Scott Walker began his tenure as Governor of Wisconsin on January 3, 2011. In this month and a fortnight he has ginned up a fiscal crisis, driven off his dedicated opponents and now promises devastations of Mubarak-esque extremity, all the while tending a jaunty little moustache of a style not seen since 1947. This is the publicly expressed view of the larger throng demonstrating lately in Madison. It is in many regards complimentary of the Governor as it implies that he has powers of pursuasion and deception on the scale of some comic book telepath. And maybe he does? He’s looked pretty good on TV. Maybe he is exercising supernatural or technological powers. We at least owe it to the numerous people of Good Faith thronging the Capitol to take their concerns and views seriously.

So the criminal Walker has cooked the books. He must have used some recent innovation given the speed and thoroughness of the deed as he has also taken in his Democratic predecessor who sat in his chair up until January 2. Also we might well have a more-or-less explicit admission by Walker as he has never once claimed that he “inherited” this fictive deficit (claimed to be $3.6b over a two year budget) allegedly so terrible and immediate. This is the deafening silence of a dog that didn’t bark. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Public employees protested hard, loud, and ugly in the Wisconsin State Capitol this week. Many of them teachers who called in sick. State Democrats just picked up and left the state. All this to stop legislation that would limit collective bargaining rights for unionized public employees. Governor Scott Walker has to address a $3.6 billion state shortfall before the state becomes insolvent and no one gets paid. The Republican governor decided to cut an expenditure, which,  after some post-protest concessions, essentially just curbs state pensions. He can do that or raise taxes on the majority of Wisconsinites who pay for their own pensions. Which would you do? [Read more →]

Tags: education, politics & government by Robert O'Hara
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I’ve always been fascinated by the military. Well, not always. In fact, when I was younger I was bored senseless by it. I couldn’t stand war films, war comics, or anything war related. The only exception was war in space. I loved laser guns and watching aliens die.

And then, at some point, my attitude changed. After all, nobody can deny that war is a phenomenon worth pondering, given that humans like killing each other so much.

Suddenly too I found that I admired military people. I was jealous of their ability to rise early, keep their hair short, and submit to external authority. Bohemianism is overrated: disciplined habits can help a man progress in life. [Read more →]

Tags: terror & war, travel & foreign lands by Daniel Kalder
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Now the line is that of course the teachers are glad to make concessions, even those as large as Walker asks for, they just want their dignity. They just want a voice. They just want to have a right to input into these decisions. That is all. As stated this all sounds quite, as the Walkerism goes, “modest” but the sweet, empty innocence of this bleat reveals that either these people have never been employed out in The World or perhaps they were and ran off screaming in afright of it. My fellow K&S veterans, current and retired might recall all the input and voice and dignity occurring two years ago come March the Tenth. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Bioethicists – the people who specialize in deciding the thorniest moral issues of this ever-changing world in which we live in – all agree that, if genetic testing reveals the propensity of a patient to develop a life-threatening catastrophic disease, that patient should not be told. The burden of such knowledge is too great for people to handle.

This is basic common sense, of course, and human beings have known this since time immemorial. One needs only look at the Bible, in which Adam and Eve are admonished by no less an authority than God himself to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Too much knowledge, you see, can be a dangerous thing. Even if you are in a crowd of merely one or two people.

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Tags: politics & government, technology by Ricky Sprague
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What do Lara Logan and Hozni Mubarak have in common? What unifies the Egyptian protesters with those granola hikers that “wandered” into Iran? Vultures and sharks, even AIDS and syphilis bugs along with numberless Copts, Kurds, turkomen and other ethno-religious also-rans are all swept into one morally homogenous category of enemy where also sits nearly every nation or at least powerful interests within those nations. Israel herself is the Little Satan. The Great Satan? Look in a mirror. We are all tools, perhaps unknowing, of the hellish Zionist Entity that has quite literally conspired even to shrink the genitals of the faithful. [Read more →]

Tags: on the law, race & culture by Ken Watson
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Spider-Man has joined the Fantastic Four. Actually, he’s joined something called “The Future Foundation.” One member of the Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm AKA the Human Torch, was recently “rebooted to the curb.” And, although the Fantastic Four is no longer calling itself “the Fantastic Four,” they still needed “a fourth.” Hence, the inclusion of Spider-Man.

There are a number of disturbing aspects of this story. It is one of cynicism, corporatism, and psychosexual braggadocio. I intend to touch on all of these aspects in the compelling and thought-provoking essay below. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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In The Mistress of Abha by William Newton, Ivor Willoughby goes searching for the father he barely knew.  A British soldier stationed in Arabia, Ivor met his father, Robert, on only 2 occasions and for only a handful of days in total, but Robert was a legend in their household and beyond.  Ivor is determined, from a very young age, to go to Arabia for himself and see the land that so enthralled his father.  His father’s legend, the story of Ullobi, is not at all what he imagined.  It’s much, much more. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, Lisa Reads by Lisa Hura
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I awoke with a start. A cruel, twisted nightmare had run its course through my synapses, triggering primal fears embedded deep within my psyche. Moments ago I had witnessed the murder of my childhood, the stagnation of any creativity that made residence in my bones. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, games by Dan Sterlace
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I was looking for information about the massive national debt expansions proposed by the new budget deficit, which I believe to be one of the most important issues of our time. But so many of the headlines right now are about Lady Gaga. The following was the only reasonable course of action:

Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Kevin R. Breen
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Over the years, I’ve fallen in love with Ravel and Debussy’s work and gaped at and then studied their complex, soul-crumpling harmonies; I’ve gone through my progressive rock period and my jazz period (fusion to big band to mainstream) and thankfully escaped sane; I often enjoy playing a Renaissance piece on the guitar; I’ve even dabbled in Gaelic folk music, for Pete’s sake. I’ve learned to appreciate all of the great classical stuff that really doesn’t move me much, just because it has merit supported by years of scholarship. But, in the end, the music I have the most faith in — the music I think has the most potential — is popular music. I still think 95% of it is total crap, mind you, but that doesn’t stop me from believing it is the musical area with the greatest artistic potential. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, music by Chris Matarazzo
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Many years ago I was having a conversation with a friend who happened to be a psychiatrist. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but I do remember that something I said prompted him to say, “That’s magical thinking.” I don’t think I had ever heard the phrase “magical thinking” before, and I wasn’t sure what it meant. But I thought for a moment, and replied, “Probably. So what? That can probably be just as good as any other kind.”

I’m still not exactly sure what magical thinking is. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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Thousands of American soldiers have died and continue to die in Afghanistan and Iraq. The country also faces a debt crisis caused in large part by defense spending. It would seem that from these obvious observations that America should stay out of the Middle East for a while. But in light of recent events, not getting involved might be harder than you think. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Robert O'Hara
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Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovebirds out there, Cupid’s arrow has hit me in the rear again. Last week, I fell in love with a new establishment in my town that serves a very tasty buffalo wing. And yes, while I am still on my diet, once a month I will need to allow myself to gorge on wings. A man can only eat so many twigs, nuts, and berries before he loses his mind! Plus, I am a card carrying member of a Wing Club. (Well, we don’t have cards….yet)   [Read more →]

Tags: Marty digs, recipes & food by Marty O'Connor
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The world has changed. The rise of social media has affected many aspects of our lives, giving us the opportunity to reconnect with many people we might have never otherwise encountered again. There are people who would argue that there is a reason you lost touch with certain people, and see no benefit in hearing about the daily minutiae of someone they haven’t seen since fourth grade. Although I am a fan of sites like Facebook, I do think that there are people who overshare. A number of professional athletes have been fined by their respective leagues after posting things on Twitter that violated rules or simply angered someone. This week, a man who had been hired to a football coordinator position at a major university ended up having the job offer rescinded after the hiring was revealed on his Facebook page. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
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10. Although this sonnet’s only ten lines long,

9. And not a sonnet’s needed full fourteen,

8. To call this poem a sonnet would be wrong.

7. So this poem’s dedicated to Maureen.

6. I Love your kindness, wittiness, and grace.

5. I Love the fire burning in your soul.

4. I Love your gorgeous body, lovely face.

3. When we’re together, I at last feel whole.

2. We’ll share Eternal Love, us One together.

1. Or, at the very least, forever endeavor.
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, ends & odd, his & hers, living poetry by Bob Sullivan
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I was fairly incensed the first time I heard Sen. DeMint exclaim “You aren’t a fiscal conservative unless you’re a social conservative”.  I was even more upset by the reporting from the week’s biggest story in the fight for GLTG equality: CPAC and GOProud.  Apparently there are several groups out there, ranging from the Heritage Foundation to the Capital Research Center, which are vehemently opposed to allowing GLTG people claim the mantle of “conservative” and they decided to make that sentiment known at this year’s event.

[Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Well, it’s official. The fair state of Utah is infested with Morons. No, not Mormons. Morons, with a capital M.  And here I thought Utah was an anomalous state, filled with ginger-headed polygamists living in red rock compounds with bonneted child brides, but it really is just like the rest of America— which is to say, teeming with gun-crazy morons.

What is worse, many of these morons are serving in the top legislative bodies of our government. The state senate of Utah, exemplary as ever, is thick with them. I think we can fairly gauge the national discourse by the sentiments expressed by Republican state Senator Mark Madsen, regarding yesterday’s final approval of a bill to make the Browning M1911 semi-automatic pistol the “State Firearm” of Utah:

“I think it is a symbol of freedom and empowerment. I think in the balance of history, much more good has been done by free people using firearms than evil done by evildoers wielding firearms,” Madsen said. “I know there is an effort to make it a symbol of negative, I just don’t buy into the propaganda.”

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Tags: politics & government by Peter Mann
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In New Jersey, times are desperate for the public schools. Well, you say, things are tough all over. There’s just no money, you say. You’re broke. We’re all broke. So when those budgets come up for vote — because in Jersey the only budget you get to vote directly for is your local public school budget — you’re voting ’em down.

Sure. I want you to tell me the one again about the crisis we’re facing supporting and financing public schools in our culture. Tell me how we’re all stretched and suffering and we have to vote “no” on these budgets. [Read more →]

Tags: education, virtual children by Scott Warnock by Scott Warnock
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When Gawker.com celebrated its new layout by breaking a story about a married congressman’s scandal with a woman on Craigslist, his future looked bleak.

But now former Republican representative from New York Christopher Lee’s prospects are looking good. Below are four ways the disgraced politician can benefit from the scandal. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Kevin R. Breen
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