myth watch: evaluating pluto, ceres, and persephone

You probably know already that Pluto was downgraded from planet to dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. The Kuiper Belt has a number of large-body objects, and Pluto is only one of them. (Larger than Pluto is Xena. She was not upgraded to a planet. Her moon is Gabrielle, no kidding.)
But maybe [...]

the pope should be apologizing for his bishops not his priests

Pope Benedict came to America and apologized to survivors of sexual abuse. Then he went to Australia and made the same sort of apology. In both apologies, he pointed out the heinousness of the crime of sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests. In both apologies, he suggested the only criminals were the priests and the cause [...]

saturn dreaming of uranus

As I’m nearing completion of a book, I find I’m having to do the hardest part. The synopsis. If you’re a writer you know how daunting this is. I mean, it took me five years and 120,000 words to write this thing and now I have to rewrite it in 500 words in a few [...]

iowa floods: liar, liar

The flood water is gone. Roads and bridges are open and people are beginning to rebuild, not just tear down. There was a LONG delay in the city of Cedar Rapids allowing permits to start rebuilding, due to their deciding what to do about buying-out properties that must be torn down for safety. Corridor Recovery [...]

join puma: breaking open the two-party system

I didn’t want Senator Obama as my party’s nominee, but I figured I would be behind him if he won the nomination. I would, if he were half as principled as he claimed. Since he’s not, I’ve joined the ranks of the PUMAs — “Party Unity My Ass” (That’s not to be confused with Cougar, which [...]