“Thou shalt not kill.” -- God I don’t remember Moses (or was it Charlton Heston?) including any list of exceptions to that order. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention. Alas and alack, World War Three has already begun. Of 195 countries on this little blue marble, 110 are currently shooting, according to the Geneva Academy. That’s well over half, 56 percent. The world’s … [Read more...]
Death by a thousand cuts
Whatever might the Orient Express, trolley cars and the new phone book have in common? All such were intentionally neglected into the ground by their corporate overlords. America’s rapacious railroads weren’t making enough money on their passenger lines, so they intentionally made the service so bad that people stopped using it. Thus advised my Uncle John who was once the … [Read more...]
Life as a color cartoon
Since the first cave dweller scrawled on a rock, artists have been trying to teach us. We ignore them at our peril and we thus live in the most perilous of times. And so we slog forward as best we can. LAUGH OR CRY DEPT. Cartoonists condense reality better than even bumper sticker…er…meme writers. Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau delivered a typical gut punchline in … [Read more...]
Outlive them all
“I’m black and you’re a Jew. How do you intend to make it in this town?” — Bill Russell to Red Auerbach c. 1956 “I’ll outlive them all,” the legendary Boston Celtics coach replied. Good advice both in the concrete and the abstract. Boston is still flamingly racist. As is the small town called Nevada. Beantown and Mississippi West have just gotten good at euphemism, … [Read more...]
The awful truth for the rudely scrude
Sorry, kids. We are rudely screwed once again. This edition of the Crudely and Rudely Scrude News comes from no less than Gomorrah South. Bottom line: When the biggest, baddest union in the state can’t get something done by southern Nevada governments, MAYDAY! That’s just what’s happened to mighty Culinary Union Local 226 and its 60,000+ Nevada members, some of whom even … [Read more...]
Tribune Columnist Andrew Barbano Celebrates 30 Years with Sparks Paper
“Be well. Raise Hell.”- is Andrew Barbano’s signature sign off message on his email communications and his columns. It’s a motto Barbano continues to live by as he celebrates his 30th anniversary as an opinion columnist for the Sparks Tribune. Barbano is one of four Tribune columnists who regularly offer opinions and information from every political spectrum. A champion … [Read more...]
Reidless and rudderless?
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid left Nevada with a serious case of the blues, both the good kind and the bad. On the plus side, he tromped the Trump trend and went out a winner. He replaced himself with Democrat Catherine Cortez-Masto, returned both legislative chambers to the Donkeykongs and delivered Nevada for Mrs. Clinton. After bucking the 2016 national blue flu epidemic, … [Read more...]