On June 16th Bruce Barcott writes in the LA TIMES about Abby Sunderland’s parents, describing them as applying brave parenting techniques to their daughter, sending her off to traverse the world in a forty foot sailing vessel, ALONE.
I DISAGREE. Bruce is wrong. He may well have been dead wrong. I believe that the purpose...
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Author Archive
Brave Parenting or Child Endangerment
Death on the Rio Grande
A fifteen year old Mexican boy was shot and killed yesterday on the banks of the Rio Grande. The story reached the LA Times this morning. This lad and some of his friends were playing and fooling around down by the river on the Mexican side. Some rocks were thrown. No one knows who...
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Brown on Brown, Heart Ache on Heart Ache
Did you ever think that Arizona and the Salem witch trials would have something in common? How about Arizona and the incarceration of the Japanese Americans during World War II? As hard as it is to say: In 1941 it was don’t be Oriental in Arizona or California. In 1941 it was don’t be...
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When 41 Senators Stomp Democracy Into The Senate Floor
Massachusetts elects a new Senator and suddenly the party that had sixty votes, a super majority, has fifty-nine. And they are crying? How is that? One election, one new Senator and healthcare legislation is in jeopardy? Personally, I don’t like the present bill. Who wants a law that is violated by simply not purchasing an...
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On Having Broad Shoulders, Being Politically Correct, and Harry Reid
Senator Harry Reid apologized recently for opening his mouth and speaking. I don’t know what he said and for the most part I really don’t care. The world isn’t going to stop turning because Harry Reid uttered something racial, inane, and stupid. It, however, reveals something about us that is depressing, evoking emotions that...
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Skyscrapers and Senators: Help Wanted
I was reading the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, two rags upon which I base my illogical views of the world, and something struck me odd. It was not an epiphany by any means, but an irony that screamed loudly.
The folks in Dubai, the people who cannot afford to buy shoe...
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On Bravery, Terrorists, and the TSA
In January 2009, one Chesley B. Sullenberger, a pilot, landed his passenger plane in the Hudson River with no loss of life. God bless him. In December 2009, one Jasper Schuringa, a Netherlands film maker, John Wayne-style, leaped across fellow passengers to stomp out a potentially catastrophic fire started by a terrorist loaded with...
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Can’t Jail Freedom, Can’t Incarcerate Democracy Forever
This week the Chinese government sentenced Liu Xiaobo to eleven years’ jail time. Eleven years is close to a death sentence. During this same week the Chinese executed a British national for drug trafficking. He was caught traveling with nine pounds of heroin. He claimed it wasn’t his. Maybe it wasn’t. We’ll never know. ...
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Torture and “State Secrets”
As a defense to being sued, the Bush, and now the Obama, administrations have been quick to raise the specter-defense of “state secrets.” It is a backdoor defense meant to protect American interests and secure military secrets at home and abroad. It is meant to protect the lives of men and women in the...
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Doomsday Dollar and The National Debt
It’s the end of the year. It’s the time for Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and for Congress to look at the national debt. Oops, I mean raise the national debt spending limits. Not that they have a choice. If the ceiling isn’t raised, government, as we know it, stops cold. After all, Obama...
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