Okay, perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. But I found some videos on YouTube purporting to show simple homemade tricks for getting power from essentially nothing. The culprit calls himself HouseholdHacker These are very slickly directed and composed, very amateur-looking videos, full of straight-faced monologue and how-to demonstrations, illustrating nothing…
One of my favorite current cartoonists is Brooke McEldowney. I discovered his work online a few years ago in the form of "A Fairy Merry Christmas". In the interest of copyright non-violation, I'll leave it to youse to Google up your own excerpts. This cartoon series was an NEA sponsored…
It is amazing to me that so many active duty members of the military would risk repercussions by taking a strong position contrary to the President. The effort has been organized by Appeal for Redress. Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support…
Writer John Scalzi recently visited the Creation Museum. He has written his report, assessed his impressions, and concluded...well, you should read his conclusions for yourself, here. I do not have Mr. Scalzi's flare for describing expensive nonsense in such finely satirical, subversive, and somewhat detached a manner. There is also a…
Did you ever notice how evocative moments of silence are? I’m always emotionally moved when the PA announcer asks for a moment. The silence of tens of thousands of people is powerful, indeed. American culture is usually out-of-control cacophonous. If we aren’t yapping with each other, there’s a TV or radio blaring. We are pummeled with noise everywhere we go, including waiting rooms, stores and airports. We even bring our yapping and music to “quiet” places, such as national parks. We just can’t help ourselves. It is getting much too hard to find quiet places anymore. That’s why it’s such a joy to be reminded to shut up, even for a moment, even if once in a while. I also appreciated this simple attempt to remind the crowd to be quiet out of respect for Abraham Lincoln’s accomplishments. Not that this sign worked very well. People still talked, almost as much as ever. Children ran around unrestrained by their parents. People shouted things like, “Hey Bill! Isn’t it about time to go get some hot dogs?”