tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43838794501589026232012-02-05T12:20:15.492-08:00The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-86915570197051765922009-07-04T13:14:00.000-07:002009-07-04T17:09:30.260-07:00

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The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-23490893647681537522009-05-08T15:53:00.000-07:002009-05-10T09:53:00.399-07:00

Synopsis: “Vepris”is a 6-hour silent Latvian documentary about a girl raised in the wild by a family of boars. Tracing the girl’s life from 2-months-old through adolescence, it details her life in the forest growing up with no contact with humans. Filmed by her birth parents with a telephoto lens, the child is unaware of their presence.While the film is silent, there is a sound track that

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-31022749633986384572008-12-22T13:03:00.000-08:002009-01-06T17:47:01.408-08:00

Campaign Contribution Limits: Illinois is one of five states that have no limits at all. Give a grand, fifty grand, a million. Perfectly legal.Various Limits (38 states + D.C.)Ban on Corporate Contributions; No Other Limits (4 states)Limit on Corporate Contributions; No Other Limits (3 states)Ban on Monetary Contributions by Political Parties; No Other Limits (1 state) WHITE STATES: No Limits

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-85454556177335094822008-12-19T11:06:00.000-08:002009-01-06T17:48:16.167-08:00

My friend, Corinne is a bit exasperated that she is getting calls and letters from out-of-state friends to whom she feels obliged to respond that, though she lives in Illinois, Blagojevich is not her fault. It's not her fault.But it is the fault of all those who failed to see what seemed so obvious back in 20002 -- that his rhetoric about "reform" and ending "business as usual" was a fraud, a

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-31486539546107394232008-12-13T17:11:00.000-08:002009-01-04T11:05:48.008-08:00

Since Blagojevich’s arrest, there has been just a bit too much of the Shocked, Shocked thing going on. Didn't at least everyone in Illinois know? How could they not?I knew he was an ego-maniac, more corrupt than George Ryan could have dreamed, and way out of his league – even as a state rep. Way back then, he told me then of his plan to be president -- of the USA. But I didn’t know he was

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-49034591018224776112008-12-09T17:26:00.000-08:002009-01-04T17:54:24.189-08:00

Yeah, it’s our turn (again).It’s been just a month since the flag waving in Grant Park -- with the whole world watching and maybe even a little jealous. It was followed by day-after-day of orderly transition and press conferences (some say too orderly – they want free for alls) from Chicago, highlighting again Obama’s smooth, confident and focused work of putting an administration together.Then,

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-8058253632936848042008-11-07T12:58:00.000-08:002009-01-03T15:56:33.919-08:00

Grant Park was awash in American flags as hundreds of thousands awaited Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. The flag wavers were young and old and in between; they were black, white and brown. Near me were an elderly Sikh couple with turbans; they waved flags. The French kids attending college here waved our flag. The guy with dreadlocks and his daughter on his shoulder waved the flag. And the

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-72577386275892053872008-11-01T11:09:00.000-07:002009-01-06T17:45:21.075-08:00

Can't wait. And niece Tyra is flying in from Paris to join us!

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-46535388303235729742008-10-30T10:43:00.000-07:002008-10-30T10:50:21.135-07:00

All the seats were taken and I wanted to grab a quick drink before heading home to Chicago-bama. Cornering the corner of the bar, I invited another seat-seeker to share the left side of my standing room corner. Immediately, a great big thirty-something man seated to my right offered me his chair and stood to drink his beer. "Thank you," I all but gushed. "It’s so rare and delightful for a man to

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-41903581390410407802008-09-07T16:06:00.000-07:002008-09-08T18:33:02.849-07:00

Taking off her glasses, but not her gloves, Governor Palin agreed to an interview on ABC. We have a preview.When asked about Bush's plan to provide $1 billion in aid to Georgia, Palin answered. "That's just not fair. What about Alaska and our other great western states like Arizona? What about them?"Charlie Gibson pointed out that this was a question about international policy; he was referring

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-3967977047187879892008-09-03T13:10:00.000-07:002008-09-03T13:52:46.757-07:00

Waitress and mother of eleven (Howitzer, Glock, Rifle, Tank, Remington, Drone, Grenade, Colt, Nuclear, Hydrogen and a boy named Sue) will be on the Dem ticketSeptember 3, 2008Sunny Grinns - UPABUTTERCAKES, WEST VIRGINIA - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama astonished the press and pundits today with his announcement of his new running mate. Betty Jo McCoy, 43, mother of eleven children

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-1671000042585643132008-05-19T18:29:00.000-07:002008-12-09T08:34:56.053-08:00

"CHANGE THAT CAN BE MEDICATED!"Have you lost your home to foreclosure? Yes, that's a change. But it can be medicated! (Effexor)Does your your wife lay dying waiting for the surgery that your health insurance won't cover? Yes, that's a change in your life, but it can be medicated! (Effexor)Is your son up for his 7th tour in Iraq, when he was promised but one? Yes, that's change, but it, too, can

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-91683057558305903452008-05-19T13:55:00.000-07:002008-12-09T08:34:56.156-08:00

The offices of comedy writers across the country were dark this morning. Almost none had come to work. No, it wasn’t the usual Monday morning slacking; it was something far more ominous.And no, they had not gone back on strike.What was emerging was a widespread depression among the writers so profound that they could no longer get out of bed.They just feel they can’t compete with the Republicans

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-9626547527963582522008-02-07T10:23:00.001-08:002008-12-09T08:34:56.345-08:00

What the %#& did Romney say? The gloves are waaay off now.Romney, the former favorite GOP robot since Gort ("Klaatu barada nikto!) just announced at the Conservative Political Action Conference that if he stayed in the race it would "forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Obama to win. Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-62447870564618533892008-02-05T20:00:00.000-08:002008-02-06T17:33:28.360-08:00

Cook County, in Illinois, the state with the largest number of local governmental units in the nation -- the more to do patronage and ghost hiring by -- has a Water Reclamation District. I got a robo-call today from a candidate seeking to serve on its board.Her credentials? She is staunchly pro-choice. That's cool, but what the hell does abortion have to do with sewage disposal and clean-up?Sick

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-38751694508334218312008-02-05T17:01:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:34:56.642-08:00

It's been a hard year for this political junkie. I have been torn up over the primary trying to decide for whom to vote.You see, I know Barack from my days in Springfield lobbying for poor people and the problem is that when you know someone up-close, you know their warts, faults, flubs and snubs. Throughout my struggle to find my candidate, I kept saying to myself, if I knew Hillary (or

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-89801263029957453242008-02-05T16:39:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:34:57.381-08:00

1/30/08, Afternoon.I am in a huge convention center in Atlanta with 10,000 black Baptists singing “Down by the Riverside. . . I ain’t gonna study war no more; I ain’t gonna study war no more. . .”We’re killing time waiting for Hillary to show-up. All the presidential candidates were invited. None of the GOP’s white guys in suits agreed to attend – just like their front runners’ failure to show-up

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-57794512796034484532008-02-05T16:27:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:34:57.815-08:00

Reflections of this (impressed) Secular Humorist. I have not often had the experience of being present as history was being made. This week I am. This is the 2nd “historic” meeting of the four main black Baptist conventions (sort of like sub-denominations) where our criminal justice ministry project and the manual I have been writing with them are being announced. Earlier today we had the

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-73044862146861400542008-02-05T16:07:00.000-08:002008-02-06T10:29:52.722-08:00

1/30, evening.I see white people. . .White people are coming, coming in droves into the enormous hall where Jimmy Carter will be kicking off the Covenant meeting. I haven’t been seeing white people for awhile and it seems kind of strange. The first thing I notice are their clothes. My god, I see a sweatshirt! And jeans! The contrast between them and the spiffed-up blacks is more than a little

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-2468260721242883512008-02-05T16:02:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:34:58.168-08:00

1/31, noon. It’s Baptist Al Gore time and he has come with his high-tech PowerPoint show about global warming, the film version of which, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award. The audience for this luncheon (which cost $35 – the rest of the Covenant events have been free) is almost all white. 2,500 of them. It’s a bit crowded (and the food is ghastly). It’s dawning on me how many

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-51743373106772024282008-02-05T15:59:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:34:58.341-08:00

1/31, afternoon.“What a conspiracy this, between Church and State! Sing Tantarara, rogues all, rogues all, Sing Tantarara, rogues all!” ---Thomas Jefferson.I am happily ensconced in a heady seminar on religious liberty. The Baptists pretty much created and own the concept, despite the Southern Baptists’ sharp move to all but denounce or rewrite its meaning it in recent years. It’s wonderful to

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-10742377540668646682008-02-05T15:51:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:34:59.489-08:00

1/31, afternoon. What’s for sale: Outfits! Sequinned everything.There is no convention without vendors. I decide to visit some of the exhibits and tables. The black Baptists have theirs in a large hall on the lowest floor of this huge complex; the whites have theirs lining the main hallways leading to the meeting rooms. Hmmm. Both feature preacher-wear and choir outfits, with the white folk’s

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-46019226660408410202008-02-05T15:48:00.000-08:002008-02-05T15:51:12.974-08:00

2/1, evening.Sneaking a drink with an ex-Southern Baptist boy.I have just come from another terrific religious liberty seminar and another on the criminal justice system and have some time to kill before the evening event. I have headed to the bar at the Smith and Wollinsky joint across from the convention center.A sweet-faced young man wearing a fedora takes the bar stool next to me. I see what

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-56926655098960473452008-02-05T15:29:00.000-08:002008-12-09T08:35:00.314-08:00

2/1, evening. Now Michael and I are in the airplane hanger of a hall and await the closing speech to be delivered by Bill Clinton. The endurance contest begins with more embarrassingly bad white music playing as people fill the room. Thankfully, this pain is alleviated by a powerful black preacher’s sermon on “setting the captives free” followed by the awesome Spellman men’s choir. They rouse

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-66185231454130703012008-02-05T12:51:00.000-08:002008-02-06T13:50:04.939-08:00

2/2, After midnight, back at the hotel. “It’s not as though white people can’t make good music!”I run into some white Baptists at the hotel and we talk about the week’s events. I ask about the white music and I suggest there is most excellent white music out there. Beethoven, Bach, Handel – heck, all those guys wrote astonishing sacred music. Lots more recently, even Elvis did a hack of a job

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-83699200965730822182007-04-16T09:23:00.000-07:002008-02-05T18:15:54.442-08:00

Okay, I shouldn't have my knickers in a knot that Jon Stewart is a better historian (and wonk) than Ambassador Bolton. (yesterday's post)Stewart's and Colbert's audiences have now been established as more knowledgable thatn others about the who's who and what's what of politics and international affairs.Per the NY Times today: The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released the

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-74034942385137926322007-04-15T14:12:00.000-07:002008-02-05T18:13:30.178-08:00

What is worse -- that a comedian has a better grasp of history than the US ambassador to the UN, or that the ambassador makes history up?Bonehead John (I-Hate-the UN-And-Think-It-Should-Be-Abolished-And Now-Look-At-Me-I-Am-the-US-Ambassador-To-It!) Bolton made the dopey mistake of making up nonsense about Lincoln on The Daily Show. Defending Bush's penchant, no obsession, with appointing and

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4383879450158902623.post-87074627888611924312007-04-06T19:41:00.000-07:002008-02-05T18:12:57.303-08:00

On the basis of a careful review of what the pols, clergy and talking heads are saying, I have come to the dispassionate conclusion that two forces vie for our allegiance.In the blue states, stupid, cowardly, slanderous, lying, elitist tax-and-spend liberals, traitors, sodomites, and termites plot with Satan and the trial lawyers. They kill the unborn and hug trees. Some are Oh-Obama-struck;

The Termitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13913581971395450807noreply@blogger.com0