Maurice Clemmons, alleged assassin, child rapist and repeatedly convicted felon is still on the loose as of now. Clemmons ambush murder of four police officers starting the day at a coffee shop, is one of those street level crimes that tears at the thin fabric of human decency in which most of us seek comfort. Maurice Clemmons apparently went hunting for police officers to kill. And Clemmons is alleged to have told acquaintances as much. He reportedly said to them, “Watch the the news tomorrow. I’m going to kill some …

Being an honest, yet enthusiastic American requires the ability to consistently integrate the pretty, mythic narratives that our nation holds dear with the always more complicated and often very ugly truth of our American story. Like my experience of George Washington’s birthday, some American Indians refer to the Thanksgiving I celebrate as a National Day of Mourning. And with good reason.
Far away from the fables we learned as schoolchildren, the truth is that Pilgrim “settlers” came onto a land that had already been “settled”: corn planted, fields cleared, seeds …

The Mississippi Klan stirred up plenty of protest and not much else when they marched onto the University of Mississippi campus last Saturday.
OXFORD, Miss. — Wearing traditional red, black and white robes and carrying flags representing the infamous hate group, about 10 hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan protested on the Ole Miss campus Saturday.
The protest, held on the steps of Fulton Chapel, fizzled after less than 10 minutes and faced a large counter-protest from students and onlookers.
The Klan traveled to Oxford to protest Ole Miss Chancellor …

You have to hand it to Glenn Beck. He is a wizard at whipping up controversy and, therefore, publicity. Beck’s latest dangling shiny object comes in the form of an announcement that in order to support the sales of his upcoming book which will outline a 100 year plan for America, he is organizing a gathering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The date is August 28, 2010; the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.
At [a] rally and in a letter on his …

Mike Huckabee has done something reasonable and, in these divided times, that makes it newsworthy and admirable. In a talk at the Hudson Union Society, where he discussed his forthcoming book, “A Simple Christmas”, Huckabee pushed back against the conservatives who criticized President Obama’s visit to Dover Air Force base. Via Huffington Post:
When he [Barack Obama] was at Dover the other day, and went there to pay respect for soldiers, I heard a lot of people on the Right say “Aw, that’s just a cheap photo-op.” No, I think it …