Back in Bloggersville
•The new kid
The Wily Filipino is new to my blogroll. Wily's blog is an olio of news, entertainment, poetry and material about the Philippines. Today, Wily has new and semi-nude information about the Dixie Chicks. Wily also links to statements by Tim Robbins and Bruce Springsteen regarding the right to dissent. The Boss says:
The Dixie Chicks have taken a big hit lately for exercising their basic right to express themselves. To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech. For them to be banished wholesale from radio stations, and even entire radio networks, for speaking out is un-American.
Direct. Unequivocal. Cool.
•Embedded thieves?
My blog brother, Roger Ailes, has an item from The Boston Globe about a reporter being caught with stolen artifacts from Iraq by U.S. Customs. A large painting that a Boston Herald journalist, Jules Crittenden, brought back as a souvenir from the war in Iraq was confiscated along with smaller items. His response?
''He didn't think it was a big deal,'' the [Customs] official said of Crittenden. ''He said all the embedded reporters were doing it.''
Roger's links are thoroughly bloggered, so you will need to scroll down. I'm going to send him a how-to on how I fixed mine.
•For whom the bell tolls
Death is a depressing subject. But, it can also be an intriguing topic. At Silver Rights read a tribute to musical goddess Nina Simone and an entry about the death penalty. Simone, a voice for civil rights as well as an entertainer, died this week at 70.
An oddity about Oregon is that we have nearly twice as many family murders as the national average. Family murders are those in which at least one related child and one adult is killed by a family member. During each of the last two Christmas seasons a family murder occurred. Should these men be executed?
