March 15, 2010

Andrew Lloyd Webber - critical disclaim!

Power to the social networkers and [...]

March 9, 2010

The Culture of Step

Anyone who has ever set foot on a historically black college or university campus knows that there is something called stepping, the form of percussive dance where the entire body is used to produce intricate rhythms and sounds comprised of a mixture of rapid footsteps, spoken word, rhyme, hand claps, syncopation and synchronization. Stepping is [...]

February 16, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-16-10)

Is there more than one “one and only” for everyone?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 15, 2010

Confirmed Till the End

1 Corinthians 1:3  Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 4  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; 5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in [...]

February 15, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-15-10)

Do you feel a responsibility to take care of the elderly?  Your relations and/or strangers?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 14, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (02-14-10)

Is Valentines Day just a commercial holiday or something more?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 13, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (02-13-10)

What do you think of Body Piercing, Tattoos, and Branding?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 10, 2010

So what was written on Sarah's Palm...George Bush?

Sarah reads from her palm. She mixes up names and trashes the English language and makes up little idioms like shout outs and six pack joes and hockey moms. She really isn’t into all that minutia of policy and stumbles around when pressed and mixes metaphors and trips over sound bytes and puts her pedagogy’s [...]

February 9, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-9-10)

Do you consider yourself normal or abnormal?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 8, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-8-10)

Should Racial Profiling be used to help identify, and prevent, potential acts of Terrorism?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 7, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-7-10)

Do you think there will ever be a world war or Armageddon that will end the world as we know it?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 6, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-6-10)

Is Money the root of all Evil?  If so – why?  If not – why?

We welcome your thoughts and comments

February 5, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-5-10)

At what point does something in Moderation become something in Excess – Religion, Sex, Politics, Chocolate, Prunes?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 4, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-4-10)

What is the future of print media and literature?  What is the future of this type of printed material that you can hold in your hand and physically turn the pages?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 3, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-3-10)

“People are just People” is a saying we have all heard from time to time.  Are people really the same in all parts of the world?  If so, how are they the same?  If not, how are they different and what makes them different?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 2, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-2-10)

What have you not done in life that you would still like to do?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

February 1, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (2-1-10)

Should there be a ban on smoking – if so – in what places or areas?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

January 31, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-30-10)

Does good physical appearance  equate to success throughout the world’s societies?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

January 30, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-30-10)

Do you think their will be a cure for HIV/Aids?  What should – or could – be done to prevent it?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

January 29, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-29-10)

Is their life in outer space?  Do you believe in Aliens and UFO’s?

We welcome your thoughts and comments

January 27, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-27-10)

Sex Education in Schools – too much, too little, just right?

We welcome your thoughts and comments

January 26, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-26-10)

What is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you in public?

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

January 25, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-25-10)

Alcoholism has touched my family – my brother and brother-in-law died from it.  Has it touched you or your family? 

We welcome your comments, thoughts, and stories.

January 24, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-24-10)

Who is the strongest – women or men – and why and in what way? 

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

January 23, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-23-10)

Do you think terrorism will effect you personally – if so, how?

Has it already effected you personally – if so, how?

Do you think worldwide terrorism will ever be defeated?

What are your thoughts?

January 22, 2010

The SWI Question of the Day (1-21-10)

There have been many publicized cases of infidelity in marriages and relationships.  A defense that is sometimes used is Sex Addition.  Is this a real addiction or a rationalization/excuse when the participating parties get caught?  What are your thoughts?

January 19, 2010

Wit, satire and forgery

As you know, we have a hacker who turns up on this site from time-to-time.

As you may not know, we also have a wit-cum-satirist-cum-forger who is now regularly in the habit of changing other people’s postings to satirise them.

Whilst I am delighted that the guy has a sense of humour somewhat absent from his substantive [...]

December 12, 2009

Reviewers - The Bigger, The Bagger and The Bugger

I have read enough reviews in my time, and even written enough, to come up with a Saturday morning categorisation of the art of reviewing. You, no doubt, can identify some far more insightful and incisive categories of your own, in which case feel free to do so below or in a responding article.

The tragedy [...]

November 18, 2009

The 9 principles, 12 values and one Pundit.

Everybody dance now!

You know I never thought I would become some kind of “liberal blogger.”  It’s just that as I get older I see and hear things that bother me.  Take Glen Beck’s 9 principles and 12 values….

If I were a tea party supporter, I’d be pissed.  This is probably the greatest fear of [...]

November 16, 2009

The Politics of Oprah--This Is Not A Book Tour

Who can forget seeing Oprah with Barack at the big rally in Chicago? There she was the number one woman in America with sway over millions of American women and men and she was standing with the man who would change the world. Oprah loves Barack Obama. Let there be no mistake. She supported him, [...]

November 10, 2009

Doing something for other than Monetary Reasons

When I started this site, in December 2008, I approached it as any other business that I have owned.  I expected my efforts to realize rewards – monetary rewards.  I had a plan – to obtain the largest number of contributors and viewers – in the shortest amount of time.  I felt that volume would equal results [...]

October 29, 2009

The Ridiculous side of life

The Ridiculous Side of Shop Till You Drop

Nancy Pofahl

The holiday [...]

October 27, 2009

The Pursuit of Happiness–the public option should be for everyone

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. So  if we are to take these words at their core and apply them to the year 2009 then we [...]

October 20, 2009

SAVE THE NEWSPAPERS? WHY?

SAVE THE NEWSPAPERS?   WHY?
 
By Ron Marr
www.troutwrapper.com
 
Having worked in, on, and around newspapers for over two decades, I can say with some authority that the vast majority of reporters, editors, and publishers are about as sharp as a pound of wet leather. The general consensus amongst their fraternity is, quite simply, that readers are too addle-brained [...]

October 16, 2009

War

War

During America’s brutal and bloody Civil War, General William T. Sherman said, “War is cruel and you cannot refine it” and “war at best is barbarism.” Sherman is also credited with saying “War is hell.”

Alexander the Great was known to [...]

October 14, 2009

Questions and Answers

Does anyone know the answer?

No? Well, does anyone know the question?

Which, to me, is the question.

We humans seek THE answer. The get-rich-quick scheme. The fountain of youth. Megamillions lottery jackpot. We will pay for the answer. We will pay a lot for the answer. Whether we know the question or not.

Public discourse in our country [...]

October 13, 2009

Ruining Halloween for Everyone

Ruining Halloween for Everyone
By Alan Caruba

When I was a kid, some seven decades ago, Halloween was one of the most enjoyable holidays other than Christmas.

The sixth graders in my town, in cooperation with local merchants, would paint Halloween scenes on the windows of stores and, on the great night, kids of all ages would go [...]

October 13, 2009

Race and the NFL–Rush Limbaugh wants a team

The St. Louis Rams. Ok. Rush wants them. Why not? He’s got the bucks. He wants to do what rich men do when they become very rich–they buy professional sport teams. So he has the right. Absolutely. As Bill O’Reilly said on his show  last night, he has right to buy any team he wants [...]

October 12, 2009

Mr. President, Please Do NOTHING

Mr. President, Please Do NOTHING
By Alan Caruba

I had a strange epiphany the other day. If I were to write a letter to President Obama, it would say, “Please do nothing.”

It seems to me that Obama’s forte is to do nothing much of the time. Well, not “nothing.” He is giving speeches, but those incessant, self-referencing [...]

October 12, 2009

The Swine Who Live to Scare You

The Swine Who Live to Scare You
By Alan Caruba

For a very long time I have made my living as a business and science writer. That profession tends to make one fond of facts. It’s the reason my blog’s URL is “facts not fantasy” and why I call it “Warning Signs.”

It is the reason I [...]

October 11, 2009

A Wicked and Ignorant Award

A Wicked and Ignorant Award
How Barack Obama could help redeem the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s grievous mistake.

It is absurd and it is embarrassing. It would even be infuriating if it were not such a declaration of emptiness.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has embarrassed itself and cheapened a great award that had real meaning.

It was a good thing, [...]

October 9, 2009

Peace Prizes for War and Death

Peace Prizes for War and Death

by John Armor

       Below are all the American Presidents and Vice Presidents who have received the Nobel Peace Prize, in order from first to most recent.  It was an educational experience to review all the awards since the first was given in 1901.  That bears on whether the Prize just [...]

October 8, 2009

Every Drop of Water in America

Every Drop of Water in America
By Alan Caruba

For sixty years I lived on a little street called Brookside Road. The name came from a real brook, a Depression-era project lined with smooth rocks that was serene and beautiful, bounded by trees on both sides.

Some in the federal government want to exert control over that brook [...]

October 8, 2009

China in Transition, Part One in a Series

China in Transition, Part One in a Series

by Lloyd Lofthouse

My wife landed in Seattle in 1984. She was born in China during the Cultural Revolution and was twenty-seven when she arrived in America. She came prepared for the worst with a suitcase full of toilet paper. The state controlled media in China fed the people [...]

October 7, 2009

Defeating Ourselves in Afghanistan

Defeating Ourselves in Afghanistan

By Alan Caruba

It is a familiar question; why eight years after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, haven’t we found Osama bin Laden? And now the greater question before the President and the nation is why are we still in Afghanistan?

You are not likely to hear an answer from either the [...]

October 7, 2009

The Muslim House of Mirrors

The Muslim House of Mirrors

By Alan Caruba

The problem with living in a house of mirrors is that everything you see is in reverse polarity. There is no way to come to grips with anything resembling reality.

A case in point is the recent announcement by Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [...]

October 6, 2009

California, Watch Us Leave!

California, Watch Us Leave!

By Alan Caruba

A popular Al Jolson song when your grandparents were young began, “California here we come, right back where we started from.” For many of that generation, California was a land of golden opportunity, a destination for the “Okies” whose farms had succumbed to a long drought in the 1930s, and [...]

October 5, 2009

Minority Treatment in China, Part 4

Minority Treatment in China, Part 4

by Lloyd Lofthouse

Many similarities exist between the way the emperors of old treated minorities inside China and the way the Communist government treats minorities today.

The law now applies to all fifty-six minorities in two areas. The first law is that an elementary education is mandatory for all children. There are [...]

October 3, 2009

EPA: The Blob that Ate America

EPA: The Blob that Ate America
By Alan Caruba

No single government agency has grown so big and so fast as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and no single agency threatens constitutionally guaranteed property rights and nationwide economic growth than the EPA.

It is the Blob that ate America.

Signed into law by Richard M. Nixon in 1970, [...]

October 3, 2009

Assaults on the Second Amendment

Assaults on the Second Amendment
By Alan Caruba

While Americans are still wary of making big purchases such as a new home, they are investing heavily in guns and ammunition. The sales are off the charts and this may have something to do with why the Founding Fathers, after protecting free speech, free press, and the right [...]

October 2, 2009

Keeping America Safe From the Ranters

Keeping America Safe From the Ranters
As the Elders of the media die, who’ll replace them?

When William Safire died the other day, we lost one of the Elders of journalism and the argumentative arts. We’ve been losing a lot of them lately: Walter Cronkite, Bob Novak, Don Hewitt, Irving Kristol. “The stars seem to be going [...]

September 30, 2009

I Woke UP This Morning

I have weathered a major storm in my life. It isn’t quite over, but I am now riding out the tail-end of [...]

September 29, 2009

When Did Energy Become the Enemy?

When Did Energy Become the Enemy?
By Alan Caruba

One of the most curious and, frankly, frightening aspects of environmentalism is its hatred of the use of energy. One can draw a straight line between the Carter administration that imposed a windfall tax on the U.S. oil industry and the present Obama administration that is all for [...]

September 28, 2009

A New Proud Grandpa looking for stories from other Proud Grandparents

This is our new 2-month old granddaughter.  My wife and I realize there are many children/grandchildren in the world – but this one is special – to us.  We are fortunate enough that we both can afford to stay home and take care of her during the day while our daughter and Son-in-law work.  We [...]

September 28, 2009

All Obama, All the Time

All Obama, All the Time
By Alan Caruba

You know things are amiss when a British newspaper takes President Obama to task in an editorial titled, “Too much Obama.”

America and the rest of the world have had nine months of President Obama and all the flaws that were hidden by campaign rhetoric and coverage are now on [...]

September 26, 2009

The West Laramie Fly Store

Laramie, Wyoming is located in the Southeast part of the state.  Most of the publicity regarding Wyoming is about the area around Jackson Hole in the Northwest part of the state; however,  the area around Laramie – and this part of Wyoming – has its own beauty.  Laramie is mainly a college town where the University of [...]

September 25, 2009

Making Law, Ignoring Science, Taxing via Ignorance

Making Law, Ignoring Science, Taxing via Ignorance
By Alan Caruba

You begin with bad science, the kind that has no basis in fact. You get corporations to promote that bad science in order to increase their profits. Then you get the courts involved to rule on what those corporations are doing and when they incorporate the bad [...]

September 24, 2009

The U.S. Capitol and Islam’s Endless Jihad

The U.S. Capitol and Islam’s Endless Jihad
By Alan Caruba

On Monday, September 28, Jews around the world will celebrate Yom Kippur, fasting and seeking to begin the new lunar year with a clean slate. The holy day is traditionally celebrated after one has paid debts and sought forgiveness for any wrongs.

For the Israelis, in 1973, it [...]

September 24, 2009

Unbearable Arrogance

Unbearable Arrogance
By Alan Caruba

As the months pass by in the Obama administration, some traits are beginning to emerge that inform us in a general way what we’re up against.

To the astonishment of many, it is an administration filled with Marxists. The “Green Jobs” czar Van Jones was exposed as one and resigned. Now it has [...]

September 22, 2009

The Stork vs Sex

I have a beautiful daughter and an equally beautiful granddaughter - neither of which was delivered by the stork!

We have had a lively exchange – both among our contributors - and through related postings to our site.  All of this discussion evolved around the general topic of Sex.  My feeling is that any sexually related subject can be addressed [...]

September 22, 2009

WHY DO WORLD LEADERS SUPPORT THE CO2 GREENHOUSE GAS MYTH?

WHY DO WORLD LEADERS SUPPORT THE CO2 GREENHOUSE GAS MYTH?
By Ben Cerruti

 

It is disturbing to hear the President of the United States propagate that which is not true. In his speech to the United Nations today he advanced the Global Warming/Climate Change myth. At the same time appearing in the New [...]

September 22, 2009

The Department of Defenselessness

The Department of Defenselessness
By Alan Caruba

When World War Two arrived at America’s doorstep, we had to virtually build an Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines from scratch. The war had been raging in Europe since 1939 by the time the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor propelled us into war in 1941. The Japanese had been [...]

September 22, 2009

Missing Teeth

Stephen Sangirardi     Missing Teeth       Bard715@aol.com
 
   During Spring Break of 1977, Bill, Ed, Janet and I drove home to New York from UMC. We were graduate students at the time in the English Department and good friends. Bill had the car, so he and I split the driving. Because we wanted to get home fast—1,200 miles [...]

September 22, 2009

Julius and Julius (Caesar and Genachowski)

Julius and Julius (Caesar and Genachowski)

by John Armor

Two days ago we were sitting on the dock in Como, having a gellato, waiting for our ship to come in.  Not actually a ship, just a small commuter boat that connects the small communities on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy.

It is a breathtakingly beautiful [...]

September 21, 2009

Grandfather and the Raven

Introduction

Earlier this year, I published the following two stories in a book published by Abbott ePublishing, of Manchester, N.H.. The book’s title is “Grandfather Stories.” Recently I wrote a new book, Grandfather and the Raven, a collection of 21 stories that includes the following two stories from the first collection. [...]

September 21, 2009

SWI – Open to Everyone “maybe not” For Everyone

SWI – Open to Everyone “maybe not” For Everyone

by Bob Grant

 

My original idea for this site came from watching talk TV with my wife who loves these programs – me, [...]

September 21, 2009

Florida Ignores Billions in Oil/Gas Revenue

Florida Ignores Billions in Oil/Gas Revenue
By Alan Caruba

If you were the governor of a state that had anywhere from $7 billion at the low end and $41 billion at the high end in oil and natural gas revenues, wouldn’t you want to drill for it? If you did, you would open up between 20,000 and [...]

September 21, 2009

The Burden of Self-Responsibility

If we don’t want police in our lives—crime police, thought police, social behavior police—we have to be responsible for everything we do and say. That starts with the intelligence and wisdom to make good decisions, the strength to carry them out, and the courage to live with the consequences—which unfortunately [...]

September 20, 2009

‘Death of a Salesman’

‘Death of a Salesman‘

Stephen Sangirardi Bard715@aol.com
: Biff’s “discovery” up in Boston
 
   There are two schools of thought concerning Biff’s “discovery” up in Boston. Some readers believe that Willy Loman indeed kills what he loves the most when Willy is caught by Biff in the hotel room with his mistress. Devastated by his discovery, Biff not [...]

September 20, 2009

Just How Awful is the UN?

Just How Awful is the UN?
By Alan Caruba

It is hard to imagine a more nauseating assemblage than those who gather for a meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Belonging to such an organization—and the United States does—is an insult to humanity.

When the General Assembly votes, it puts nations such as Liechtenstein and [...]

September 20, 2009

Musical Lyrics – Is that Writing?

I started enjoying music as a young boy in the 1950’s.  I liked artists like Harry Belafonte, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, The Platters, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly to name a few.  I was was not an Elvis fan.  I did watch American Bandstand and Your Hit Parade.

In the 1960’s I liked the Rolling [...]