The artist as a young man (circa 1973)This month is the anniversary of my birth. Part of our life cycle. Birth, living, then death. All simple, neat and tidy. Millions have done it before me and millions more will come after me. Why am I so special? What is my purpose? It may surprise you to know, I know the answer to those questions and I’m both thrilled and scared about it at the same time. Whenever my birthday comes around, I get this sick feeling of dread that I try to hide from my friends and family. (Oops! LOL) But I don’t want to ignore the date. We can celebrate growing old.
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It was announced on Friday (01/04/2012) that The Dispatch Printing Company would be shutting down the alternative paper The Other Paper (TOP) here in Columbus. Those of us who have read TOP over the years know that TOP died when the Dispatch bought it over a year ago. After the purchase, Columbus lost our only real alternative paper in the city.
Ohio State and the team north of them play this Saturday (11/24) in their annual rivalry game. The difference is that Ohio State is 11-0 but is banned from post season play so ‘The Game’ is our Bowl game and championship all rolled into one. The Ohio State biased newspaper The Columbus Dispatch thinks having a bowl ban this season was a wrong result of the NCAA punishment the school got for Tattoogate. If only hindsight was a real thing to use in making decisions.
Wow! The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch hit all the GOP talking points in their recent editorial endorsing Mitt Romney for President. What kind of shocked me was the inclusion the subtly racist one that says ‘We gave the guy a chance so it is okay to vote him out of office’ that comes from the ad the Republican National Committee is running on the local Dispatch owned TV station now. I wonder if the Romney campaign and/or the RNC wrote the editorial because rational people know all the talking points have been rebutted multiple times.
Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan visited Belmont county, in Ohio, Saturday to claim that President Obama has a war on Coal. It is part of the Romney-Ryan plan to drill for more oil, keep the huge handouts to Big Oil, reduce pollution regulations, and stop government assistance to green energy. Of course this also means telling Coal miners that their jobs are in danger even though no matter who is the President their jobs are in danger. If we were at the beginning of the 20th century, Paul Ryan would be complaining about President Obama having a war on horse drawn buggies. Coal is a dying source for energy much like buggies gave way to the better technology of the automobile.