A day’s frenetic wall-to-wall activity, and one team learns that it didn’t make it to the final round. Taylor Tofal is almost live in Lacrosse, Wis.
Beyond
Taylor’s Journal, Day Two:
Live Commentary: Uruguay 0, France 0
Live commentary of the France-Uruguay World Cup match from Cape Town, with Thierry Henry starting on the bench.
World Cup Live: South Africa v. Mexico
Live commentary-coverage of the opening World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico from Johannesburg.
Taylor’s Journal:
FPC’s Problem Solvers in Their Own
World Cup in Wisconsin
FPC’s history-making Community Problem Solvers teams are in their own world finals competition in Wisconsin, June 9-13. Taylor Tofal’s journal gives us an inside look.
Job Creation Soars by 431,000, Almost All Census-Driven; Unemployment Down to 9.7%
Despite the surge in employment, signs are grim for sustained job recovery as private-sector and construction jobs lag.
Ego and Egoer
Two of Volusia’s giant egos, Daytona State’s Kent Sharples and ICI Homes’ Mori Hosseini, have turned the college board into their own little Khe Sanh. The NJ puts in some worthy war reporting.
Graduations from God to America
Graduation speeches are part of the American habit of reinvention. They should be provocative and revealing, even if we don’t all agree with the message.
Emerson: The American Scholar
Emerson’s “American Scholar,” a graduation speech to Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa, redefined the way Americans saw themselves–as intellectual individuals on their own terms. Take a second look in this season of commencements.
Ten Things You Should Know About the $70.4 Billion Budget Crist Is About To Sign
Undermining Bright Futures, imposing ultrasounds on pregnant women, studying school funding, favoring bikers, and more curiosities from the state budget.
What You Should Know Before You Buy Your Usher, Rihanna and Bieber Tickets in Daytona
Manuel Bornia, head of Daytona’s International Festival, has a growing trail of exaggerations, self-promotion, and outright inventions to his credit–on other people’s dime.
From Times Square to Jacksonville:
When Terrorism Is a Double-Standard
When the target of terrorism is recognizably American, it’s a national crisis. When the target of terrorism is a mosque in Jacksonville, nobody cares. Why is that?
Tea Party Throng Fills FPC’s Dawg House Cafe
The third meeting of the local tea party movement to be held at FPC drew 228 people, but discussions were standard and relatively tame.
Obama, Biden, Kagan: Where Their Pocket Money Comes From
Where does Obama’s, Biden’s and Elena Kagan’s money come from? Look for yourself: complete financial disclosure forms.
$75 Billion Mortgage Modification Program Is $74.76 Billion Behind
The Obama administration committed to spend up to $75 billion on its foreclosure-prevention program. More than a year later, only about $242 million had actually been paid out.
Palm Coast Hops on Bunnell Train Station Bandwagon
Palm Coast was absent from the May 1 Amtrak attention-grabber in Bunnell, but the city council is making amends with a resolution of support.
Gov. George W. Bush’s Jesus Day Proclamation in Texas
In 2000, while thick in his first campaign for the presidency, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush issued a proclamation declaring June 10 “Jesus Day.” Here’s the full text and an image of the proclamation.
Palm Coast Group Nails Historic Marker on Church-State Wall
The first-ever Day of Inclusivity was held at Palm Coast’s Heroes Park under the umbrella of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Job Creation Soars by 290,000,
Unemployment at 9.9%
Job creation improved by the largest margin in four years in May, solidifying gains of 559,000 jobs in the past three months.
Stetson University’s Heather Grove a 2010 Udall Scholar
This is the third time in 10 years that a Stetson student has won a prestigious Udall scholarship, named after Morris Udall.
Thomas Jefferson’s “Separation Between Church and State” Letter
Original text of Thomas Jefferson’s separation of church and state letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist association, 1802.
Harry Truman’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation, 1952
Harry Truman was the first American president to declare a National Day of Prayer, in 1952–on July 4 that year.
Barack Obama’s Presidential Proclamation
National Day of Prayer
On April 30, 2010, in contravention to a federal judge’s ruling in Wisconsin, President Obama issued a proclamation designating May 6 a National Day of Prayer.
We Need Drilling. Just Not Where You Think.
The BP rig disaster will spill more oil in the Gulf of Mexico than the Exxon Valdez did in Prince William Sound. Time to cap the follies of cheering for more offshore oil-drilling in Florida.
Bunnell and Flagler Whistle-Stop Amtrak
Bunnell and Flagler County put on a show for Amtrak’s 60-second slice through Bunnell as it considers resuming passenger service on the old Florida East Coast Railway tracks.
Photo Gallery:
Flagler’s Hopes Shimmer to the Glint of a Train
A photo gallery of Saturday’s turnout of some 150 people at Bunnell’s and Flagler’s plea to Amtrak to reestablish a stop in Bunnell.
In Alabama, They Speak Ass
Alabama Republican candidate Tim James pledge to ban non-English driving tests, in a campaign video, is xenophobic mob appeal.
3-Year-Old Nathaniel Ordered Back to Flagler from NYC
The boy is in the middle of a custody battle as his parents sit in jail in Flagler and Pasco.
Of People’s Parks and Parked Reporters
When Catholic priests boff young boys, turf wars and fire engines, the editorial page brings out Ed Meese from his crypt, and the local page discovers “scenic” Palm Coast.
Diagram of Bus 2857 Showing Where Rosa Parks Was Seated, Montgomery, 1955
See the very spot from which Rosa Parks wouldn’t moved, in a court diagram preserved at the National Archives.
The Rosa Parks Arrest Report, 1955
Image copy of the Rosa Parks arrest report, Montgomery police, Alabama, December 1, 1955.
When Flagler Schools Booted Out Rosa Parks
As the Flagler School Board revisits its policy on building uses by political groups, churches and community organizations, it may find a former superintendent’s banning of Rosa Parks from Flagler schools instructive.
Nashville Surrenders to Grab Your Crotch Country
T. Paige Dalporto, a West Virginia songwriter, pains his way through the Academy of Country Music Awards and mourns his old country gone pop.
Gel Raising at Medallion of Excellence
That 4.5 tremor on the Richter scale you felt last night? That was the Davidsons rolling in their graves when Michael Redding replaced them at a Medallion of Excellence banquet.
KKK Confirms: We’re Recruiting in Flagler
In an interview with FlaglerLive, KKK Imperial Wizard Cole Thornton says the drive will continue across the state. Dan Warren recommends vigilance.
Why Is Flagler Being Mealy-Mouthed Over KKK Fliers?
How easy to pick at an obvious target like the KKK, and easier still to do it in language that commits to nothing more than fortune-cookie bromides. How meaningless too.
Happy Birthday, Sisco Deen
Sisco Deen, the living memory drive of Flagler County and its archive curator, turns 70 today.
Rockwell Meets Rubio: A Tea Party Photo Gallery
Norman Rockwell reckognized a compelling subject when he saw one. Chances are he’d have recognized an equally worthy subject in the Tea Party movement, whatever its stripes.
Hank Williams Wins a Pulitzer
“When a hillbilly sings a crazy song,” Hank Wiliams once said, “he feels crazy. When he sings, “I Laid My Mother Away,” he sees her a-laying right there in the coffin.”
James Baldwin: A Talk to Teachers
James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” from 1963 is an apt counterpoint to Florida lawmakers’ attempt, in 2010, to demolish public school teachers and replace the profession with Darwinian hostility.
Ed Asner Takes on FDR at Flagler Auditorium
Ed Asner channels his liberal sensibilities as “FDR” in a one-man show on Roosevelt’s four-term presidency (and longer affair).
Philip Roth’s Great American Fart
Kids love farts, don’t they? Even today, with all the drugs and sex and violence you hear about on TV, they still get a kick, as we used to, out of a fart.
Unveiling Stereotypes at Stetson University
Undergraduates not used to wearing their religion on their sleeve, at least not Islam, wore one not even their own around their face–Islam’s most explosive symbol.
News-Journal Sale Delayed–Again–Pending Appraisals
A federal judge delayed the $20 million sale of the News-Journal pending appraisals of some $9 million in real estate.
Weimar Germany’s Shadow Creep on Main Street
Philip A. Farruggio argues that the United States is forgetting the lessons of 1930s Germany–and Sinclair Lewis’ prophetic warnings–at its own risk.
He Had His Moments, But…
There’s too much reaching for the old magic–which is just the problem: this lunge for “magic,” this desire to make the impossible real, when it should be the other way around.
Haiti Earthquake Photo Gallery
A 30-image photo gallery of the devastation following the 7.0 earthquake that demolished Haiti’s Port au Prince the afternoon of Jan. 12.
Americans Owe More to Haiti Than They Know
Well beyond earthquake relief, an American commitment to independence and democracy in Haiti would not be a favor, a gift or an indulgence. It would be the down payment of an incalculable debt long overdue.
Is This Harry Reid Cartoon Offensive?
The Omaha World Herald’s sanctimony over a skin-tone cartoon is more offensive than Harry Reid’s misjudgment.
Prohibition’s Binge of Sanctimony
On the history and stupidity of Prohibition, the 13-year binge of sanctimony that a minority of eugenics fans and anti-German racists imposed on the majority.
My Ten Predictions for 2010
“All prophesies are wrong, therefore this one will be wrong,” Orwell said. So here are mine for the coming year of our blogs, 2010.