Category Archives: News

Best Quotes of the Week – June 26, 2021

“They’re trying to rig the system to stay in office as long as they can, try to suppress the vote to make it harder – especially for Black and brown communities to vote in Texas – and we’re not going to let them.  We’re going to fight back. We’re going to say no, and we’re going to show up.”

Julian Castro, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, during a rally for federal voting rights legislation in front of the Texas Capitol

“Tucker Carlson didn’t serve.  His biggest achievement is having nine lives in the world of cable news.  Making a bowtie famous, and getting away with promoting conspiracy theories, night after night after night.”

Brianna Keilar, responding to Tucker Carlson’s criticism of Gen. Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and noting the FOX News host didn’t serve in the U.S. military

Keilar added, “That isn’t just a dog whistle.  It’s a white whistle…He is white rage!”

“I want to understand White rage, and I’m White.  What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America?  What caused that?  I want to find out.”

Gen. Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the January 6 Capitol Hill riots and the U.S. military’s efforts to push for more diverse and inclusive standards

Conservative critics have painted the new military policies as Marxist and generally anti-American.

Leave a comment

Filed under News

Father’s Day 2021

The Gift

By Li-Young Lee

To pull the metal splinter from my palm

my father recited a story in a low voice.

I watched his lovely face and not the blade.

Before the story ended, he’d removed

the iron sliver I thought I’d die from.

I can’t remember the tale,

but hear his voice still, a well

of dark water, a prayer.

And I recall his hands,

two measures of tenderness

he laid against my face,

the flames of discipline

he raised above my head.

Had you entered that afternoon

you would have thought you saw a man

planting something in a boy’s palm,

a silver tear, a tiny flame.

Had you followed that boy

you would have arrived here,

where I bend over my wife’s right hand.

Look how I shave her thumbnail down

so carefully she feels no pain.

Watch as I lift the splinter out.

I was seven when my father

took my hand like this,

and I did not hold that shard

between my fingers and think,

Metal that will bury me,

christen it Little Assassin,

Ore Going Deep for My Heart.

And I did not lift up my wound and cry,

Death visited here!

I did what a child does

when he’s given something to keep.

I kissed my father.

Li-Young Lee, “The Gift” from Rose. Copyright ©1986 by Li-Young Lee

2 Comments

Filed under News

Word of the Week – June 19, 2021

Irrefragable

Adjective

Latin, 16th century

Not able to be refuted or disproved; indisputable.

Example: Voting is an irrefragable right to any democratic society.

Leave a comment

Filed under News

Tweet of the Week – June 19, 2021

Meghan McCain

2 Comments

Filed under News

Funniest Quote of the Week – June 19, 2021

“The Church says their position has always been very plain.  If children want to be around gay adults, they can become altar boys.”

Bill Maher, regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that the Roman Catholic Church can’t be forced to place foster children with same-sex couples

8 Comments

Filed under News

Worst Quotes of the Week – June 19, 2021

“Strangely, some of the key people who participated on Jan. 6 have not been charged.  Look at the document. The government calls those people unindicted co-conspirators.  What does that mean?  Well, it means that in potentially every single case, they were FBI operatives.”

Tucker Carlson, insinuating the FBI was part of the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill

“But these people are running around saying, ‘There is no vote fraud because, well, there’s no prosecutions.’  Well, have you gotten the gist of how hard it is to get a stinkin’ prosecution?  Have you gotten that yet?  So, it’s really hard to get one.”

Jay DeLancy, a former U.S. Air Force colonel and executive director of North Carolina’s Voter Integrity Project, lamenting his failed efforts to highlight voter fraud in the state

6 Comments

Filed under News

Best Quotes of the Week – June 19, 2021

President Joe Biden points to Opal Lee after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Washington.  Lee, a 94-year-old Texan, had campaigned for holiday.  From left, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif, Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., Opal Lee, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., Vice President Kamala Harris, House Majority Whip James Clyburn of S.C., Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, obscured, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“This day doesn’t just celebrate the past. It calls for action today.”

President Joe Biden, upon signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17

“You are courageous leaders and American patriots.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris, praising a group of Texas Democrats for walking out on a state legislative session in protest of a strict new voting bill

“Without a national standard for voting rights and voting reform, states are going to just chip away at the rights of voters state by state. Hopefully, this might inform minds and shape opinions when folks are in that Senate cloakroom wrestling over how they’re going to proceed with HR1 and HR4.”

Texas State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, about the Texas Democratic walk-out

6 Comments

Filed under News

Word of the Week – June 12, 2021

Epigrammatic

Adjective

Latin, 17th century

Of the nature or in the style of an epigram; concise, clever, and amusing.

Example: Whether composing short stories or essays, I often rely upon my epigrammatic personality to get my point across.

3 Comments

Filed under News

Political Cartoon of the Week – June 12, 2021

Ruben Bolling

Sen. Joe Manchin

1 Comment

Filed under News

Stupidest Quote of the Week – June 12, 2021

“I was informed by the past director of NASA that they have found that the moon’s orbit is changing slightly and so has the Earth’s orbit around the sun.  Is there anything that the national Forest Service or [Bureau of Land Management] can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit or the Earth’s orbit around the sun?  Obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, to Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service, during a congressional hearing on climate change

Eberlien responded, “I would have to follow up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert.”

5 Comments

Filed under News