Potpourri: Nov. 26, 2012
BEARING ARMS in West Virginia: Hiram Lewis IV - former Charleston lawyer and repeated Republican statewide candidate - was charged five months ago with shooting a man in the leg at Lewis' Clay County home. At that time, Clay Sheriff Randy Holcomb reported that Lewis, operator of Elk River Ministries, said the victim was shot "because of a spiritual wrongdoing." Now Lewis is arrested again, on charges of threatening the sheriff. Lewis told reporter Rusty Marks he didn't menace Holcomb, but merely "asked him if he was saved." From a gun-using minister, the question might seem a threat.
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With the Powerball jackpot above $400 million, it's worth the $2 cost of a lottery ticket just for the thrill of thinking about so much money.
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Arctic sea ice shrank by an incredible 36,400 square miles per day this summer, according to Harper's Index.
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Former GOP leader Warren Rudman died last week at 82. He was a blunt-spoken fighter who hated the white fundamentalist movement that seized his party. Rudman's book, Combat: Twelve Years in the U.S. Senate, said: "I could see the Republican Party being taken over by 'movement' conservatives and self-commissioned Christian soldiers whose social agenda I found repugnant."
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In Ken Burns' superb PBS documentary on the Dust Bowl, an aging woman called approaching death "the Western Gate." We hadn't heard that label before.
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After Barack Obama's re-election, some tea party websites erupted in outrage, calling the first black president a "gangster" and worse. CNN reported that one tea party site railed against "the sexual perversions and drug use of the Obamas," and denounced the president's "forged birth certificate." It said the election was won by "voter fraud of biblical proportions." Another demanded "citizens' grand jury indictments against this unbelievable treason, felonies and usurpations raining down on us." CNN commented that "hard-core conservatives continue to reject that they are a minority."
BEARING ARMS in West Virginia: Hiram Lewis IV - former Charleston lawyer and repeated Republican statewide candidate - was charged five months ago with shooting a man in the leg at Lewis' Clay County home. At that time, Clay Sheriff Randy Holcomb reported that Lewis, operator of Elk River Ministries, said the victim was shot "because of a spiritual wrongdoing." Now Lewis is arrested again, on charges of threatening the sheriff. Lewis told reporter Rusty Marks he didn't menace Holcomb, but merely "asked him if he was saved." From a gun-using minister, the question might seem a threat.
***
With the Powerball jackpot above $400 million, it's worth the $2 cost of a lottery ticket just for the thrill of thinking about so much money.
***
Arctic sea ice shrank by an incredible 36,400 square miles per day this summer, according to Harper's Index.
***
Former GOP leader Warren Rudman died last week at 82. He was a blunt-spoken fighter who hated the white fundamentalist movement that seized his party. Rudman's book, Combat: Twelve Years in the U.S. Senate, said: "I could see the Republican Party being taken over by 'movement' conservatives and self-commissioned Christian soldiers whose social agenda I found repugnant."
***
In Ken Burns' superb PBS documentary on the Dust Bowl, an aging woman called approaching death "the Western Gate." We hadn't heard that label before.
***
After Barack Obama's re-election, some tea party websites erupted in outrage, calling the first black president a "gangster" and worse. CNN reported that one tea party site railed against "the sexual perversions and drug use of the Obamas," and denounced the president's "forged birth certificate." It said the election was won by "voter fraud of biblical proportions." Another demanded "citizens' grand jury indictments against this unbelievable treason, felonies and usurpations raining down on us." CNN commented that "hard-core conservatives continue to reject that they are a minority."
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