The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • How to Save a Life

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    mongreldogs
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    Weight this week Change since last week Total change 344.0 -2.2 -24.4 Just like JD, I often think of that song… Anyway, if you’ve been reading our story so far, you know that an aching tooth sent me to (of all places) the cardiologist’s office. He mandated a number of lifestyle changes to help me…

  • The Toothache That Saved My Life

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    mongreldogs
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    In mid-October, I had a toothache. As anyone who knows me is aware, this is far from an unusual occurrence. In fact, ever since grad school, my teeth have been an utter mess and I don’t seem able to get a handle on the situation. So every once in a while I suffer a toothache…

  • Dawn Breaks

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    mongreldogs
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    A few minutes ago, Fox News — Fox News! — called the Presidential race for Senator Barack Obama. By now most networks have agreed, and apparently Senator John McCain has conceded the race. Wow. It’s going to take a while to absorb this. Words like “historic occasion” don’t cut it. This was an epochal moment…

  • Why Bother to Vote?

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    mongreldogs
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    I wrote this at the request of my friend Maureen Leming, who is also Director of Annual Giving and Communications, and who wanted to send it out to the local media. No one bit, but I like it enough that I want it out there. So, self-publishing to the rescue! Why Bother to Vote? I…

  • About that “overhead projector”

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    mongreldogs
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    At the debate tonight, Senator John McCain tried to make hay out of an earmark requested by his opponent, Senator Barrack Obama: He voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois Kinda makes it sound like…

  • One month to go…

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    mongreldogs
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    … until the US Presidential election. Barack Obama seems to have the momentum now, gaining about 1 point in national tracking polls every three days. Nate Silver at 538 has a model predicting that Senator Obama will win about 340 electoral votes — over the required total by 70, a landslide by any measure. So…

  • What’s Going Wrong

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    mongreldogs
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    The failure to enact the bailout bill, or indeed, any economic recovery bill, has shaken some people to their core. It’s heightened a sense that our politics is broken and that we as a people no longer have what it takes. Someone wrote something at Political Animal that stirred in me a passionate response, and…

  • A devestating campaign ad….

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    mongreldogs
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    … even if it’s one we’ll not see on TV. (It’s not from the Obama campign.) It makes the right connection between the mess we’re in and the so-called “maverick” who’s done nothing in 26 years to help fix it. http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=wJThPjvscFs It’s on YouTube and I’d embed it if I had time to figure out…

  • Memory in Song (II)

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    mongreldogs
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    More oddly-prescient musings of Jackson Browne. “Lives in the Balance” Jackson Browne Lives in the Balance I’ve been waiting for something to happen For a week or a month or a year With the blood in the ink of the headlines And the sound of the crowd in my ear You might ask what it…

  • Memory in Song (I)

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    mongreldogs
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    It’s still surprisingly hard to write about 9/11. It galls me to see, again, our national “leaders” exploit this tragedy for political ends. And it saddens me that we don’t seem to have learned any lessons. So it’s really not in me to pen something deep and insightful. Instead, I’ll fall back on the melodic…