Jared Bridges

Calling a Spade a Spade

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When President Reagan gave his famous “Evil Empire” speech, some who took notice were captors of that empire. Natan Sharansky writes of his experience of hearing Reagan’s label, which seemed a faux pas to some: In 1983, I was confined to an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me … Read more

President Ronald Wilson Reagan, R.I.P.

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The battle is now over for Ronald Reagan. His passing is bittersweet for me. On one hand, he is finally at peace. On the other hand, I will miss him. Many people wrote him off as dead ten years ago. Those people didn’t give him credit that he had one last battle to fight. Though … Read more

Let There Be Gum

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In a bizzare move like something from your childhood classroom, the government of Singapore has decided to allow…gum. That’s right, you can now chew gum in Singapore [WSJ, subs. req.] if you follow a few restrictions: it can only be purchased at a pharmacy, and the pharmacist must write down your name. What you didn’t … Read more

Maximum Coverage

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It seems that the preponderance of Britney Spears-like clothing among teenage girls has reached a breaking point. The Associated Press is reporting that many girls are demanding that stores carry more modest clothing: “We like to call this new girl Miss Modesty,” said Gigi Solif Schanen, fashion editor at Seventeen magazine. “It’s such a different … Read more

Evangelicals and Catholics: One Body?

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A good summary of the recent alliances of evangelicals and Catholics appeard in the New York Times [preserved here]. Once vehemement opponents on almost every issue, evangelicals and Catholics have indeed found common ground in recent years on various moral issues: Now conservatives in both groups share the sense that they are fighting a losing … Read more

Weathering the Weathermen

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I’m neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but many TV weatherpersons seem to think that they hold such a status. There’s been no dearth of storms and tornado warnings in the Louisville area the last couple of days, and the weathermen have been having a field day. Most seem to delight in … Read more

Yet Again, the World’s Oldest Person Dies

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I’ve written about this time and again. Something is afoot. Perhaps now the United Nations will step in and do something about this global problem of the world’s oldest people dying. The 114 year-old Ramona Trinidad Iglesias Jordan has now passed on. This woman should surely watch out, now that she’ll probably the next of … Read more

Here Come the Privacy Police

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Google’s forthcoming new email service, Gmail, has raised the ire of privacy advocates everywhere. They are concerned because Google’s service will feature targeted ads based on keywords used in the email messages. Google has indicated that no human eyes will ever see the contents of a message. However, this assurance is little comfort to some. … Read more

A Long, Long, Long, Long Time

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Anybody remember the Marathon Bar, the candy that lasts a long, long, long, long time? It was a pretzel-looking chocolate candy bar that supposedly took all day to eat. I fondly remember getting them as a kid. Then, the candy bars started to disappear, never to be seen again. Fast forward to May 2004. I … Read more

Gore Names Bush as Prison Abuser

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Al Gore, the has-been inventor of the internet (and everybody’s favorite pseudo-Tennessean), delivered today a speech for the MoveOn PAC in which he implies that President Bush was standing right beside Lynndie England and company at Abu Ghraib. A simpleton such as England couldn’t have thought to commit such atrocities on her own: Private Lynndie … Read more