(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, January 11, 2008
The Comeback Cry: Hillary Reconnects With Her "Feminine Side In 1972, Edmund Muskie lost his presidential bid because of an emotional moment in the New Hampshire primary, while Hillary Clinton revitalized her campaign in New Hampshire because of just such a moment. The important question for the American electorate and, more critically, for the wellbeing of our democratic republic is, should a politician's future depend on a 10-second moment of emotion-cynically contrived or otherwise?

SHARE        Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Philip Roth's "Our Gang:" A Satirical Purgative for the Last Seven Years Nothing can change these last seven years in the land of "liberty and justice for all," but Philip Roth's 1971 satirical masterpiece, "Our Gang" is a dose of "yeah, well take that" catharsis that will ease the way into the last 385 days of a difficult eight years. It is a book that needs to be read or reread . . . if you want to laugh instead of cry.

SHARE        Sunday, December 16, 2007
Mitt Romney:Tabernacle Choirboy or Blackwater Mercenary Mitt Romney is equally at home schmoozing the countries major religious voting blocs and taking advise about torture techniques from his campaign's counterterrorism czar, Cofer Black, the vice-chairman at Blackwater Worldwide. Blackwater appears to have its own presidential candidate in Romney. Hard times ahead when the president of the United States has a private army and intelligence service at his disposal.

(8 comments) SHARE        Friday, November 30, 2007
The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act: A Tutorial in Orwellian Newspeak The House recently passed the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. A skeptical reading of the bill, along with its possible "parentage," leaves one suspecting that its purpose is not protecting Americans from homegrown terrorism. Rather, it is about protecting homegrown corporate interests and profits from constitutionally protected homegrown free thought, free speech, and legal dissent.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Attacking Iran: The Defining Moment of the Foolish Generation A recent Zogby Poll revealed that 52 percent of those interviewed supported a military strike against Iran. How can we be so foolish after four years of war and hundreds of thousands of lives? History will not forgive such foolishness, neither will our children.

(4 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, October 30, 2007
An Open Letter to the Christian Right This letter is appeal from an atheist to the Christian right to "walk their talk" in protecting the sanctity of all post-partum human life, regardless of race, creed, national origin, or neocon ideology. I am proposing a "conscience clause" amendment to the Constitution that would allow taxpayers to redistribute the 27 percent of their federal income tax now going to the military to more life-enhancing government agencies.

(1 comments) SHARE        Sunday, October 14, 2007
The Realpolitik of Article VI: Religious Test Required for Public Office Article VI of the Constitution forbids religious tests for public office. The reality on the ground is that all politicians campaigning for office in the Sunday school miasma of contemporary American politics must learn God-speak and use it often and convincingly. This essay considers both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates and their 2008 faith-based campaigning.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, September 24, 2007
A Pitiless Plan A: Denying Plan B Emergency Contraception to Victims of Rape Considering the current fragile state of Roe v. Wade, strong state and federal compassionate care laws may be a rape victim's only hope of having her right to choose the rest of her life supercede the rapist's "right" to impregnate her. If the likes of Rep. Gundrum or Pro-Life Wisconsin or Focus on the Family prevail, the man who chooses to rape will win hands down.

SHARE        Tuesday, September 18, 2007
When George Bush Smiles People Die For almost seven years, Bush has been the glad handing, front man for the Republican Party. The substance of his presidency has been little more than photo-ops. But as he smiles his Texas-sized grin for the camera and then jets off to another photo shoot, real people are left behind to pay the price of his smile. There is, however, a way we may yet wipe the smile off his face . . .

(7 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris: The Unholy Trinity . . .Thank God. . Atheist contrarian Christopher Hitchens' upcoming visit to Madison as the keynote speaker for the Freedom From Religion Foundation's fall conference has raised a few Christian hackles and a few insults. This essay, written in an irreverent Hitchens style (sort of), defends not only his position but also that of the "unholy trinity" and the POF (pissed-off faithless).

(6 comments) SHARE        Monday, May 14, 2007
The Trouble With The Entire World Is A Guy Named Ron It is a sometimes humorous, sometimes pathetic story about Ron a right-wing fundamentalist Christian conservative Republican whose letters to the editor of a small weekly Wisconsin newspaper have been cobbled together to reveal both the workings of a certain type of mind and the trouble with the world writ small. However, the "idea" of Ron (Reason On Nebutal) is the trouble with the entire world.

(1 comments) SHARE        Monday, March 12, 2007
America's Perpetual Nuclear War If the Bush administration follows through with its plans to attack Iran's underground nuclear facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, it will only be adding "bang-bang" to the already decades-old nuclear war America has been waging with its use of depleted uranium-"nuclear tipped"-munitions.

SHARE        Sunday, February 18, 2007
Cluster Bombs: The Realpolitik of U.S. Foreign Policy Recently the Bush administration accused the Iranian government of supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons. That a government supplies weapons to countries of strategic interest is realpolitik. That a government exports and expends munitions that continue to kill civilians long after "mission accomplished" has been declared, as is the case with cluster munitions, is the realpolitik of U.S. foreign policy.

(2 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Yet Another Generation Grows up in the Shadow of a Mushroom Cloud Considering the Bush administration's first-strike nuclear policy coupled with its reckless disregard for the global consequences of its ideological juggernaut, American children are no less likely to grow up in the shadow of a mushroom cloud than were their parents and grandparents.

(3 comments) SHARE        Monday, January 8, 2007
A Cure For Yellow Ribbon Patriotism In light of Bush's new war strategy that includes a "surge" of 20,000-40,000 additional troops to Iraq and a recent Military Times Poll, which revealed that barely one-third of service members approve of the Bush Administration's handling of the war, "yellow ribbon patriots" need remove their magnetic bumper sticker ribbons and listen to the majority of military voices to find a meaningful way to "support our troops."

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, December 28, 2006
The Crucible of Impeachment: If Not Now, When? Impeachment is a crucible the nation must endure if we are to reclaim and strengthen our democracy.

SHARE        Thursday, December 14, 2006
The Darwinian Case For Impeaching The President The essay is not an entirely tongue-in-cheek call for the impeachment of President Bush based on Darwinian evolutionary principles.

(3 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Because The Bible Tells Me So? In the run-up to the Nov. 7 referendum vote banning gay marriage and establishing a death penalty in Wisconsin, religious groups on both sides of the issue quoted the Bible and other religious texts to support their argument. On the public square, "because the Bible tells me so" just doesn't cut it . . . or it shouldn't.