1 April 2011: “Snooki” More Beloved Than Toni Morrison!

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Jersey Shore’s “Snooki” got $32,000 last night for talking to a thousand undergraduates at Rutgers University about hair styling and “lessons for life,” while  Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison will get only $30,000 to deliver the university’s commencement address in May. Snooki offered her audience the following…

29 March 2011: Kill All Them Critters Quietly!

Thanks to the lobbying efforts of the National Rifle Association, the Kansas Legislature has now approved a bill that would allow the use of silencers for hunting, fishing and fur harvesting.  Gov. Sam Brownback is expected to sign the bill with no loud outcries from the air, nor from the field and stream.  So now…

14 March 2011: Fred Phelps in Japan!

The Associated Press reports that Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo, believes that the devastating earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown in Japan are “a punishment from heaven” because the Japanese have become greedy. Who knew that Fred Phelps has followers in Japan?  He’s probably there right now with his placards and picket signs:  “Wasabi=Death!”  “God Hates Sushi!”  “Man…

10 February 2011: Jobs, Jobs, Babies!

The Republican mantra during the midterm elections last November was “JOBS, JOBS, JOBS” by way of fixing the economy; and yet, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow keeps pointing out night after night on her show, all the Republicans seem to be fixating on the past couple of weeks are stricter anti-abortion laws.  I do think there’s…

Remembering Maura Piekalkiewicz

I thought I knew Maura Piekalkiewicz (1933-2011) fairly well, but at the service held at Lawrence Chapel Oaks on January 29 in her memory, I found out a great deal more about her activism for civil rights and social justice from personal stories shared by her son Andrew; her daughter Ellen; her friends Laura Gassen…