Archive for 2014
Izzy Glick, Nativity impresario
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#702) Izzy Glick, Nativity impresario by David Benjamin BETHLEHEM, 0 A.D. — Contrary to popular legend, the desk clerk at the inn — whose name was Nahim — was sympathetic to the bedraggled couple who arrived from Nazareth and asked for a room. After giving them the bad…
Read MoreChristmas through a glass, darkly
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#701) Christmas through a glass, darkly by David Benjamin On a recent visit to New York, I got together with a lifelong friend, Pat Keeffe, who was in the first graduating class (‘65) at LaFollette High. Earlier this year, Pat and his family had mourned the too-soon loss…
Read MoreDiary of a wetback skip tracer
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#700) Diary of a wetback skip tracer by David Benjamin “ICE deported almost 393,000 people from the U.S. in 2010. At $12,500 per person the cost to remove them was almost $5 billion.” — Associated Press This is the city. Los Angeles. I work here. I’m a dick.…
Read MoreWith friends like these…
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#699) With friends like these… by David Benjamin “… the Islamic State, or ISIS, is homegrown; its aim is not to strike far away, but to spread and impose its vision of Islamic society right here and right now…” — Thomas L. Friedman in Dubai MADISON, Wis. —…
Read MoreWhat’s in it for me?
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#698) What’s in it for me? by David Benjamin “This is not the time to lay out an agenda.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell MADISON, Wis. — Every election year, the New York Times sends reporters out to some depressed working-class community in flyover country — Ypsilanti,…
Read MoreThe first thing we do, let’s kill all the spies
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#697) The first thing we do, let’s kill all the spies by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Americans tend to learn most of what we know about our “intelligence” establishment by watching TV. For example, I consumed a whole season of “Homeland” and discovered that your typical CIA…
Read MoreApocalypse now… and tomorrow… and the day after that
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#696) Apocalypse now… and tomorrow… and the day after that by David Benjamin “Good morning, ladies and germs! It’s Monday, and I’m Fred Fiermonger, alongside my co-host Abigail Angst, and this is ‘Good Grief, America,’ your daily wake-up-and-smell-the-napalm call here on the Anecdotal News Network. As you all…
Read MoreA political scene we'd like to see
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#695) A political scene we’d like to see by David Benjamin (A proposed script — without talking points — for Mary Burke, Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate, at Friday night’s second debate.) “Good evening, everyone. I’m Mary Burke. So what, right? “Most of you don’t know me from a hole…
Read More"Ick!"
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#694) “Ick!” by David Benjamin “This is judicial activism at its worst. The Constitution entrusts state legislatures, elected by the People, to define marriage consistent with the values and mores of their citizens. Unelected judges should not be imposing their policy preferences to subvert the considered judgments of…
Read MoreTo a lot of athletes dying young
, footballTUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#693) To a lot of athletes dying young by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Just about every year in Japan, the tabloid press reports the death of a young man, in his late teens or early twenties, in a sumo stable somewhere in Tokyo. The story typically…
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