PIED TYPE

Remember the great SOPA/PIPA blackout on January 18? Remember how good it felt to join hundreds of thousands of other Internet users in protest and in defense of the Internet? Well, one of the original and biggest backers of that day of protest was Reddit, and they’ve come up with a great new idea — … Continue reading »

For the record, I’d like to address briefly the shootings that followed Monday night’s NBA game in Oklahoma City. Eight people were shot on the street in a downtown area where I’ve been many times, although only reluctantly after dark. More to the point, two of my siblings and their families were at the game … Continue reading »

Suddenly I don’t feel quite so old. After all, I’m a mere 69. Saturday morning a 73-year-old Japanese woman, Tamae Watanabe, reached the summit of Mount Everest. At 29,035 feet (still officially 29,029 ft), Everest is the highest point on earth. Men die there every year, four just last week. Watanabe is the oldest woman … Continue reading »

First it was Pastor Sean Harris in Fayetteville, NC. Now, not to be outdone, it’s Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, NC. At least Worley isn’t telling parishioners to beat the gay out of their kids. Nope, he wants to put all gays and lesbians in compounds behind electrified fences … Continue reading »

Less than a month ago I referred readers to a Frank Bruni op-ed piece over at The New York Times. Today I’m going to do it again. “Of Bile and Billionaires” assesses the strategies and proposed methods of big money in the 2012 presidential campaign. Starting with billionaire Joe Ricketts’ super PAC and its plan … Continue reading »

There’s something mesmerizing about this fire photo; it intrigues me in a way I can’t explain. It looks like a painting. The flames seem impossibly orange. The smoke roils with color — grays, blacks, and menacing, choking browns; it has depth and layering. The deep green trees either fade into blue haze or pop with … Continue reading »

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately with its upcoming IPO and speculation about the company’s worth and future profitability. It reminds me all over again how much I dislike and distrust Facebook and its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. FB may or may not be any worse than all those other entities … Continue reading »

Must be the silly season for magazine covers. First Time magazine sports a bare-breasted mom nursing her three-year-old, and now Newsweek has declared Obama “The First Gay President.” The race to the bottom has really heated up, hasn’t it? Decades-old highly respected news magazines venturing into the realm of shock and misrepresentation, all to generate … Continue reading »

For decades Time magazine has been America’s go-to news magazine. But their May 21 issue, due on newsstands next week, features what may be their most blatantly sensationalistic cover ever: Talk about pandering to the lowest common denominator. Oh sure, there are millions of women out there who breastfeed their babies, and a lot of … Continue reading »

Gay marriage. It’s been in the news a lot lately. Who’s for it and who’s against. Politicians taking sides. Vice President Biden saying a few days ago that he’s “comfortable” with it and reporting that Pres. Obama’s view was “evolving.” North Carolina passing Amendment One banning gay marriage and any civil union other than a … Continue reading »

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria is one of the few remaining good things about this flailing, failing news network. He is intelligent, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and in every way professional. His commentary on this morning’s “GPS” was notable for its explanation of just how big our paranoid Department of Homeland Security has grown — even as the U.S. … Continue reading »

The cybersecurity issue won’t die. But then, who thought it would? The government is determined to save the country from the evils of the Internet by limiting our privacy on it — one way or another. The House passed CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Security and Protection Act, and Pres. Obama issued a statement opposing it. … Continue reading »

As an American citizen, a woman, and a heavy user of the Internet, I feel I am under constant assault by my own government. There has been an ongoing stream of legislation and regulation in recent years with the sole purpose of giving the government more rights while whittling away at mine. The latest volley … Continue reading »