Troubled by the bitter ironies and profound contradictions military chaplains embody, I took a long walk. The inescapable facts are that the military's job is to kill people on behalf of the State, and that Christian ministers say they are guided by a "Prince of Peace" who died in defense...

Two points to my friend who teases, "EVERYthing's political with you, Paula!" Politics, meet grammar. President-elect Obama uses correct grammar correctly. It is a powerful tool as we face the gargantuan and urgently essential task: resuscitating the education system Ronald Reagan started dismantling when Governor of California. His privatizing acolytes...

Georgia should be on everyone's mind tomorrow, Tuesday, December 2. It's our run-off for U.S. Senate. Consider urging like-minded friends to vote, and to remember -- it was the incumbent Saxby Chambliss' scabrous* lies about Max Cleland that made all the difference six years ago. Chambliss is both unrepentant for...

Just thinking about "Black Friday" gives me brain-shivers. Our antidote to traffic snarls and short-tempered shoppers? We put our money where our values are by making donations in friends' or family members' names to worthy organizations: saving polar bears, stopping torture, defending free speech, supporting education, protecting wilderness ... ....

I admit it. I'm incorrigibly, irredeemably, implacably...well...friendly. Yes, I do talk to dogs -- why are their people not doing so? -- as well as to the strangers those fine "woofies" walk. Near the end of a stroll in my urban neighborhood during an especially beautiful twilight, I was even...

"Calumny: a false and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone or something." Hand it to John McCain. Had he not cynically plucked a deservedly-unknown and brutal politician whose entire electoral base rivals the population of Birmingham, Alabama, I would never have had the need for a nineteenth...

Character, not just the Great Depression, has me thinking about Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama in tandem as I wait (anxiously) for the American people to give Senator Obama the opportunity to redirect our tattered ship of state. I am, simply, captivated by people who refuse to be defined by...

A friend and former Marine officer just forwarded this citation to me. It is a quote from the August 11, 2005 New York Times:

"Writing about Vietnam in the foreword to David Halberstam's book ''The Best and the Brightest,'' Senator John McCain said:

'It was a shameful thing to ask...

Pardon my paranoia, BUT ...
There is little doubt that the Republican Party has for years included voter suppression as part of its ongoing strategy. Evidence of this policy continues to roll in from around the nation. Evidence also continues to mount that Barak Obama will overwhelmingly win the...

The gut-wrenching virulence of McPalin acolytes got me wondering, "What are these people so AFRAID of?" Then the familiarity registers. This is the classic behavior of abusive relationships. Mr. and Mrs. Republican are unable to leave the old white guy and his screechy female counterpart even though their extremist views...

Sen. McCain does not seem to be able to manage his own nominee for Vice President. He does not seem to be able to manage his own campaign. Why would he think that these manifest failures mean that he can manage the nation? why would I? why would the American...

While the fate of the nation hangs in the balance, so does that of Troy Anthony Davis (details in my 9/22/08 "Faith-Based Cruelty" post). He personifies the continuing threat to justice (and to life) of our de facto judicial system. Guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt" lies at the heart of...

I revisited Barack Obama's speech on the subject of race in the United States last night. Yes, I was sorely in need of an effective antidote to Republican ugliness. And more. I yearned for an adult to speak to me, as an adult, without pulling any punches. Real issues, real...

Two weeks out from the most momentous day in a guy's life, he drops everything to go be with his very sick Grandma because, well, it's the right thing to do. Friday night after last week "on the road" -- a week that would put most mortals to shame --...

In the tradition of Republican the-business-of-government-is-business governance, Wall Street is reported to be skimming 10% off the top of the bailout. Incredible as this seems, that is the story reported over the weekend by Britain's The Guardian newspaper and, oddly, not widely headlined in the U.S .

Mr. Paulson, et...

Are there any sentient creatures in any known universe who believe that William Ayers is relevant to anything but John McCain's desperation and bad judgement?

Mr. Lewis is a hero to John McCain, except when Mr. Lewis applies that which makes him heroic (honesty, integrity, truthfulness, determination and a deep,...

I am unwilling to believe that Senator John McCain is running his own campaign. Though as a candidate for the presidency, Sen. McCain is deeply flawed, I am unwilling to believe that the ugly campaign his Party is running truly reflects Sen. McCain's genuine views.

I...

Because The Paula Gordon Show is part of "the media" we are on the receiving end of many books and lots of email ... from the full political spectrum. Unsurprisingly, the volume, in weight and decibels, has ratcheted up since the first of October.

Magical Thinking enables one to...

... assuming we just watched her audition for bodacious wrongwing talk show host, not Vice President of the United States of America. The Republicans offer us Bimbo and Rambo when the nation is in crisis, the economy in shambles, and the world's careening toward environmental calamity?

While I have...

Please forgive me for writing at this late hour. However, we must make important decisions very soon.

I would be deeply obliged to you if you would forgo your proposed trip to Washington, D.C. The nation is deeply challenged by a financial crisis consequent to the fundamental dogma of the...