The published conversations between NY Times columnists Gail Collins and David Brooks are always witty and enlightening, thanks mostly to Collins’ wit and political enlightenment. More mutual debate of this kind would […]
Saturday rebuttal: My one & only prediction for 2014
(An ongoing Afternoon Journal series of weekly “rebuttals” or direct responses to public utterances by pundits and politicians) Stopping just short of an even 30, AM radio conservative Charlie Sykes has made […]
Creating local peace economies
(Photo by Samweller2 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons) How can states like Wisconsin that are now heavily dependent on federal defense spending transition to a more peaceable (and thus […]
Skating into the new year
I took my daughter ice skating for the first time on the last day of 2013. I had not skated in twenty years. The skates were rented. The ice was man-made. It […]
CAFOs: A farm is not a factory
Much shocked outrage was voiced in Wisconsin after a recent undercover video taken at a dairy factory farm by the animal rights group Mercy for Animals was made public. The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation […]
“Peace on earth and mercy mild”
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all from The Afternoon Journal.
Friday Rebuttal: Sen. Ron Johnson says U.S. can’t afford sympathy for the unemployed
Here’s Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson talking on Wisconsin Public Radio about why he won’t vote to extend unemployment benefits: “You can always take a look at every one of those spending programs […]
Milwaukee County should join 140 other enlightened communities and pay a living wage
Milwaukee County supervisors, led by David Bowen, have put forth a “living wage” ordinance for county workers and the employees of certain county contractors and developers that would mandate a reasonable living wage of […]
Wisconsin defends its harmful addiction to coal energy
Wisconsin is “on track to reduce the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 22%” from the 2005 level by the year 2020, according to Thomas Content of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But it seems that […]
Speaker Boehner ends the “Tea Party”
House Speaker John Boehner finally spoke aloud what we progressives and most of the rest of the nation have been thinking for a while now, “Are you kidding me?” Boehner told off the conservative re-activists behind the […]
A Cheesehead President? New poll says not likely
According to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is twice as likely as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to be chosen by Republicans and independents who lean Republican to […]
A Man’s Right to Stay Home
In the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine, I came across an astounding statistic: only 8% of Americans believe that a child is better off if his or her father stays at home while […]
Hunting with artillery shells at Fort McCoy
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Associated Press report that those interested in doing some hunting at the Fort McCoy Army training base near Lacrosse, WI are being told to beware of “live artillery and mortar rounds” […]
The Rise of Thoughtlessness
I’ll start with a few lines from a poem by Wendell Berry, one of the nation’s best authors (recently interviewed by Bill Moyers), a writer who is also a draft-horse using farmer […]
The New Wisconsin Idea: Heal Thyself
When asked what the federal government should do to resolve the current government shutdown, Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker suggested that the feds should act more like Wisconsin and other states: “I think […]
Wisconsin would do well to heed Wendell Berry
As Wisconsin prepares for the possibility of witnessing the desecration of the Penokee Hills and Bad River watershed, thanks to a proposed iron ore open-pit mine of vast proportions, the first post of […]
