The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Author: mongreldogs

  • from 2003: Synchronicity, in memoriam Robert Hauter Myslik

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    mongreldogs
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    [edited 2007 0130 to correct Rob’s middle name, which was Hauter and not Hunter.] This piece dates from around 2003 February 10. I wrote it about three weeks after the death of a legendary colleague and true friend, Rob Myslik. Rob taught at Hun for nine years, including two while I was there, and then…

  • The true America-haters

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    I’ve been meaning to write this for a long time, but it turns out that Cenk Uygur got there first and said it well: The people in power, who wrap themselves in the flag, don’t really love America. They don’t even understand America — and so, not understanding it, they hate it. They hate it…

  • Review: Oryx and Crake

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    Oryx and Crake (a novel) by Margaret Atwood InstaRating: 4 out of 5 In brief: Snowman is the last (traditional) human alive in a world curiously empty. He bears the secret of what happened to civilization and slowly reveals it to himself as he watches over the successor species: humans carefully designed to thrive in…

  • Where’s Our Rosie?

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    For no particular good reason, I was trawling on the Net about Rosie the Riveter, an icon from World War II. If you don’t know about Rosie, you really should check out the Wikipedia article. Another good page on Rosie can be found at the eponymous website. I’ve always liked Rosie because she represented not…

  • Cross-comment: Does the Left “Hate” America?

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    Through the Daou Report, I wandered (against my better judgment) over to Dr. Sanity to read the post “Go Wide Mr. President“. Then I read the comments and I was shocked to see something I actually agreed with, posted by someone named GnuCarSmell replying to someone named Garry: You have it exactly right. It is…

  • Health of the Republic down 3.3%, to 30%

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    mongreldogs
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    After hearing that the President of the United States has asserted his untrammeled power to read even physical mail, without warrant or other legal constraint, I have decided to move the Health of the Republic bar to 30%. It’s only a 3% shift because in the end this is only slightly more outrageous than the…

  • Unintentionally ironic; unintentionally chilling

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    During this morning (Wed Jan 3)’s Morning Edition on NPR, they ran a story on the detention of Jose Padilla. Quite without intending to, the story bespoke the parlous times and the threat to our Republic.

  • Congress, the Koran, and Oaths

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    So for about a month there’s been a tempest-in-a-teapot “raging” over the decision by newly elected Democratic Representative Keith Ellison to use a Koran in his private swearing-in ceremony. Some loudmouths, including Rep. Virgil Goode, have decried this and insisted that Mr. Ellison use the same traditional book as all previous representatives, to wit, the…

  • Late Night Blogging

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    mongreldogs
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    So it’s about 1:15 AM local time and here I am sitting at my computer starting a blog entry. A sure sign I’m becoming addicted? Probably not. It’s just one of those nights when sleep seems determined to stay away and, since once of my New Year’s objectives is to write more, this outlet seems…

  • The Library’s the Thing

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    OK, I’m admittedly behind the time on this whole “social networking” thing. Back in my day, you used computers to avoid interacting with people, gosh darn it! And you liked it! But today I finally stumbled across one of these sites that might actually entice me into being (Internet) social: LibraryThing, a site where you…