During an era of great economic and social strife, a loud, angry and rapidly growing segment of the U.S. electorate split from its traditional political leaders and rallied behind a young, charismatic and populist governor from a relatively obscure U.S. state. This new leader made headlines… Read full post »

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the only holdover in the Obama cabinet from the Bush Administration, believes that homosexuals no longer need to lie to serve in our military. He shares his opinion with Adm. Mike Mullen, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who… Read full post »

(AP Photo/Paul Abell) 

Atlanta’s never earned a reputation as a ‘sports town.’  Sure, we’ve got teams in every major pro league (at least until the Thrashers bolt for Canada), but the stadiums rarely fill to capacity.  When they do, half of the crowd we… Read full post »

My Open Salon pal Mad Typist penned an excellent blog today concerning the lack of positive female characters in Pixar’s otherwise uplifting films.  If you haven’t read it, check it out.

Mad Typist is right: even the vaunted Pixar colossally fails when it comes to portraying women and… Read full post »

It all comes down to tonight's game...

A franchise best regular season, a league MVP award, record t.v. ratings and a 44-3 home record could all morph into mere asterisks on the pages of hoops history if the Cavs struggle again tonight. The Magic own this series.… Read full post »

Trouble is brewing in Black Sea Georgia yet again. According to embattled president Mikhail Saakashvili, a group of Russian-backed mutiny-minded Georgian Army officers attempted to overthrow the government yesterday. They wanted to get rid of the president prior to today's scheduled NATO… Read full post »

There's going to be another killing tonight. The soon-to-be dead man goes by the name of William Mark Mize. The state of Georgia will murder him. The state will use my taxes to do it.

The prosecutors said that Mize killed a man named Eddie Tucker… Read full post »

(Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)

Ahh... the NBA’s “second season” has finally arrived--that lovely time of year when basketball coverage dominates American sports media and diehard hoops fans like myself walk around with a sudden lightness in their gait and a joyous glim… Read full post »

The situation off of the Horn of Africa remains so much more complex than what we’re reading about in the American press.

I've written previously on OS about the roots of the Somali piracy problem -- a fairly simple and straightforward story that somehow eludes most of the press and… Read full post »

Perhaps you've already heard, but for the first time in three years, Iranians living within their home country's borders can now access and use the social networking website Facebook.

This interesting article from Radio Free Europe speculates as to why the change in policy has occurred. Tho… Read full post »

I spent the past week (and every Tuesday and Friday of the past three months) watching Georgia high school basketball. And I loved every minute of it.

The Region 5-AAAA tournament wrapped up Saturday at Lithia Springs High School in Douglas County. It lasted all… Read full post »

Well, it is official.

Russia announced earlier this week that it would be opening two new military bases in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. The former Soviet vacation province has been under de-facto Russian control for about 15 years, but this summer's Russia-Georgia War allow… Read full post »

Every once in a while, my little local paper generates some national news.  It last happened with Evander Holyfield's home foreclosure.  Before that it was Pacman Jones' trial in Fayetteville and even further back, we broke the local Chris Benoit murders/suicide.

Unfortunately, I think we'r… Read full post »

An interesting and mostly ignored tidbit showed up in the fringe of yesterday’s overwhelming media coverage of President Obama’s inauguration.

A bulletin was issued late Monday night to state and local law enforcement agencies concerning a possible D.C. terrorist threat. Intelli… Read full post »

Regardless of what Celtics or Magic fans may argue to the contrary, the Cleveland Cavaliers have quietly become the Eastern Conference's best team.

Just a handful of games remain before the official halfway point of the 08-09 season and King James and Co. have the best record in… Read full post »

Marley Safer and David Browning apparently dislike Julian Schnabel.  This “60 Minutes” segment from last night tries extremely hard to paint the artist/filmmaker Schnabel in the worst light possible.

I gathered two things from these tasteless 12 minutes: first of al… Read full post »

Even among street variety NBA fans, it is often forgotten that in ’95, Kevin Garnett became the first kid drafted directly out of high school since the ABA’s Utah Stars drafted Moses Malone in ’74.

KG—the future first ballot hall of famer who almost… Read full post »

I went to a Dental One Associates office on the southside of Atlanta today.

And my reason for doing so was unfortunately unrelated to a bi-annual cleaning or any other such frivolity that ensures that the number of dental offices per capita almost always… Read full post »

This started out as a response to Frank Stein’s OS post about piracy off the Horn of Africa, but as my comment grew to dwarf Franks’ original piece in length, I decided to make it a blog of my own. Frank’s full post is included below in italics (or you… Read full post »

The election season is over, our man won!

Well, not quite… 

 In Georgia, we still have a Senate race. 

 Apparently, in Minnesota, the election laws are different. 

But here in the Peach State, a runnoff occurs when a… Read full post »

In the spring of 1954, the Milwaukee Braves acquired power hitter Bobby Thomson to boost the young team’s lineup with a much-needed long ball threat.  The Braves wanted a solid right-handed bat to counter the southpaw pitching that had given them fits in ’52 and &rsqu… Read full post »

As Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter Sekou Smith put it today, “Let’s talk about some change that you can believe in.”

 For those of you who allowed your campaign addictions to keep you from noticing the start of the 2008-2009 NBA season, allow… Read full post »

Barack lost his grandmother today, on my grandmother’s birthday—the first that our family celebrated without her.

Maw-maw passed away in March, with Edgar Sr., Edgar Jr., me, and a host of other family members by her side.

She succumbed to cancer, like Barack’s grandmother Mad… Read full post »

A couple of days ago, one of the nation’s finest newspapers, The Christian Science Monitor, announced that it will transition to an almost exclusively online format by April of next year.

According to the release linked above, the publication plans to, “continue to operate a… Read full post »

Twenty-five years ago today, two suicide bombers drove a pair of explosives-laden trucks into the two separate buildings housing American and French peacekeeping forces in Beirut.  The blasts killed 241 American servicemen, 58 French troops, six civilians and the two suicide bombers.&nb… Read full post »