There has been a lot of cancer around me recently, and I've been doing a lot of thinking about it.  This week, America paused upon the passing of actress Farrah Fawcett after her bout with cancer.  There was another passing from cancer, far more significant in my mind, that I wanted to share with you.  And an excellent piece in the Times that anyone who has ever given to cancer research, or who has a loved one with cancer, should pause upon too. [Read more]

It is easy to say that others are responsible for progress.  To fail to take ownership of the here and now.  Well, as one member of this community, I am here to tell you, it is time for all of us -- for me, and for you -- to take responsibility now to move our community forward, together.  There is nothing that could possibly be more important.

For many years, this community has been divided.  People have formed factions.  They have fought.  They have argued.  On one hand, a faction argues for its vision of things -- the things our community should focus upon.  On the other side, the other faction argues fervently for its competing goals.  When these factions split our community, it has become crystal clear:  nothing gets done.  Nothing.  So what are we to do? [Read more]

When Abram turned 99, God came to him and said, “'I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be perfect.”

Commentary: Yessir, God definitely had a man-crush on Abram.

Abram complied by falling flat on his face. Then God promised several more times to give Abram many, many offspring until Abram was about ready to tell God to shut up about the offspring already.

But then God demanded a price for his largess: circumcision.

Commentary: A kinky man-crush. [Read more]

I thought I'd share one of those channel-surfing moments that make you wish all TVs came with a screen-grab function. I happened to switch to TSN as they were doing an item on the end of Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension. What immediately caught my eye was the chyron at the bottom of the screen: "suspended due to darkness."

"Holy crap, TSN," I immediately thought. "You can't say that. They caught the guy fair and square." A second or so later, I realized I was seeing the second half of a line that probably referred to the game he'd been expected to play in.

Is there a moral to this little anecdote? Nope. None at all. Have a good night, folks.

Michael Jackson dead?? That's what the LA Times and AP are reporting, anyway (CNN hasn't yet confirmed). Unbelievable.

Earlier today, my brother was bemoaning Farrah Fawcett's death, trying to come to grips with the loss of his most common inspiration for those special, intimate teenage moments. (I kind of remember Charlie's Angels and thinking of Farrah as a sexy broad, but she was a bit before my prime mastubatory years).

Michael Jackson, however, was kind of like my Beatles. So I'm in shock, and surprisingly sad to learn of his premature death. [Read more]

I thought about checking "World Affairs" for this one.  (Ha ha.)  Am I the only one tired of bad word play about Sanford's Buenos Aires escapades, in headline after headline on MSNBC last night?  After a heated meeting at the dag editorial board, thought I would share the titles of several rejected Sanford posts:

10.  Sanford and Done.  The story of his resignation from the leadership of the Republican Governors' Association, and eventually the South Carolina governorship.

9.  Sanford and Run?  Can Sanford rehabilitate himself and seek the Presidency in 2012?  Nah.

8.  I Just Met a Girl Named Maria.  Too West Side Story.  Readership too young for all that. [Read more]

Wow, and I mean wow.  This is a quite the romantic email thread.  After reading this, I honestly think he originally went to Argentina with the intent of never coming back, but his conscience got the better of him and he decided it would be poor taste to leave his South Carolina (oh, and his 4 young children) hanging.  I can't really blame him, what would you rather do: wrangle in American politics with blowhard unscrupulous lawyers or live on the beach in Argentina with your South American lover?   The thing that strikes me about these emails is that he genuinely seems to care for this woman and her for him.

------------------------------------------------------------

From: Mark Sanford

To: Maria [Read more]