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GOOD JESUS!!
That miserable bastard Cheney is at it again. This essay is going to be dictated on the afternoon of August 27th. We await the arrival of Hurricane Irene. Awaiting the arrival of the hurricane is a far from happy test. My mood is not made any more benign as we wait for the first raindrops…
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BARACK, WE HARDLY KNEW YE
Obviously, the title of this essay is taken from an ancient Irish folk song entitled, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye.” I believe the title is appropriate because Barack Obama had a meteoric rise from a community organizer in Chicago all the way to the presidency of the United States. I am not an active participant…
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JACK ONLY TALKS TO BIG SHOTS
A week or so ago, Barack Obama, the President of the United States, made a speech in El Paso, Texas on immigration reform. As soon as he could do so, the President got out of El Paso and headed for Austin, the state capitol of Texas. He planned to attend a fund raiser in that…
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THE RETURN AND/OR THE REVERTING BACK TO STANDARD TIME
This is being dictated on Friday, November 4, which is the eve of one of the happiest days in my long life. The happiness comes from the fact that tomorrow evening we will do away with daylight savings time. For a small while, if the politicians will keep their noses out of this celestial business,…
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EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS
[Quick note from Kevin: We’re now officially foraying into 2011. Think I’d start with a piece or two written about one year ago exactly. Enjoy!] As I have reported to you on more than one occasion, my first memory of anything occurred in October of 1926. Prior to that time, the New York Yankees had…
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BAD NEWS FOR THE ULTRA PIOUS
If my reading of the calendar is right, today would mark a very bad day for the ultra pious in our midst. Two things have gone violently astray. On this day the President of the United States finally ended his evolving soul searching and announced that he would no longer oppose weddings of gay people. …
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THE POWER OF PRAYER (THREE)
As I am a non-believer in religious exercises, it may seem unbecoming for a fellow with my mind bent to raise the issue of the power of prayer. In this essay I do so not with an accusatory sense of purpose. My interest is purely curiosity. I do not wish to deride those who believe…
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THE ULTIMATE DECIDER
A good many years ago my eldest brother married a woman named Rose Wilson. Rose may have been the kindest woman known to mankind. As my mother would have said, “She had a big heart.” Although I did not see much of Rose because of my living in Kansas City, Chicago, and New York, I…
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A PAIR OF SABBATH THOUGHTS
This dictation is taking place on Sunday, September 2nd, which happens to be a Sabbath in the Christian faith. And so it is that I have a pair of Sabbath thoughts. One is of recent vintage and the other reaches back to, I believe, 1958. Let us take the one of most recent vintage. Last…
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ARGUENDO
The title for this essay is Arguendo. It is a Latin phrase. It means for the sake of argument. This is not an essay about Latin phrases but rather it is an essay about music. Arguendo, I would contend that the best poetry is written by the lyricists who write the words to the music…