Country at War

The George Zimmerman verdict denotes a nation at a crossroads. Maybe we’ve already crossed some kind of line of demarcation. Post-racial America? Maybe if you’re a Beltway elite you think that. For those of us keeping score elsewhere, I contend we’re not at all.

While the Zimmerman trial garnered the lion’s share of coverage via the MSM, other news stories continued to trickle out.

Rolling Stone magazine, once the quintessential rock rag, featured Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev  on its recent cover. Predictably, the binary, black/white moralists were outraged, claiming that Rolling Stone “glamorized” Tsarnaev, giving him the “rock star” treatment. If you actually read the article, a nuanced, well-written piece by Janet Reitman, you might come away with the idea, like I did that circumstances and ideological persuasion can change people, turning docile, well-liked young men into cold-blooded killers. Continue reading

Careful What You Say, But Think What You Want

It’s ok to hold contrary views and opinions, except when it’s not. Actually, we live in a fairly buttoned-up time when it comes to tolerating alternative narratives about politics, economics, work, family relations, etc. If you don’t think so, try going against the grain once in a while.

I know only too well that “thinking outside the box” basically gets you left out in the cold, and marginalized. Or, you get the “whispers behind your back” treatment. No one really wants the actual moving out of the box, or new ways of doing things; they just like talking about it. Continue reading

Dusting up over WalMart

Apparently last week, there was a major dust-up online between two seemingly disparate forces and writers. Gary North (more to come further down the page) took issue with James Howard Kunstler, peak oil iconoclast, anti-WalMart crusader, and writer. I respect Kunstler, I’ve read his books, and I even reviewed his latest book in January. That’s not to say that I hang on every word of Kunstler’s because I don’t. Continue reading