Much to the chagrin and frustration of my friends and loved ones, I am rather apathetic about all things political. A moderate by nature and a conservative by obligation, I tend to be able to see issues from both sides and can appreciate the roads people travel that lead them to their respective beliefs. It’s not that I agree with [...]

Early this morning, a gunman opened fire on a packed movie theater where people had gathered to see a midnight show of The Dark Knight Rises. No jokes on this one, folks, just thoughts for those affected. The third season of Game of Thrones will feature the storyline that George R.R. Martin is most dreading, and it has the initials R.W. I’m [...]

It’s July during a presidential election year, and you know what that means: people are going nuts. Every constitutional scholar on Facebook (which amounts to everyone, even though I’m fairly sure that few of them have actually bothered to read the US Constitution) is filling their feed with memes, pictures, statistics, graphs, and other posts proving that this candidate or [...]

I recently came across a FiveBooks interview from two years ago (exactly: July 4, 2010) with Republican Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. Though I don’t align ideologically with Daniels, I was happily surprised reading through the interview. He comes across as well-read and eloquent, better than John Kerry in his FiveBooks. I’d recommend giving it a read, especially if you’re interested [...]

John wrote an article yesterday about his disappointment with the current World of Warcraft. I agree with all of his points, but I thought I would take it a step further and talk about the kind of MMO I would want to play. As I was thinking about it, I came up with this formula. Mass Effect’s character creation + [...]

“The Green Party is no longer the alternative, the Green Party is the imperative” ~ Rosa Clemente Don’t have much time right now. I have to get down to the board of elections and change my party affiliation. After being Democrat for my whole voting life, I’m going to the Green Party. Yeah, I know. I can hear you now, [...]

Well, he’s finally done it. The President has finally put in words what he’s been doing with policy for 3 years: he’s supporting gay marriage. For many folks, this is the step we’ve been waiting for. Even though President Obama’s administration has had a pro-civil-rights-for-gays policy since the beginning, the words from the man himself have always been noticeably missing. [...]

For those of you who, like me, might not have been particularly politically aware (or particularly alive) in the 1960s, this isn’t the first time that the name Romney has been associated with a presidential primary. Leading up to the 1968 election, Mitt’s father, George Romney was considered the front runner. Well liked by his party, Romney was  favored to win [...]

I take this column’s title in part from Steve Vai’s Passion and Warfare, a masterpiece of guitar virtuosity. The album opens with “Liberty,” then segues into “Erotic Nightmares” and “The Animal.” The album peaks with “For the Love of God” at the seventh track, and finishes with “Love Secrets.” I’m not just listing off these titles to fill space, but [...]

Privilege (n): A right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most. I ran across the following article through a friend who was following the Trayvon Martin shooting just as it was becoming part of the national conversation. The title tells you a lot: How to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin; Eight [...]

I hate Keith Olbermann, but only because I have seen his show.  Over the 8 years that Countdown aired on MSNBC (which I also hate) Olbermann spewed bile and lobbed unsubstantiated charges at pretty much anyone not on the DNC’s Christmas card list.  He got into fights with Bill O’Reily (whom I also hate), his twin brother from the parallel [...]

I don’t want to rock anybody’s worldview (yes I do) but… I maintain that one can’t be a Christian and a conservative and have one coherent worldview. The two are opposites. Stay with me: American Conservatism. America was founded on the idea that people (well, white men) should be able to go do their own thing with minimal government intervention. [...]

Rush Limbaugh. Yep, he’s all over the news right now. He’s Godzilla to the Tokyo of American politics. He strides through breathing flames, leaving wreckage and ditto-head worshippers in his wake. He’s huge, despised, loved, followed (by both despisers and lovers) and unstoppable. Although now that he’s taken on Sailor Moon and her sisters, he may be headed back to [...]

I love Rachel Maddow. I really do. She does a wonderful show that I listen to (via Stitcher) everyday and am always entertained, informed and enlightened. But sometimes, the poor woman just doesn’t get it. Lately she’s been trying to figure out the metamorphosis of Pro-Life theory among Republicans. More and more Republicans are aligning themselves with a pro-life agenda [...]

Beloved Cool Ship Readers, can you help me out? The Republican primary has me asking myself some questions to which I do not know the answer. And it’s hard to get a straight response from a candidate. Perhaps you can give me one in the comments. 1) How does Newt Gingrich in any way “articulate the deepest-held values of the [...]

I adore the pure and beautiful American concept of small government. I long for a nation where a state is free to regulate and deregulate according to the will of it’s citizens.  To be, in my case, an Ohioan first and an American second.  Much the same way that our founding fathers identified themselves as Virginians. So, if you were in the business of [...]

Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones while driving. At first, I thought this was silly. I’m an adult! You can’t tell me what to do! Except… I totally talk on my cell when I drive. I have texted while driving on occasion. And, most memorably, I’ve been the freaked-out passenger [...]

Hey, reader, let me throw some facts your way. Ready? Catch: Renal dialysis is the treatment for end-stage renal failure, which is diagnosed in 100,000 new people every year. Basically, a filter is hooked up to your body to clean your blood for a few hours, a few days a week, forever (or until you can get new kidneys.) Or [...]

My last column—er, rant—bemoaned our awful choices in terms of a Republican presidential candidate. I ended with the concession that Ron Paul is a straight-shooting kind of guy, and perhaps the only decent pick of the lot. Paul has a non-traditional platform that seeks to shrink the size of the federal government in order to cut the national debt and [...]

I guess I should start with a disclaimer that I’m a political moderate. No, really, there are still moderates out there. I think we should cut entitlement programs (gradually) and raise taxes. We’d save a lot of money overall if we instituted a national health care system. You can have your guns, but I want a full suite of reproductive [...]