Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

Listening to the car radio this afternoon, I heard yet another political analyst rail against partisanship. “It’s both sides!” he said. I keep wondering … If one side of an argument is delusional, what choice does the other side have but to stand firmly on sane soil? Where’s the middle ground between the Earth and [...]

Where are those East Coasters who laughed about climate change during a snowstorm last winter? Says Paul Douglas:
“NOAA reports that June was the hottest month in recorded history, worldwide. That is the fourth month in a row of record warmth for planet Earth. June also marked the 304th consecutive month with a global temperature above [...]

Katherine Kersten offers additional reasons to support the of end marital discrimination — even though few, if any, of them will come about.


Does the Star Tribune editorial board endorse a given political candidate after having that candidate over for dinner? Does metro page columnist Jon Tevlin promote the causes of his bowling buddies? Does Lori Sturdevant profile policy-makers who have done her personal favors? Rest assured, at least one columnist at the newspaper has — for more [...]

Leon Wieseletier writes in the current issue of The New Republic:
“There are transformative events, but not many; and the frequent insistence upon unprecedentedness of one’s own time is evidence only of excitability. There is no need of breaking news for the purposes of arriving at one’s fundamental beliefs. The study of history should suffice. It [...]

If you can’t suck ‘em in any other way, write a header that might rile up some folks — that’s what I always like to say.
A recent study indicates that empathy for others is in decline. The study, conducted by the Michigan University Institute for Social Research, looked at 72 other studies that measured empathy [...]

I have collected a short stack of notes about libertarianism in recent months with an eye on cobbling together a rant. For some reason, I enjoy shooting into this particular barrel of fish. After I came across an essay over the weekend about the original Glenn Beck, I thought I would cease with my laziness [...]

“If we were all logicians the economy would not survive and herein lies the paradox, for in order to exist economically we must try by might and main to remain stupid.” So said Jules Henry, circa 1964. I did not think of that quote this afternoon while on a ten-minute drive during which I  heard [...]

Even before I read the first word of this article I had a visceral reaction to it. The accompanying photographs — my eyes tend to skip over photographs in magazines — affected me in a manner that is difficult to articulate. I knew, immediately I knew, I was not going to like what I was [...]

What is it about female writers named Miller? I so disliked Sue Miller’s The Senator’s Wife that I will not anytime soon consider reading another of her novels, no matter how many of them land on the New York Times bestseller list. Judith Miller, of course, helped sell the public on a bogus war. And [...]

I have some big news.
What? You finally learned how to use your cell phone or something?
Bigger.
You don’t mean to tell me you broke down and ate a piece of chocolate cake?
I’m serious here.
OK, what did you do — mess up Justin Bieber’s hair? Go see “Sex and the City”? Join a book-burning club?
I quit Facebook.
Look, [...]

This will make me sound like I’m 86 years old, but so be it: What is enjoyable about roaring one’s motorcycle down a busy road? That is, I mean, if you’re old enough to legally drive the machine in the first place, what is going through your mind there? Just watch me make that baby [...]

You Go, Girl. I mean, Old Gray Lady.

One final exam before the start of summer break. Match speaker to speech:
1. Prophet
2. Parent
3. Priest
A. “I felt like I obeyed God and I believe there will be good out of this. I feel like He will reveal his power and they will be raised up. They will become alive again.”
B. “I can foresee the [...]

Endorsing this essay feels like an endorsement of the obvious. Like sticking up for mothers. Or being anti-poverty. Yet, strangely, someone needed to say it:
“Unaddressed in that calculus is any question of what else an education might be for: to nurture critical thought; to expose individuals to the signal accomplishments of humankind; to develop in [...]

This piece meanders, but its heart is in the right place. Besides, buying books from a big box is like ordering food from a mechanic. Yuck.

Turns out, I am an anti-upside-down Fordist. Who knew?

There were times during the first half of the debate last night while John McCain was talking to his “friends” that I wondered what was going through Barack Obama’s mind. And I pretended that I knew.

This man is unraveling before my eyes. He sucked up to all of those people he hated in 2000, he [...]

Reading this article made me want to make a few endorsements of my own:

Churches should no longer receive tax exemptions. They don’t need them. They shouldn’t want them. A blunt line between church and state is better for both the church and the state. Besides, then preachers can say whatever the hell they want.
But if [...]

Sometimes government does right where the market does not. Congress — finally — passed a federal law requiring health insurers to cover mental health in the same way as physical health. The law was long overdue, and yet easily could have been shelved for another session. As a Minnesotan, I’m heartened that a Republican like [...]