No one else here has yet mentioned this foo-fah-rah that emerged in the Washington state capitol in Olympia, and is spreading to others. Several governors have allowed Nativity scenes to be erected in their Capitol rotundas. In Washington state, the regional atheists got permission to put up an adjacent sign…
How much does this happy-seeming family in Mali need? Not more than they have, it would seem. Or consider this Soweto family that lives in a 400 square foot home. Or consider this family from Bhutan. For comparison, here's a family from the U.S. and here's a family from Japan.…
I've been diligently avoiding the unavoidable visual and auditory warnings of the impending Yule since mid-October. But in the second half of December I'm ready to embrace "The Christmas Station" and decorations and such. However, I always preferred the offbeat things, like Weird Al's "Christmas at Ground Zero" [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsvZHHLQ8-c[/youtube] and…
Rod Blogojevich is not a big fish by any means. Most of the big fish remain nameless and free, according to Frank Rich of the NYT: What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have…
You'd never know that there was an energy crisis in South St. Louis, based on the extravagant use of Christmas lighting. My family and I walked through one neighborhood that pushed the envelope even further than the usual level of extravagance, drawing dozens of cars. The tradition is apparently to…