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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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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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GREAT PARKING LOT IN THE SKY
As most of you know, I do not follow Republican politics very closely. But this year there has been a major exception to the rule. The Herman Cain/Michele Bachmann/Rick Perry enjoyment has been endless as the Republicans vie for their party’s nomination to run against Barack Obama. The Republicans have been at it for several…
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SEXUAL MATTERS
For a good number of years, I have been pursuing the art of a wordsmith. But all of that has now gone by the wayside as we have seen the Republican primaries take place. Much to my dismay, the aspirants to Barack Obama’s job have brought up a collection of terms of which I am…
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THE MOTHER TONGUE REVISITED
Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court Justice, is a man who has his head in the sand. He insists that the law is what was written in 1776 – 1789 without any improvements to the law or the language. You may recall that Scalia is the person who gave us George W. Bush when the hanging…
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A FIVE-STAR QUINELLA
For a number of years, I have kept two dictating machines on a table near my desk. On the left side, there is a machine that I use to dictate what I hope is the final product for Mrs. Baker, the transcriber. On the right side, there is a machine that keeps notes for titles…
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REFLECTIONS ON THE WAHHABI
At the outset, it might be well for the author of this essay to explain the title. In round numbers, the Prophet Mohammed lived about 1500 years ago. The Prophet took several wives and they produced several children. But if my understanding is nearly correct, two of his grandsons founded competing brands of the Muslim…
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MITT AND WILLIE
The principal characters in this essay are Mitt Romney, the Republican aspirant to the presidency of the United States, and a fellow called Willie Nelson, who is a singer of folk songs. My memory is that Willie Nelson is perilously close to being 80 years of age. The knock on Mitt Romney is that he…
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RETIRING RETROACTIVELY
The network news broadcasts and the politicians are attempting to determine what was meant by Mitt Romney’s saying that he had retired retroactively. I fancy myself a wordsmith but I am thoroughly baffled by the use of the term “retired retroactively.” The case in point involves Mr. Romney filing papers with the Securities and Exchange…
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THE SOO-PREMES AT WORK
This essay has to do with the Supreme Court of the sweet-smelling United States of America. I have been a court watcher for many years and I have come to the conclusion that no one should ever contend that the Supreme Court is being worked to death. Quite the opposite is true. The Supreme Court…