brought about the deaths of tens of thousands in Iraq. Ask your Congressmen and media to look into it. For al-Libi is living proof that torture and other degrading practices just don't work.

Friday, September 22, 2006
Take your torture and go, George
(7 comments) George Bush 43, Commander-in-Chief, Decider, Your Royal Highness, however you'd like to be addressed.... For God's sake, take your torture program and go. Take your secret prisons, your attack dogs, your electrodes, your water boards, your feeding tubes, your ceiling restraints, your whipping wires, your excruciating music, your sleep deprivation, your hobbles and cuffs. Take all such instruments and go.

Friday, September 15, 2006
A life and death struggle in miniature
Wasp caught in a spider web, a drama in miniature.

Friday, September 8, 2006
Who Needs a Constitution When You Have A George?
(2 comments) Hey, who needs a Constitution when you have a George? Our Founding Fathers had King George III. True, they got rid of him in favor of Constitutional Law, but that was in the pre-9/11 world.

Saturday, September 2, 2006
A bear came out of the woods, took note, moved on...
These mountains will be here millions of years hence with their rivers, trees, birds and beasts weaving magic dances beneath the moon. Such notions crowd the mind as I ponder: A bear came out of the woods, took note, moved on.

Friday, August 25, 2006
'Darker Provinces of the Night'
If you're not angry, sad, ashamed or so jaded by now that all such emotions feel tired, used up, even absurd-maybe you've been living a dream. Could be you've dressed it up in yellow ribbons and patriotic bunting, but it's likely only a dream of war. Four soldiers, accused of murder, are living the reality.

Friday, August 11, 2006
About that camel in your living room
Someone said a camel is a horse designed by a committee, and as I pointed out nearly three and a half years ago: "If anything was ever designed by a committee, it's Iraq." The same might be said of the entire Middle East.

Friday, July 21, 2006
See How They Run... for Sen. Frist's Seat
Not one of these three blind mice would address the issue of global warming in a recent debate. Not one deserves to serve in the U.S. Senate. No matter how well they come off on other issues, reasonable people shouldn't vote for man or mouse that's blind to one of the two biggest problems facing our world-the other being nuclear proliferation.

Friday, July 14, 2006
Giving the devil hell and his due--Bush at 60
Sometime between Vice-president Dick Cheney shooting the old guy in the face and the indictment of Scooter Libby for obstructing justice in the Valerie Plame case, I believe somebody or something got to Bush. He's mending his ways, or at least appears to. Consider....

Friday, July 7, 2006
Oak Ridge Peace Group Offers Coherent Nuclear Policy
(1 comments) July 8 marks the 10th anniversary of the International Court of Justice (World Court) advisory opinion that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and... of humanitarian law." But our nuclear policy is a train wreck brought about by false starts, illegal initiatives and disastrous impulses....

Saturday, July 1, 2006
It could've been all different
(1 comments) The all too briefly beautiful day I learned war was inevitable and the media would play along.

Friday, June 23, 2006
A Formal Argument for Halting Global Warming, if Possible
An e-mailer challenged me to state my position about global warming in the form of a formal argument, and so I offer the following premises and conclusions:

Friday, June 16, 2006
Planners, Developers Should Visit Edisto Island
It’s all by design. Insistent zoning and community resistance to “progress” have preserved the best parts of paradise. That’s why Edisto beckons. It’s a relief to leave the traffic jams and smog of East Tennessee, another purported paradise transforming itself daily. Each morning presents a new face of decimation and greed. Our landscape’s been gouged, scraped, blasted and otherwise deformed over and again for a fast buck.

Friday, June 16, 2006
Don't Be A Party to Smear Job On Gore's Film
(1 comments) "Now that you mention it" is a deceptively powerful phrase. It suggests permission to proceed; subject broached, time to take off the gloves. I bring it up because the most shameless critics of Al Gore’s new film, “An Inconvenient Truth” have mentioned things that could come back to bite them. Like references to Nazis....

Friday, June 2, 2006
The Dixie Chicks Were Right
Remember? It was March 10, 2003, and Bush had made it clear he intended to bomb, invade and occupy Iraq within days. Many thousands of lives hung in the balance, yet no one seemed to notice that aspect of the approaching war—not in this country at least.

Friday, May 19, 2006
Just in Time, Dubya Discovers Mexico
Surprise. Dubya has discovered our southern boarder. Never mind that citizens from places like Morristown, Tennessee—an agriculture-based town--have been complaining about the Mexican border for years in ever more angry emails. Now Bush is complaining too. Nice timing, Dubya. Maybe this’ll draw attention away as you waltz us three steps closer to an imperial presidency.

Friday, May 5, 2006
An Impeachment By the People
Musicians, comedians, townships and legislators are calling on Congress to impeach the president, little realizing a majority of Americans have done just that already--in our hearts and minds.

Friday, April 21, 2006
This is the way the world ends
(1 comments) News about potential global disaster goes unreported.

Friday, March 31, 2006
Bush and the End Times--Practically Speaking
If Bush believes Jesus is returning soon, this explains a lot.

Friday, March 3, 2006
Dubya Meets His Waterloo In Dubai
The deal to turn over six major ports and more to a company from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, provides ammo for Demos and cover for Republicans fleeing Bush’s embrace as his approval ratings sink into the 30s—just about rock bottom for modern politics.

Friday, February 24, 2006
Media misses bigger target--Cheney's public policy atrocities
Lousy hunting judgment is not a trivial issue in one so close to the nuclear trigger, but that's not the worst of Cheney's many sins against our country and our world.

Friday, February 17, 2006
Old time quail hunter has questions for Dick Cheney
Four days after Dick Cheney shot 78-year-old Harry M. Whittington in the face, neck and heart, the vice-president sat down for tea and crumpets with the PR branch of the Bush-Cheney Administration—otherwise known as Fox News—to explain himself, and finally take a measure of responsibility. Yet many questions remain.

Friday, February 10, 2006
Becoming one with the snow job
Mystery friend insists columnist write the hard truth regarding concentration camps instead of snowy fluff.

Friday, February 3, 2006
Interview with President Al Gore, Part 2
What might've been...

Friday, January 27, 2006
An interview with President Al Gore after Year Five
(4 comments) What would the world look like had any number of things gone differently in 2000?

Friday, January 20, 2006
Gore draws blood in attack on Bush
(1 comments) Al Gore is a fierce voice from the wilderness. On Monday he attacked President Bush’s use of torture, kidnapping, faulty intelligence, and called for a special prosecutor to investigate wiretapping. Bush supporters quickly struck back, and counted on the media to repeat their false charges. They were not disappointed.

Friday, January 6, 2006
'My boys, never work in the mines'
(1 comments) Just after Powell Harmon implored his family to love Jesus, he scrawled, “My boys, never work in the mines.” Sometime later, deep in the Fraterville, Tennessee, mine he gasped his last breath. It was over a century ago, yet that advice resonates.

Friday, December 30, 2005
In 2005, Big Media and Public Began to Wake Up
An ugly year was finally over. That realization struck with genuine euphoria, for 2004 had been unbelievably, dishonest, catastrophic, and, it seemed, unending. Despite catastrophes, 2005 offered hope for a better future.

Friday, December 9, 2005
Christians at war in the season of peace
(1 comments) The faith of Christians were called into question just over a year ago. How do pastors and lay people feel about pressuring fellow Christians to support this administration now that the war has turned so tragic.

Friday, December 2, 2005
Big Media wakes up to fiascos
At last the media are waking up. Note the skepticism that greeted the president’s “Success in Iraq” speech on Wednesday, maybe his most highly touted progress report on the war to date.

Friday, November 25, 2005
A man not so good at running gets better at giving thanks
Oh the running was good that evening, especially for a man not so good at it, as I felt the rhythm of my long-distance breathing kick in, as my movable prayer of thanks began...

Friday, November 18, 2005
Baker and Cheney: A Tale of Two Republicans
Consider Dick Cheney, then shed a tear for the Grand Old Party represented by his old pal, Howard Baker.

Friday, November 11, 2005
Frist, Hastert go to bat for secret war, secret government
Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert want to get to the bottom of something. They're so worked up they're calling for joint congressional hearings on the scale of the 9/11 Commission. Good for them. It’s time they got to the bottom of something...

Sunday, November 6, 2005
One Year After Dubya's Re-selection, It's Even Worse Than Predicted
Dire predictions come true even before the first of "four more years" comes to a close.... False pride, incoherence, sweetheart deals, cruelty, mendacity, destruction are still the norm.