Yesterday's Question
What is your favorite landscape? Mountains 35.83% Prairies 20.83% Ocean beach 19.17% Southwestern desert 1.67% River valleys 8.33% Badlands 14.17%
Democrats release 2024 election overview
Under pressure, the DNC finally released its autopsy of the 2024 election, after rampant speculation about what it contained and why it hadn't yet been made public. The DNC Chairman Ken Martin maintains that he delayed so long because he didn't want to create a distraction by releasing a poorly done report. At the start, the autopsy contains a disclaimer that "the DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently verify the claims presented." Then, throughout the document, ...
Bison are America's national mammal
My sister Erica and I returned to Montana just a few days after the Bureau of Land Management revoked grazing permits for bison. American Prairie, a nonprofit working to create one of the largest nature reserves in the United States, was the target of that decision. Erica and I bounced along two-track roads in our Toyota RAV4 rental, hoping to get close to the American Prairie bison herd. It wasn't as easy as one might think. When I said as much on social media, someone commented: "Visit Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. They surround your car." As wonderful as that might sound, the ...
Once is chance, three is propaganda.
Hamas is winning the propaganda war against Israel. And it's picked up an important ally in The New York Times, supposedly America's newspaper of record. The New York Times has repeatedly supported Hamas propaganda with misleading stories. Here are three egregious examples. First, on Oct. 17, 2023, the Times ran a story headlined "Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say." Hamas' claim, validated by the Times, triggered protests in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Tunisia and the West Bank. Jordan's King Abdullah canceled a summit meeting with President Joe ...
Do looks really matter?
It's the controversy that has launched a thousand X posts. Elon Musk, who is a fan of Homer, has kicked up a fuss by objecting to filmmaker Christopher Nolan casting the black actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy in his forthcoming movie version of "The Odyssey." The epic production presumably won't rise or fall based on its depiction of Helen, the legendary beauty who precipitated the Trojan War. That conflict is portrayed in "The Iliad," while "The Odyssey" follows the Greek warrior Odysseus on his return home after the war, a story that doesn't feature Helen prominently. The ...
Many changes have happened in world in 10 years
Ten years ago this month, Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination for president, with a platform that was vastly different on trade and foreign policy from other recent presidents, Republican and Democratic alike. How fares America – and the world – 10 years later? In some important ways, things have moved in Trump's direction. In 2016 and since, he complained constantly that Europeans were not contributing their fair share to NATO. That had been the position of previous administrations, but none emphasized it as Trump did. Early in Trump's first term, only ...