Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: 20070420 This week in The Tentacle

"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."

Insanity and Common Sense

Patricia A. Kelly

In 1982, I was living and working as a school nurse on a military base in the Philippines. I learned from a tearful, drunken teenaged boy that one of the most popular and visible sailors on our base was a sexual predator. He was targeting vulnerable boys, fondling and humiliating them.

Frontier Justice Lingers On

Edward Lulie III

Once in Texas if you stole a man's horse you could get hanged for it; and then, too, if you stole a man's wife you could get shot. Oddly enough things haven't changed all that much over the years; Texas is still clearly a state where marriage is treated very seriously. Compare that to Maryland where adultery, as a crime, is punishable by a fine of $10.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Crux of the Matter

Tony Soltero

One of the most common arguments that employers use to justify the hiring of illegal immigrants is that "you can't find an American citizen to do the work." This is repeated so often by those who game the system that it's retransmitted in the media without question. But it's a completely inaccurate statement as it stands - it's in need of a small adjustment.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

One Who Listens

Kevin E. Dayhoff

Demonstrators recently gathered at Congressman Roscoe Bartlett's Frederick office to theatrically illustrate their unhappiness over his vote on the emergency Iraq and Afghanistan supplemental funding legislation.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Crossing the Color Barrier

Roy Meachum

Branch Rickey competed with Eleanor Roosevelt as maybe the best subject I never wrote about; the material was there, in a Washington Post reporter's notebook. We had done the interviews.

Monday, April 16, 2007

General Assembly Journal 2007 - Volume 13

Richard B. Weldon Jr.

The 423rd Session of the Maryland General Assembly will be known more for what didn't get accomplished than for what did. In past years, I've suggested that sessions are often measured as much by the bad stuff that doesn't happen as the good stuff that does. Here's a twist on that idea.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Looking To Retirement?

Tom McLaughlin

Humor by Tom McLaughlin - Baby boomers are rapidly coming to retirement. I am glad I am at the tail end of this group because they will pave the way once they discover what their golden years are really like.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Molly Ringwald as 'Charity Hope Valentine'

Three for the Aisle

Roy Meachum

We deal today with the bloody, bloody Bard, a movie's intellectual jokes and pranks, and the welcome return of a musical from Broadway's Bob Fosse-Golden age.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Translations, Please!

Chris Cavey

Late Monday the 423rd session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned Sine Die. In modern legal context, it means there is nothing left to do, so no date for further proceedings is set. It is the end of the session. Deo gratias! (thanks [be] to God!).

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Press' Grand Dame Coming to McDaniel

Kevin E. Dayhoff

A curmudgeon without peer, a celebrated author, a reporter who covered the White House through nine presidents, and now a columnist with the Hearst organization, Helen Thomas could easily be called the press' grand dame.

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