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The Weekly Screed
FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#721) This dog has had its day by David Benjamin “Are you really willing to give up your liberty for security?” — Sen. Rand Paul MADISON, Wis. — Rand Paul and the anti-government anarchists who live in cinder-block bunkers with a ten-year stash of flashlight batteries and Cheez…
Read More...WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#720) Da Pats by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — It’s one of the ugliest scenes in the history of professional football. On 12 August 1978, in a desultory pre-season National Football League game between the Oakland Raiders and New England Patriots, Pats quarterback Steve Grogan threw an off-target…
Read More...WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#719) Look, Ma! No hands! by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — They’re bandying phrases now like “autonomous car” and “hands-free motoring.” What this means is that if you’re one of those dreamers who’ve always yearned to eat a big plateful of buttermilk pancakes, or crochet a granny-square afghan…
Read More...THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#718) The ministrations of fear by David Benjamin “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance…” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First…
Read More...THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#717) Weak in Review by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — My conservative friends think that liberals worship the New York Times — oops. It’s The New York Times, right? (Talk about pretentious!). But reading the Gray Lady is more like meeting an old friend every morning at the…
Read More...FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#715) “I came… for the waters” by David Benjamin KOWAKIDANI, Japan — You don’t have to go far in Japan — maybe 100 yards in any direction — to find something weird. On our way here, we passed by the alleged cradle of the kamaboko, the classic Japanese…
Read More...FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#714) Landfills I have known, B&E’s I’ve committed by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Whenever I’m up in my old hometown, I get flashbacks driving through a broad stretch of manicured parkland on Monowau Street, where it crosses Council Creek. Gravel piles now occupy one side of the…
Read More...FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#713) The ‘right to work’ for nothing by David Benjamin “You got me workin’, boss man, /Workin’ ‘round the clock. /I want a little drink of water, /But you won’t let Jimmy stop…” — Jimmy Reed MADISON, Wis. — The relationship has rarely been amicable between dedicated American…
Read More...THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#712) “You wanna make somethin’ of it?” by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Unlike Ernest Hemingway, Nelson Algren and Opie Taylor, I didn’t engage in a whole lot of pugilism in my school days. Every normal kid in the combative 1950’s had ample opportunity to get beaten into…
Read More...SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#711) A snatch of trade-show jazz by David Benjamin BARCELONA — If it’s March, it must be the Mobile World Congress (MWC). January was Vegas and CES. Been to IFA, NAB, CATV, DVB (in Dublin, with whiskey tastings and dog races — loved that), Electronica, CeBit (in Hanover,…
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