Obama’s Plane (An Impressive, Mid-Campaign Smear)

August 7, 2008.Reading time 12 minutes.

As some readers know, every so often I get an email smear that is so over-the-top, I feel the need to correct it here. I did it a couple of months ago, with an email that, incredulously, claimed more soldiers had died under Clinton and Carter than under President Bush. Of course, it wasn’t true. […]

The Demons are Still Legion (The Joseph Dwyer Story)

July 30, 2008.Reading time 15 minutes.

Several weeks ago, I blogged about “the girl in the picture” from the Vietnam War, and the improbable story of how she’s overcome her hatred with a powerful and deep forgiveness. Days after I posted the blog, I saw a news item about Joseph Dwyer, and I’ve been haunted by his story ever since. Like […]

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

June 5, 2008.Reading time 27 minutes.

So it’s over. It’s finally over. Barack Obama has claimed the position of presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton has now confirmed she’ll concede, belatedly, on Saturday. Those of you who read some of my thoughts from back during my blog “vacation” (January-March) will know that I’ve been absolutely sure of this […]

No Joy In Vindication

May 30, 2008.Reading time 10 minutes.

Sometimes there is no joy in vindication. Sometimes, the stakes are just too high and –even though history proves you right– there’s no joy when you finally get confirmation that you were justified in some strongly held opinion all along. The Iraq War is like that for me. As someone who, from the very beginning, […]

Three Reasons to Love MSNBC

May 16, 2008.Reading time 5 minutes.

We watch MSNBC for most of our news these days. We watch it each primary night for hours. We were drawn to MSNBC because of Keith Olbermann and “Countdown.” But I’m not even going to mention him here. Because what we’ve come to love about their shows is the smartness of all of their pundits….folks […]

Right on Wright

April 30, 2008.Reading time 2 minutes.

Tonight, Dennise and Maria were watching TV, and some clips of Rev. Jeremiah Wright came on from his National Press Club appearance last night. Among other things, these were clips where he was again blaming the government for AIDS, and calling American soldiers terrorists. The following is a mostly verbatim transcription of the conversation that […]

David LaMotte Gets Spun

April 25, 2008.Reading time 6 minutes.

Wanted to blog about this quickly this morning, because it seems to be breaking on the blogs, and it involves an actual friend of mine… David LaMotte is a truly fine songwriter friend from the great city of Asheville, North Carolina. I was overhearing some audio from the Huffington Post this morning, and thought “that […]

What I Always Believed About Saddam

January 29, 2008.Reading time 17 minutes.

In the context of early 2008 –with the “Surge” apparently reducing violence in Iraq, with the US Economy in the tank, and with everybody fixated on the presidential primaries as a way to take our minds off the past seven years –it may well be that nobody wants to hear any additional analysis of the […]

Missing the Mark on MLK Day

January 25, 2008.Reading time 20 minutes.

If you put together a list of the five people in Dallas who do the most to help the poor, Larry James would surely be on that list. Larry’s been a friend for over fifteen years now, and I have been and admirer of his for all of that time. He began ministry as a […]

More on Military Deaths

January 22, 2008.Reading time 4 minutes.

A little more on my blog on military deaths… Kim emailed yesterday to ask a good question: “What are the leading causes of death for each of these years/eras? Is there any data on this?” Don’t know why I didn’t stop to ask that question myself. On Sunday, I was in such a hurry to […]