Spoiler Alert By Glynn Wilson – What would we do without television entertainment and literature in the age of COVID? While I’m not a huge fan of Hollywood monster movies, it was hard to resist John Logan’s Penny Dreadful, a Showtime series now on Netflix depicting the dark side of Victorian England in the 19th…
Editor’s Note: This news comes with no personal regrets, since I didn’t know either of the deceased. But I knew Jack Neely some when writing for Metro Pulse myself, one of the most interesting alternative weeklies in the country in print and online in the late 20th century. It’s a sad day when anyone dies,…
By Lord Byron (a.k.a. George Gordon) Titan! to whose immortal eyes The sufferings of mortality, Seen in their sad reality, Were not as things that gods despise; What was thy pity’s recompense? A silent suffering, and intense; The rock, the vulture, and the chain, All that the proud can feel of pain, The agony they…
By Kay Newton – Here lately I’ve been having far too many hot fudge sundaes—I stop by Sonic’s drive-through every time I’m out that way, just in case the covid catches me. No one knows better than I do how fast this fat will fall away when stricken by pneumonia; I learned the hard way:…
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a three part series on the death of the American Dream and the one last chance we have to save it. Part I: Death of an Empire – Did Trump’s Reality Show Presidency Finally Kill the American Dream? Part II: The Early Days of the Internet – What…
Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three part series on the death of the American Dream and the one last chance we have to save it. Part I: Death of an Empire – Did Trump’s Reality Show Presidency Finally Kill the American Dream? Part III: Government Regulations and Objective Journalism Redefined “We are…
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three part series on the death of the American Dream and the one last chance we have to save it. Part II: The Early Days of the Internet – What Went Wrong Part III: Government Regulations and Objective Journalism Redefined Part I: Death of an Empire –…
By Glynn Wilson – ‘Twas the night before Christmas 2020, when all through the American house The only creatures stirring were nurses trying to save people from dying of COVID. The stockings were hung on the mantle with care, In hopes of a big shipment of vaccine and a relief check from Santa. The children…
By Glynn Wilson – The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in 48 of 50 states launched a major legal broadside across the bow of social media giant Facebook on Wednesday, escalating the battles in Washington and across the country against the largest technology companies in a way that “could remake the social media industry,”…
By Glynn Wilson – This is something I’ve been thinking about and writing about for a long time, but now former President Barack Obama and The Atlantic are talking about it. In an exclusive interview by Jeffrey Goldberg, the former president identifies the greatest threats to the American experiment in democracy, explains why he’s still…
Sunday Reader – By Glynn Wilson – So I’m following the light, doing what I do, and somehow with assistance from Mother Nature, my Cherokee ancestors and smarter aliens on some exoplanet, I made it back to North Carolina this week from a month-long trip to the Nation’s Capital just long enough to see Donald…
Editor’s Note: “If—” is a poem by English Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. The poem, first published in Rewards and Fairies (1910), ch. ‘Brother Square-Toes,’ is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet’s son,…
Editor’s Note: Can you even imagine a world without the arts? No writing, no music, no movies, only factory work and no play? “Without the arts life would not be worth living.” You can quote me on that. Perhaps the saddest thing in the world today, now that we are all dealing with the novel…
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a three part series on how to create a functioning communications system to save democracy and the planet. We face an existential crisis in this world and no one seems to know what to do about it. We are just beginning to explore solutions while others seem willing…
By Glynn Wilson – CONECUH NATIONAL FOREST – It is with a heavy heart that I must report this morning the death of my loyal companion Jefferson, the most beautiful Springer Spaniel I have ever seen and the smartest and best dog ever. He was 13, or 91 in human years. I watched him take…
By Glynn Wilson – Margaret Louise Walrond-Wilson, my mother and a long time resident of Jefferson County, Alabama, died in her sleep of natural causes in the early morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 10. She was 93. Born on Sept. 12, 1926 in Birmingham, she was employed at Trussville Utilities for more than 30 years…
By Glynn Wilson – Editor and Publisher – MOBILE, Ala. — Long-time activist and writer David R. Underhill, Associate Editor of the New American Journal, died in the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center of heart failure after a battle with a series of other health issues early Friday morning, November 8. He was 78. A native…
By Glynn Wilson – Like many a fellow traveler before him inspired by the American landscape, Missouri country boy turned middle-aged Alabama forester Mark J. Hainds grew impatient with his life of teaching, raising a family, and conducting research to conserve and propagate the return of the longleaf pine forest in the South, long ago…
Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights, by Doug Jones, All Points Books, a division of St. Martin’s Press and MacMillan Books. Book Review – By Glynn Wilson – The inspiration for the title of Doug Jones’ emotional, inspiring and detailed account of the legal cases that brought…
The president steps over bright ethical and moral lines wherever he encounters them. Everyone in America saw it when he fired my boss. But I saw it firsthand time and time again. Editor’s Note: Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, was named acting director of the bureau after President Donald Trump fired…
