May 5, 2010
Maybe you remember Pavlov. For those who slept through Psych 101, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist famous for his research into what came to be called the conditioned reflex. Pavlov taught a hungry dog to associate the ringing of a bell wi...
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May 3, 2010
If we really wanted immigration reform, we'd have had it years ago.
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April 28, 2010
And what shall we say about the fact that there is to be a homosexual in Riverdale?
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April 21, 2010
The numbers are in. Thanks to a new CBS News/New York Times poll, we now have a statistical picture of the "tea party" movement. There are few surprises.
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April 14, 2010
"We went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I never heard of any other cause of quarrel than slavery. Men fight from sentiment. After the fight is over they invent some fanciful theory on which they imagine that they fo...
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April 12, 2010
"I'm walkin', yes indeed." -- Fats Domino On April 15, it will be 22 years since she died. I remember getting home from photocopying some paper I needed to complete my taxes, only to find my wife facing me with eyes so stricken and bereft that...
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April 7, 2010
A few words about Christian terrorism. And I suppose the first words should be about those words: "Christian terrorism." The term will seem jarring to those who've grown comfortable regarding terrorism as something exclusive to Islam.
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March 31, 2010
It must have seemed like a great idea at the time. There was this new medium, the Internet, and newspapers were posting stories on it, and someone decided to create a forum where readers could discuss and debate what they just read. It must have seemed an...
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March 29, 2010
Hi, boys and girls! As a public service, I've prepared the following statement for Republican leaders to use when some disgruntled opponent of health care reform injures somebody -- or worse. Given recent reports of threats against Democratic lawmakers in...
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March 24, 2010
So it turns out that, contrary to what I argued in this space a few weeks back, racism is not "a major component" of the so-called tea party movement. I am informed of this by dozens of tea party activists indignant and insulted that I would eve...
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March 22, 2010
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ..." -- Matthew 5:6 Ultimately, I suppose, what we're talking about is a clash between the sweet by and by and the fierce urgency of now.
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March 15, 2010
Evil is not a color. It has no particular religion nor creed, nor style of dress, nor gender nor geographic home. Evil is an equal opportunity employer. One hopes we learn at least that much from the adventures of Jihad Jane.
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March 8, 2010
NEW ORLEANS -- Warren Buffett leads a troop of officials, reporters and a guy with a boom mike into the just-finished new apartment.
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March 3, 2010
"At some point, you have to use the word 'crazy.' " It will not surprise you to hear that the speaker is referring to extremists within the tea party movement. What might surprise you is that the speaker is Erick Erickson, editor in chief of Red...
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March 1, 2010
A few words on the meaning of tea. They are occasioned by a recent commentary from Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. The commentary -- you can find it on YouTube -- scores the tea party movement as the outcry of people who haven't yet made peace with the fact tha...
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February 24, 2010
We the people. Those are, of course, the first words of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. "We the people of the United States ..." It doesn't say anything about corporations.
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February 22, 2010
I got an e-mail the other day that depressed me.
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February 17, 2010
"...And -- which is more -- you'll be a man, my son!" -- from "If" by Rudyard Kipling Eleven-month-old Lena had a fever. It had spiked to 104 degrees and brought with it seizures, spasms of movement that terrified her parents. They ca...
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February 15, 2010
Dear Sarah Palin: I hear you're pondering a run for the White House in 2012. Last week, you told Fox news it would be "absurd" to rule it out. I'm writing to ask that you rule it in. I very badly want you to run for -- and win -- the Republican...
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February 10, 2010
We already know where this is going. For some of us, the knowledge is hateful, for others, hopeful. Yet the inevitable arc of it is clear: Maybe it will be 10 years, maybe 20, but we can now envision a day when the last legal restrictions against gay men...
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February 8, 2010
It is the enduring paradox of our centuries here. It is the paradox that stood its ground at Bunker Hill, paradox that made a doomed charge on Fort Wagner, paradox that stormed San Juan Hill, advanced through the Meuse-Argonne, landed on Iwo Jima, liberat...
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February 3, 2010
"Come now, let us reason together ..." Isaiah 1:18 A few words about that important speech President Obama gave last week. No, not that important speech, the other one.
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February 1, 2010
If he'd said it of Jews, he would still be apologizing. If he'd said it of blacks, he'd be on BET, begging absolution. If he'd said it of women, the National Organization for Women would have his carcass turning slowly on a spit over an open flame. But he...
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January 27, 2010
Don Lewis thinks white men can't jump.
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January 25, 2010
Have you heard about the Jesus rifles? ABC News broke the story last week. It seems there was this fellow named Glyn Bindon, who used weapons of war to speak for his faith.
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