In Tennessee, it’s not all bigots trying to keep Muslims out of their towns with bizarrely abusive lawsuits. In Cordova, Tennessee (that’s not far from Memphis), a Christian church is allowing a startup Muslim community to use its facilities for… Continue Reading
I wrote a while back expressing moderate embarrassment at the bigoted attempts of a lawyer in Tennessee to stop a mosque from being built in the charming city Murfreesboro. Much as I (and quite a lot of other people, it’s… Continue Reading
One of the things that is most aggravating to me in court is when the judicial officer presiding over a hearing relinquishes control of proceedings to one of the parties – and when that party then uses that latitude from… Continue Reading
When we lived in Tennessee, one of the more jarring cultural differences I found was being presented with a bill for emergency services. Paramedics, firefighters, and the like are certainly not free and if we ever used them I fully… Continue Reading
I’ve heard and read a lot of arguments about why it’s in bad taste for a mosque to be built right on top of two blocks away from Ground Zero, and about how it would be hurtful to the survivors… Continue Reading
If you were to watch this video without a critical mind, you’d probably wind up feeling outraged. But as someone who has had his own thoughts and beliefs tested by countless documentaries and other media productions, and who later in… Continue Reading
Alvin C. York was born in 1887 to a very poor family in Tennessee. His father died when Alvin was 24 years old, and Alvin had to help his mother raise eight of his younger brothers and sisters. He was… Continue Reading
The cover story from this month’s Atlantic is deeply depressing. And, I can tell you from my (comparatively) brief experience with unemployment, based on a very real psychological phenomenon. Back after The Wife and I moved to Tennessee and discovered… Continue Reading
Locals pronounce the name Maryville, a Tennessee city very near The Estate At Louisville and an exurb of Knoxville,* “Muhrr-vull.” The big news: a local citizen was concerned that the city’s annual holiday celebration, which included a reading of several… Continue Reading
We begin with a lamb jumping on a bed. Very cute, but it comes to a strange ending. Then, I found a delightful children’s book about interspecies telepathy, and the inevitable conquest of our planet by alien retroviruses. It’s fun… Continue Reading