Monthly Archives: June 2010

Ahhh, it’s been a good month for emptying the world of these dirtbags! José Saramago, the Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998 with novels that combine surrealist experimentation with a kind of sardonic peasant pragmatism, … Continue reading →

Another Red bites the dust! Joan Hinton, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atom bomb, but spent most of her life as a committed Maoist working on dairy farms in China, died on Tuesday in … Continue reading →

Who knew that the Good Lord had such a sense of humor? A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police … Continue reading →

A very good question asked by Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times is, “How much would you spend on a sick pet?” Most pet owners say that cost is a factor when deciding whether to seek medical care for … Continue reading →

From Don Surber, discussing the qualities of Our President: As to constitutional lawyer, I get the feeling he studied that that document with the same contempt an atheist may attack the Bible.

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks, who won the Stanley Cup with an 4-3 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers last night. I was pulling for the Flyers, of course, but I could see the writing on the wall in Game … Continue reading →

Where else but the New York Times? To the Editor: The energy bills coming out of both the House and the Senate prove yet again how utterly ineffectual our political system is at really solving the nation’s biggest problems. The … Continue reading →

Helen Thomas has been retired with extreme prejudice after videotaped remarks suggesting that the Jews in Israel “go home” to Poland and Germany where, when she became a reporter in 1943, they were being treated with the deepest respect. The … Continue reading →

Where else but the New York Times? To the Editor: One reason the government does not have any capacity to fix the oil leak is that it is lacking the know-how and experience. One way to gain that experience is … Continue reading →

For an AKC judge acquiring new breeds involves quite a bit of effort done at one’s own expense, including going to shows for ringside observations, sitting in on breed seminars and judging matches and sweepstakes. On applying for new breeds … Continue reading →

When this poor little blog was transferred from Blogger to WordPress, to say the least it was not transparent.  For example, every uploaded photo was lost.  All the formatting mistakes caused by Blogger’s clunky interface were thrown into stark relief. … Continue reading →

New Yorkers famously have a reputation for being short on tact and civil servants famously have a reputation for the slack quality of service.  Put them together and it seems you get the Port Authority and MTA toll collectors.  Among … Continue reading →

A Portland police officer on his rounds pops into a coffee shop to get himself some java and associate with the community he’s serving.  Not uncommendable, right?  Wrong! In mid-May, Portland police Officer James Crooker  went to Southeast Portland on … Continue reading →

As almost everyone this side of Alpha Centauri now knows, last night Tigers pitcher Armando Gallaraga’s quest for a perfect game ended with a blown call by first-base umpire Jim Joyce on a bang-bang play.  Unquestionably, Joyce missed it.  I … Continue reading →