Every day I get my daughter off the bus and every day she bounds toward me with all the confidence of a tea party Senator, aware of lots of things but still not really thinking with an adult brain. She tells me how great her day was and walks inside, plopping her hefty backpack on…
During our early religious indoctrination, most of us were told stories from the Bible about Satan. He was an evil, demon-man, a fallen angel lording over the underworld of Hell while causing mischief in the upper world, patiently awaiting sinners, backsliders, and non-believers so he could torture their souls forever. And God, being omnipotent and…
As children, we all “learned” in school about the adventures and exploits of Christopher Columbus: the brave explorer who set out on a perilous mission to discover the New World. He was sold to us as a folk hero, a man to be admired. Banks would close, and we would get a day off from…
This has been one of the strangest weeks I have ever had. Ironically, it all seemed to start at Liberty Tattoo on Friday night when I made the decision to have the word “chaos” tattooed on my leg (words of advice: be careful of the statements you declare on your body). By Saturday evening it…
The spoil of the oil makes true freedom impossible The area that contains the modern Iraq has seen much strife and bloodshed over its long and storied history. The spoils and land of the area have been fought over by the Romans, Mongols, Ottomans, British, and most recently the United States. The early aggressors had…
To start off my little rant here, I’d like to say that I am probably the biggest “gun-nut” on this planet. Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by firearms. As a teen – when my father felt I was mature enough – we would go target shooting and then work on…
Skepticism is my Nature, Freethought is my Methodology, Agnosticism is my Conclusion, Atheism is my Opinion, and Humanism is my Motivation, – Jerry DeWitt, Hope After Faith “Jerry DeWitt’s ministry began when he was seventeen. After twenty-five years of preaching, including pastor-ship of two fundamentalist congregations, he became an atheist.” “I’d bounced from denomination to…
I worry about a lot of things when I am heading into the city for a day trip or an evening out. Do I have the proper shoes? Where am I going to drink? Did I turn off my flat iron before I left the house? But as a white female from the suburbs, the…
“War, n: A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity.” ~ Ambrose Bierce For the record, I was in favor of Bush going into Iraq to take out Saddam Hussein. We’ll eventually work our way back to that. One thing politics and sports have in…
I’ve always been baffled by parents who say, “Don’t hit your sister!” then drive home their point with a swift smack to the kid’s head. I’ve seen this scenario played out countless times in department stores and restaurants and it always ends with me rubbing my head along with the teary eyed child. Now, this…
“What antiwar movement?” – former Congressman Dennis Kucinich It was barely ninety minutes into the No War with Syria rally in Austin, and already the mercury was flirting with the century mark. The revolutionary socialist wiped her brow and raised a bullhorn. “It’s getting pretty hot out here. Why don’t we call it a day,…
“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr. Fifty years…
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Time is short, but our course of action should be clear. Resistance to illegal and unconstitutional usurpation of our rights is required. Each of us must choose which course of action…
I have been an avid Rolling Stone reader for most of my life, and there was a time, prior to the internet, that I was even a full-fledged subscriber to the magazine. Granted, it mysteriously showed up in my mailbox for free every week for years on end, but that still counts and I read…
