Review: North Carolina’s senators on background checks
I’m from North Carolina, home of state legislators who want to legislate a state religion, declare Islam a terrorist organization, require drug tests for some public benefits, and other craziness such...
View ArticleAnother Child Lost
The AP carried a story about a 5-year-old boy accidentally shooting his 2-year-old sister to death in rural southern Kentucky. It seems that he had received the gun as a gift last year. The gun was a...
View ArticleWhat we see on broadcast TV
I’m dating myself (no, not that kind of “dating”!), but I used to watch “Gunsmoke” on TV and at the beginning of every show I’d see Marshal Dillon facing down some unknown bad guy in the street....
View ArticleDon’t Worry Your Pretty Little Head, Dear…
After last week’s mourn-a-thon following Tea Party doyenne Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) wee hours video bailing on the 2014 election follies, we Fifth Estate scribblers, along with cartoonists and...
View ArticleKeystone XL Pipeline—Boom or Bust?
I have to confess that the first time I heard about the Keystone XL pipeline I didn’t know a thing about it. All I heard was a quick blurb on the evening news mentioning that the president might not...
View ArticleOn Rape: Lindy West, Don’t Speak For Me
Oh, Lindy West…you assumptive, condescending, bitter woman, trying to speak for me. Stop. Stop using words like “victim” and “trivializing” in your high-pitched “Oh-Em-Gee” voice. Granted, you’re...
View ArticleGovernment Spying and ME
No, “ME” isn’t an acronym for a data collection system. Well, I guess in a way it is, but this “ME” is simply “me”, or as I’m officially known (middle name omitted)—Patrick White. This post is about...
View ArticleThe Family
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to easily contact and talk to ranking U.S. government officials, ambassadors, high-ranking foreign politicians, corporate executives, and leaders of religious and...
View ArticleDecisions, decisions, decisions…and politics
I’m putting a new ceiling on our porch and the photo shows what I’m doing. Now, you ask yourself, “What does his porch ceiling have to do with decisions and politics?” Be patient and read on for the...
View ArticleAt Least We Have Twinkies Again (Priorities, right?)
All day yesterday I scanned the news trying to decide what subject to tackle for today. What did I have an opinion on that was just vibrating in my finger tips needing to spill out into this space? I...
View ArticleGZ…My Turn
The George Zimmerman (GZ) trial is over and the verdict is a travesty…anyone with the ability to reason should understand that. That being the case, I wasn’t going to add to everything already...
View ArticleNote to John Boehner: Remember Pearl Harbor
I’ll call you John, because even though you are the Speaker of the House I won’t give you the respect your position should accord. You are a leader in name only. You and your party have declared war...
View ArticleIn Books: “Lost in Bachmannistan”
E-Book Review: Bachmannistan: Behind the Lines by Peter Waldron and John Gilmore, Amazon, 2013. If Star Wars director George Lucas made this part of the Jedi vs Empire serial, it might be called Star...
View ArticleThere She Is…Miss (Indian) America…
Oh, how the pageant world has changed. Pageants now span all ages, education and socio-economic levels, with everything from Toddlers & Tiaras to our country’s most renowned pageant, Miss America,...
View ArticleBanning books is crude, pointless, and alive and well
I read The Bluest Eye many years ago. It was a painful, uncomfortable read. The story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove is haunting and raw. A little black girl living in Ohio in 1941, Pecola is a...
View ArticleIs This Disneyland, Or Am I In Prison?
No country has more faith in the power of an adorable mascot than Japan. Their talisman-like powers have been employed in almost every walk of life: museums, theme parks, tourist attractions,...
View ArticleDistribution of wealth in the USA
The United States has a significantly unequal distribution of weallth when held in comparison with other developed countries across the globe. So much so that recent figures state reveal that in the...
View ArticlePolio: How Pakistani Media Can ‘Capitalize’ on Ignorance
Polio – one of the most politicized and commercialized diseases that has been cashed on both local and global scales. Of the many stories of misinformation and twisted facts about polio, a recent one...
View ArticleJudicial Terror: Pakistani Court Sentences Man 13 Years of Prison for...
Thirteen years of prison and a fine of ($2,300) – only for an offensive Facebook posting of a Shia sect member in Chiniot, Punjab, in Pakistan. The case hasn’t evoked a media furor but is another...
View ArticleThe First Lady’s Fashion: What Does It Mean at Home and Abroad?
In America and other countries like it, we may not think much about what prominent figures are wearing. With no real restrictions on clothing, it doesn’t make much sense to. However, when the first...
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