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Category Archives: David Long
Heaven-sent
So to fill what would otherwise be blank newsprint on the front page of a recent Sunday Denver Post, the wise editor ran a story about how many of us believe in ANGELS! And to fill what would otherwise be … Continue reading
Published in David Long
Whistling Dixie
Probably the most effective way of making it crystal clear in most people’s minds that you are a white supremacist is by flying a Confederate flag – the bigger the better – in your front yard or on your vehicle. … Continue reading
Published in David Long
The greatest good for the greatest number
About four years ago I wrote presidential candidate Bernie Sanders a letter giving him some unsolicited advice. (A real letter involving words on paper, an envelope and postage.) Bernie, I says, your agenda is real good but your approach to … Continue reading
Published in David Long
An automatic reflex
Recently I wrote a short news story for the Free Press Facebook page about the armed robbery of a Durango pot shop in which I referred to the suspect’s weapon as an “automatic rifle.” In fact, it was an AR-15, commonly – … Continue reading
Published in David Long, May 2017
An automatic reflex
Recently I wrote a short news story for the Free Press Facebook page about the armed robbery of a Durango pot shop in which I referred to the suspect’s weapon as an “automatic rifle.” In fact, it was an AR-15, … Continue reading
Published in David Long
Once upon a time in Berkeley. . .
Like Forrest Gump, I have witnessed a few key historical events close up, though I lay no claim to having played any meaningful role in them, nor even having grasped their significance at the time. So the recent flurry of … Continue reading
Published in David Long, March 2017
Once upon a time in Berkeley. . .
Like Forrest Gump, I have witnessed a few key historical events close up, though I lay no claim to having played any meaningful role in them, nor even having grasped their significance at the time. So the recent flurry of … Continue reading
Published in David Long, March 2017
Guns don’t kill people
As comedian Chris Rock has pointed out, guns don’t kill people, bullets do. So, Rock suggested, one way of reducing the number of firearm-related murders in this country might be to charge $10,000 for each round of ammo, thus giving … Continue reading
Published in David Long, November 2015
Scalia’s dissent is far out, man!
When’s the last time you remember someone using the word “hippie”? If you say “quite a while,” that’s only because you haven’t read Justice Antonin Scalia’s hilarious dissent from the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision declaring laws against same-sex marriage … Continue reading
Published in David Long, July 2015
Collateral damage
It was called “collateral damage,” as though giving the random killing of human beings such a vaguely scientific name somehow took away its awful truth – that truth being our government was quite willing to take innocent Iraqi lives as … Continue reading
Published in David Long, March 2015
Saints and sinners
None of us are angels, regardless of our good works and words, and most of us would readily concede this. But gently pointing this out in a profile of Michael Brown, the black teenager shot to death by a small-town … Continue reading
Published in David Long, September 2014
Something ought to be done, by golly
It was horrific. Once again, my whole weekend was thrown into complete disarray by current events. Last winter it was the shooting in Tucson of a Congresswoman and many others at a shopping center by a crazy man early on … Continue reading
Published in David Long, January 2013
A dark night for America
Like all good-hearted Americans, I felt real bad for a little while about the recent recordbreaking mass slaughter inside an Aurora movie theater, then just mildly bad when I was reminded of it by the endless TV coverage. Then it … Continue reading
Published in August 2012, David Long
Gun power
On any given month, there is almost bound to be at least one mass shooting in the good old land of the Second Amendment. The latest of these – or maybe not by the time this is published – involved … Continue reading
Published in David Long, May 2012
What’s a life worth?
Poet John Donne observed that no man is an island, and that the loss of anyone diminishes us all. This is, of course, a much more generous interpretation of our short time here on Earth than was expressed recently by … Continue reading
Published in April 2012, David Long
Money holds sway in college sports
I grew up not far from State College, Pa., home of the now-notorious Pennsylvania State University, and in fact one of my family graduated from there with a teaching degree. This was around the time “JoePa” – Penn State’s famed … Continue reading
Published in David Long, December 2011
Maybe it wasn’t such an inexplicable act
“a politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.” – e.e. cummings The mass murder spree in Arizona a few weeks ago sure got people talking, especially our elected leaders. Glib politicians all extended sympathy to the families … Continue reading
Published in David Long, February 2011
Is there a little prince or princess in your house?
All the recent hoopla around “The Royal Wedding” in London sickened me – mostly figuratively, but a bit literally as well. The actual wave of nausea came when I saw the latest “Royal Couple” on the front of both Time and Newsweek, publications … Continue reading
Published in David Long, June 2011
Phantom candidates don’t deserve to win
To the good citizens of Cortez: If you truly know what’s good for you, you’ll turn out in droves to vote against recalling the five members of the city council that a few disgruntled malcontents and developers are trying to … Continue reading
Published in David Long, May 2011
McInnis’ Water-loo
If you’ve lived in Colorado’s Third Congressional District for a while, the name of GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis should ring a bell. But even if it doesn’t, I would like to sound one now — an alarm bell warning … Continue reading
Published in August 2010, David Long
Marching backward into the future
No one looked particularly enslaved — yet a return to the “freedoms” of the past was the theme of a Tea Party rally in Cortez on April 15, the most painful day of all for those who believe they pay … Continue reading
Published in David Long, May 2010
Will politics trump justice?
Do as I say, not as I do. This is the admonition parents occasionally finger-wag at their naughty children for minor transgressions of which they themselves have been guilty. (Son, we just didn’t know how harmful it was for teenagers … Continue reading
Published in April 2010, David Long
Teams’ ‘respect’ for Indians is only Skin-deep
After a couple decades during which public opinion has waxed, then waned in its superficial indignation, the U.S. Supreme Court has finally spoken: There ain’t nothin’ wrong with a little well-intentioned racism when it’s cloaked in the glamour of the … Continue reading
Published in David Long, December 2009
The royal families in our political midst
The possible appointment of Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary Clinton’s seat in the U.S. Senate has sparked a debate about how democratic our political system really is. The question is whether we actually have a “nobility” that easily ascends to … Continue reading
Published in David Long, January 2009
Wright’s rants raise troubling questions
News flash! Illinois Sen. Barak Obama, until lately the clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, isn’t all black. He’s only half black, the other half being as white as Hillary Clinton’s naked butt. (The simile is pure conjecture, of … Continue reading
Published in April 2008, David Long
Holding my nose for Hillary?
I’m just not sure I’ll be able to do it. Vote for Hillary, that is, rather than facing the reality of shape-shifting Mitt Romney or blood-and-guts John McCain. It’s certainly not because she’s a woman, nor is it about what … Continue reading
Published in David Long, February 2008
Is this any way to treat your ‘best friend’?
I got my first dog shortly after I learned to walk, and would waddle around with the fat little puppy named, for the obvious reason, “Blackie” clutched to my chest. So we grew up together, and became closer than many … Continue reading
Published in -September 2007, David Long
Desperate GOP woos outed commie
I recently got a letter from the Republican National Committee asking for money. (Me, an outed commie, being solicited by the GOP! What’s next? An appeal from Jerry Falwell? Oh, wait, I forgot . . . ) Anyway, to say … Continue reading
Published in -August 2007, David Long
Time to transcend group identities
For those who have been vacationing on the moon, the Don Imus radio/TV show is no more. And while he deserved to be canned for the offensive and nonsensical remarks he made, the whole episode also raises some questions about … Continue reading
Published in -May 2007, David Long
Do ‘family affairs’ matter to the religious right?
Remember family values? You know, all those traditional straitlaced behaviors embraced and espoused by the political and religious right during the last several elections that made them uniquely fit to steer the ship of state? Things like honesty, integrity, adherence … Continue reading
Published in April 2007, David Long
How did this happen?
How on earth did this happen? Lots of smart people (and even notso- smart ones, such as myself) saw it coming and spoke out against it. Right from the first – not after it became politically safe and – possibly … Continue reading
Published in -January 2007, David Long
Lactating intolerance – get over it, America!
Maybe it’s because I was a breast-fed baby myself. Or, more unlikely, maybe it’s because of my considerable maturity and sophistication. Whatever, I can’t see anything remotely offensive or sexually explicit about a woman suckling an infant in public, and … Continue reading
Published in David Long, September 2006
Anonymous accusations carry their own stigma
Cable news has been filled lately with idle speculation about whether or not members of the Duke University lacrosse team raped one of two exotic dancers who briefly performed for them at a drunken party. (Don’t they mean “erotic” dancers, … Continue reading
Published in David Long, May 2006
In defense of (a little) intolerance
That dirty rotten Communist Karl Marx quite correctly pointed out that religion is the opium of the masses. Karl (I feel like we’re on a first-name basis since I’ve also been cursed as a dirty rotten Communist), who preferred name-callers … Continue reading
Published in David Long, March 2006
This just in: Bush administration acted illegally!
With all the attention drawn by the ongoing CIA leak case and the indictments of Dick Cheney’s brain, Scooter Libby, another unethical and illegal action by the White House has sparked little comment. The federal General Accountability Office ruled in … Continue reading
Published in David Long, December 2005
Patriotism, the last refuge of scoundrels, thrives
Let’s see: The immoral, illegal and interminable war in Iraq drags on, killing our kids as well as Iraqi citizens while squandering our wealth. Our economy heads for the toilet as the price of gas skyrockets and consumer confidence plunges. … Continue reading
Published in David Long, July 2005
Pray tell: What’s the difference between a democracy and a theocracy?
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting fed up with this country’s Christian majority? Even after last fall’s election installed several more of “their kind” in Congress, these Bible Belters and Thumpers are still constantly complaining that their … Continue reading
Published in David Long, May 2005
Do family values include whores in the White House?
It’s getting to the point where that old saw — believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you read — may need to be revamped. Perhaps to: Believe nothing of what you hear, read or see, … Continue reading
Published in April 2005, David Long
War is hell — and it’s not fought by angels
Gee, I wonder why they hate us. Last month an embedded TV cameraman taped a U.S. Marine executing an unarmed insurgent in a mosque during the all-out assault on Fallujah. Broadcast first on NBC Nightly News, the video showed the … Continue reading
Published in David Long, December 2004
Greeks have more fun — and the occasional death
When I was first a college student – back in the Second Age of the Middle Earth – I had an experience with some fraternity boys that firmly cemented an opinion already forming in my callow mind: Fraternities and sororities … Continue reading
Published in David Long, November 2004