There is an inevitable, visceral, justifiable need to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. Let’s just not repeat the mistakes of 2011 and let the visceral dictate the next chapter of wars still looking for an ending.
Commentary
THE END OF BIN LADEN,
Donald Trump Can’t Take a Joke and Other Tales from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.” And more from the White House Correspondents’ Association’s dinner, videos of Obama’s and Seth Meyers’s routines included.
Birthers, Royals and Crocks
Between Barack Obama’s birth certificate and William Windsor’s wedding to his girlfriend Kate, lust for make-believe idiocies at the expense of reality explains why problem-solving isn’t much of a priority these days.
John F. Kennedy’s Speech on the Arts and Robert Frost, Amherst College (1963)
Full text and audio of John F. Kennedy’s Amherst College speech on the arts in 1963, one of the most eloquent defenses of the artist and art’s role in American civilization by an American president.
Varieties of Religious Experience: Watching an Eagles’ Nest, Live
The Raptor Resource Project’s live, 24-hour streaming video of a family of eagles, from their nest in Idaho. With hatchlings and river sounds nearby. Warning: watching can be addictive.
It’s Not Enough to Say No to a Seawall in Flagler Beach: An Action Plan Past Opposition
Sherry Epley, a resident of Flagler Beach, lays out a six-point action plan on how to build and sustain opposition to a seawall while developing a viable alternative that saves the beach and State Road A1A.
How Slashing Water Management Districts’ Budget 25% Endangers Our Way of Life
Allan Milledge, a former water management district chairman, asks: Do you want to jeopardize protection of our rivers, lakes, springs, and wetlands and the protection of our water supply to save an average less than $20 dollars per household per year?
Stereotype This: “Lazy Mexicans” And Other Insolvent Myths of American Superiority
As it turns out Mexicans are not only harder workers than Americans. They are the hardest workers in the industrialized world, while smugness, selfishness and the pursuit of inequality are becoming American brands.
Bogus Government Shutdown, Real Anti-Government Senility
The nation could use a government shut down, but a real one–including “essential services”–to give those who think they can do without government a taste of what they claim to want.
Gainesville’s Rogue Pastor And the Limits of Free Speech: A Dissent
First Amendment rights have their limits, argues Thomas Brown: Gainesville’s Pastor Jones should have been stopped from burning the Koran, which can be viewed as an act of terrorism expressly and imminently inciting violence.