By Daniel Rigney

One of my guilty pleasures in life is browsing political tabloid news, and nothing says tabloid politics like the Drudge Report. Today I’m scouting lurid Drudge headlines (or “Drudgelines”) in search of new lows.  

A working democracy, if we had one, needs a w… Read full post »

By  Daniel Rigney

Today we’re in Houston, gateway to Louisiana, celebrating the biodiversity of this sprawling urban ecosystem built in a swamp -- I mean a wetland -- on the western edge of Cajun country.

Even those who don’t know their boudin from an etouffee will appreciate the… Read full post »

 By Daniel Rigney

A striking geographic pattern emerges when we map the migration of North American professional sports franchises during the past century. Before 1963,  migrating franchises moved from east to west, mirroring the westward migration of the population as whole. Baseball's Br… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

I grew up back in the space age, when some kids (mostly boys) dreamed of growing up to be astronauts, and professional sports teams were adopting nicknames like “Astros,” “Rockets,” and “Sonics.”

I grew up back when we got our images of the futur… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

What if political news were presented in the style of tabloid gossip? (Oh, it already is?) It might go something like this ....

Mitt Romney’s ghostwriter is completing a memoir. The book will recount the G.O.P. standard-bearer’s childhood years as… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney      

We’re reporting to you, almost live, from the urban canyons of downtown Houston, Texas, art car capital of the world. Today marks the 25^th anniversary of the Houston Art Car Parade, brought to you by the Orange Show, an eccentric and beloved local institut… Read full post »

 By Daniel Rigney

The image of politics as warfare is at least as old as Machiavelli's The Prince, and as current as tomorrow's headlines. In American politics today, Republicans and Democrats alike routinely wield military metaphors against each other, both offensively and defensively, in thei… Read full post »

 By Daniel Rigney

A new study* finds that among the most common clichés in U.S. news media are stories claiming to report "what studies show."

Some news stories sensationalize or distort research findings (or invent them) in ways that play upon the fears and insecurities of readers, am… Read full post »

 By Daniel Rigney (as Rimshot the Sitdown Comic)

I was watching an episode of “Mad Men” recently when my mind wandered back to the actual ad campaigns of the sixties. That’s when I realized I had missed my calling. I should have been writing ad slogans all this time.… Read full post »

National Mottos: The World Tour

By Daniel Rigney

I’ve been collecting mottos lately the way some people collect butterflies, visiting all 50 U.S. states and hundreds of colleges and universities around the world in search of odd, intriguing or amusing specimens.* Today we tour the mot… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

I’m told there was a time when young scribblers in the United States dreamed of writing "the great American novel." It was a time when books were made of paper and ink rather than pixels -- a time when “text” was… Read full post »

In our last episode we went looking for distinctive college and university mottos in the United States.  Now we embark on a grand tour abroad, visiting universities around the world in search of fresh and  unusual words of wisdom.

 “I Am Still Learning.&r… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

I stumbled recently onto an intriguing list of U.S. college and university mottos.* I’d like to share some of the more peculiar ones with you.

Most academic mottos play endless variations on the well-worn themes of knowledge, wisdom, and making money practicality.… Read full post »

When Did THIS Happen?

By Daniel Rigney

When did conservatism become the opposite of conservationism?

When did Rush Limbaugh become a climate scientist?

When did NRA become the “well-regulated militia” stipulated in the 2nd Amendment?

When did corporations become persons?

When… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

The challenges a blogger faces  in front of a blank screen are in some ways like those a baseball player faces when stepping up to the plate.

Imagine the blogger as a hitter at bat, and the ball as the topic of a particular… Read full post »

 By Daniel Rigney

As we dissect the American right to understand how it functions, we should take care to distinguish between its hot-blooded and cold-blooded varieties. Hot conservatism “angries up the blood,” in Satchel Paige’s memorable phrase, while cold conservatism calcu… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Several pro sports franchises in the U.S. have adopted guns or gun-related themes as their totems. The NBA’s Washington Wizards, for instance, were originally known as the Washington Bullets -- this in a city with one of the highest murder rates in the United States. … Read full post »

Satire by Daniel Rigney (as Monsieur Colbert)

I take a sidecar to no one in my devotion to liberty, freedom and the Individual’s struggle against the State. With Jefferson I believe the best governmental regulation is the least regulation. That’s why I modestly propose that we ab… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Dear Mr. Letterman: Here’s that “Mitt Romney’s To-Do List” sketch material you requested. 

Mitt to Self:

1. Add the White House to our inventory of family homes.

2. Secure a large dog crate to the roof of Air Force One.

3. Tear… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

I began watching “American Bandstand” in the early 1960s, when the show was still in black and white. It came on soon after school each weekday, and kids across the country tuned in to the beat of its theme song, “Bandstand Boogie.”

We're goin' hoppin' (Hop)… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Have you noticed that Mitt Romney frequently begins sentences with the phrase “I just happen to believe that … ,” or some variation thereof?

Compare the following three hypothetical sentences: 

1. Carrots grow underground.

2. I believe that carrots grow… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

By Daniel Rigney

When I hear discussions of “Stand Your Ground” laws in Florida and elsewhere, I think immediately of Robert DeNiro’s classic film portrayal of  the deeply disturbed and trigger-happy Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver,” and of the film’s most memo… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

Which current television commercials make you reach urgently for the remote to change the channel, if only momentarily, to avoid having to see or hear them again? Here’s my own nominee for worst new commercial on TV:

Dr. Pepper Ten, for Men Only

Two… Read full post »

By Daniel Rigney

[Approximate reading time: 40 seconds. Longer if… Read full post »