One Answer Within a Great Discussion

August 27, 2010

If you've tuned out my failed efforts to make Donkeyrock own up to the consequences of his words, I want to bring your attention to a far more edifying discussion over on my Baptist post. Some truly excellent and respectful back and forth.

Taxable Value and Market Value Are Not The Same

August 25, 2010

I attended the City of Lakeland budget hearing last night. Fairly uneventful, though long. Like most budget hearings, it drew sparse attendance from citizens without a vested funding interest

What DonkeyRock and Richard Land Hath Wrought

August 24, 2010

If you care about your country, you need to watch this video from beginning to end. It captures a “rally” against the Park51 Islamic Community Center that has people so exercised. A man, described as a carpenter on his way to work at the Ground Zero construction site, who happens to be black, walks through [...]

One Very Long Southern Baptist Continuum

August 19, 2010

“An Abnormal Idea of their Equality”: The “True” Story of the 10th in Lakeland

August 10, 2010

Do I Live in a County More Rational than Hezbollah?

August 9, 2010

The invaluable Cary McMullen continues to be The Ledger's finest asset of credibility. In the last two weeks, he's twice tackled....

Notable Facebook Quotables

August 6, 2010

As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a Facebook vigilante. If I'm your "friend," I consider your postings no different than someone standing in the middle of Munn Park waving a sign or shouting through a bullhorn. I feel free to repeat them, and I tend to offer, ahem, perspectives on certain things that get said. If this offends, you should unfriend me. Now. Fair warning. With that in mind, I just want to...

“Dear Mr. Lincoln, We Coloreds have taken a vote…”: A Message from Tea Party Leadership

July 25, 2010

Not to belabor the Shirley Sherrod point further, but let's belabor it. The context for all of this is the NAACP's statement a few weeks back, which said this:

J.D. Is Still the Posterchild for Steep Inheritance Taxes

July 23, 2010

Give Shirley Sherrod Back Her Job: Or Why I’m A Jerk

July 21, 2010

If you're a Fox News watcher (I'm not), and I know that many of you are, I'm sure you've been following this story with glee. In short....

Townsend’s House of Cheese

July 16, 2010

A Cautionary Tale About Rewarding Polk Developers for their Incompetence

Hate to Root Against Ghana, But I’ll Manage It

June 25, 2010

Tired of the freaking oil in gulf? Of the economy and the wars? Of loudmouthed jerks like me? Well, watch this all the way to the end and see if you can keep from smiling. I couldn't.

Remembering the Fighting 10th: Or Billy is Embarrassed

June 4, 2010

It turns out the city fairly long ago - 2001 - honored the men of the 10th Cavalry with commemorative marker along Lake Wire where they camped in 1898 before going onto military fame in the Cuban phase of the Spanish American War. The Ledger wrote about it while I worked there. Oh, the shame.

Let’s Build This Monument For Next Memorial Day

May 31, 2010

If you stop along Lake Morton, near the intersection with Massachusetts Avenue, you'll see a historic marker erected "by the city library" in 1948 honoring the encampment of the Second Massachusetts Infantry during the Spanish American War in 1898. It notes that one soldier, a private, died in the camp and was given a "funeral that a marshal of France might have deserved..."

Quieting the Murmur of Approval: The Suicidal Success of the Seven Sisters

May 27, 2010

Note: I've been working on this piece on and off since late February, when The Ledger's Cary McMullen wrote a religion column documenting and lamenting the decline of mainline protestantism. It's a little long and not terribly local -- it grows out of my other project. But I hope you'll indulge me. If not, well, you don't have to.

Consequences are for Other People

May 25, 2010

If there's one lesson we can draw from Paula Dockery's ill-fated campaign for governor, which ended yesterday after never really gaining traction, it's this...

No Blood for Cotton

May 11, 2010

I have been rather, uh, terse in my critique of certain political behavior in the wake of the gulf oil spilling (using the gerund because it’s ongoing). Particularly toward that important species of conservative that either loved to chant “Drill, Baby, Drill,” or kept silent while others did, but pleads complexity now, with chocolate-covered sea turtles on our TVs and fishing bans in the gulf.....

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