Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Small World: Syria, Dangers ahead for America

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist I don’t know Syria well — never worked there in my Foreign Service years, visited twice afterwards. The first trip was sponsored by an Arabophilic organization trying to build ties. I disappointed them by publishing an article after my return criticizing the Hafez al Assad regime for its autocracy. Syria […]

  • My Irish Up: Two Gunmen of Verona

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In Shakespeare’s times, the only thing that could stop a bad guy with a sword was a good guy with a sword. At the final curtain, the Globe stage was littered with gore. But what would The Bard’s stance be on gun violence, in the modern world? A recently-discovered lost […]

  • My Irish Up: Shazam, you’re rich!

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist It took awhile and I’m sorry about that, but I finally came up with a way to solve the budget deficit and render the “fiscal cliff” moot, and move the sequester along. The world has yet to see anything that compares with the Corrigan Plan for Individual and National Wealth […]

  • Uppermost House: Hazards of teachable moments

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist We had a guest speaker at church last week, Dr. Larry Guthrie, from Harvest Home Farm in west-central Wisconsin. In addition to the organic livestock, vegetables and fruit, the farm also produces another crop, an eternal crop. Using the daily challenges and small victories of working a quarter-section (160 […]

  • My Irish Up: What’s the buzz around Maine?

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Speaking as one of maybe 11 or 12 college students of my or any generation who never even tried marijuana, and therefore also as one of the few from my era still capable of remembering my own name — Fred, isn’t it? Frank? Wait, it’ll come to me! — I […]

  • Small World: Afghanistan, the end game

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist The national game of Afghanistan is Buzkashi. Two teams of men on horseback strive, as in polo, to put an object over the goal line. The object is, however, not a ball, but a large, headless goat. The winning team makes the most goat-goals in a stipulated period of time. […]

  • LR Coalition: Sexual violence happens to males

    With growing awareness that domestic and sexual violence does happen to males, more boys and men are disclosing. To put this in perspective, let’s look at the one in six men who have experienced sexual abuse as younger children or adolescents. That means that there are just as many men who experienced sexual abuse as […]

  • My Irish Up: Why I still have cable

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist — You have reached the offices of BuzzOff Communications. It is our pleasure to serve you. At the tone, please provide your nine-digit account number. — 789 212 418 — Thank you for calling BuzzOff Communications. I am having trouble understanding you. If you speak English, please press one. Habla […]

  • Uppermost House: Contemplating a career in skulls

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist What’s the weirdest job you ever had? Great question to ask in March when there isn’t much else to do. Mine was working on a barge with a rattling sickle bar under the bow that sheared invasive pond weeds off at the mudline and fed the fetid, writhing wrack […]

  • My Irish Up: Your tax dollars at ‘work’ (lol)

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist I try to keep up with everything that the Congress is not doing, but it’s difficult. The main challenge of such a pursuit is to stay awake through endless weeks of not hearing our elected representatives not debating the great questions of the day, and then to watch them not […]