Read this column. This kid made me so angry, not because some overzealous college newspaper columnist with an overinflated sense of self-worth thinks it is his duty to tell the world all the crazy conspiracy theories about the Bush administration he can. I'm mad because his idiot editors didn't call him on it. Here is our email exchange: -------------------- You're kidding, right? I may not agree with your politics, but I support you, nay, I encourage you, to tell me and everyone else all you can about why I should vote for your guy. The problem is, when you write things like this column, you cloud people's view of the situation. How are your readers supposed to make an informed decision when all you provide them with is 15 inches of name-calling and conspiracy theories? I'm amazed that your editor didn't challenge you on this column. It's your duty as a columnist to provide commentary backed up with solid facts. More importantly, it's their job to call you out on the carpet when you don't do that. Today, you both failed. -------------------- I apologize for the delay in my response but no I was not kidding in any respect. First of all Senator Kerry was not "my ...

There's this paper in Searcy, Arkansas called the Daily Citizen. The small daily was recently stripped down and rebuilt by a publisher who said he got sick of being the laughing stock of the small, college town just north of Little Rock. Well back in the spring the new editor wanted a news editor, and emailed me to see if I was interested. I declined then because my job here was too secure, especially with EB moving home just a short time later. Well since that all fell through, this guy has emailed me twice, asking to see if I'm interested in reporter positions that have opened up. The last one was for a general assignment writer, this one for a government reporter. The government reporter slot is too tempting. I don't know what it pays, but I'm going to send my stuff anyway, just to see. So that begs the question, what the hell is going on with me? Why do I, of all people, keep getting inquiries for jobs when, in all honesty, I'm not really looking. My resume is out there, but that's it. I'm not out seeking anything, they keep coming to me. I honestly don't think ...

So here we go again. I sat at the bar at Chili's with Cannons while F'ing P was tending bar last night. He introduced us to everyone as his brother and his girlfriend. Isn't that the best? Anyway, I voted for Bush based purely on foreign policy. I knew the Republicans controlled the House and would continue to do so, but the Senate is split, and everything I read said that it would remain so. A lot of, nay, most of, Bush's domestic policies fall on the opposite side of the fence from my points of view, but I thought the upper chamber of the legislature would keep the far right from going too crazy up there on Capitol Hill. With Daschle losing and the Republicans picking up another seat in Louisiana, they are solidly in control. Top that with the fact that almost every state that had the option approved measures to ban gay marriage, it's shaping up to be a frightening time if you're not a member of the religious right. Personally, I'm socially liberal. I'm pro-choice and pro-affirmative action. I think criminals in jail for drugs need more counseling and less incarceration, I think marijuana should be legalized and ...

I just got back from the alma mater and am about to crash out for the afternoon. It's been a very busy week and I have to work all weekend, so I'm going to take advantage of the quiet afternoon. Before I nap, however, I wanted to put some thoughts down. First, let me just say that I'm glad I'm not still a student working at that paper. Today was a nice break from the my typical routine. Going down and talking with students is always fun. It was especially nice to get the opportunity to catch up with my favorite professor. She made the common faux pas of asking how EB is, so I had to politely tell her that we broke up. She asked what happened, and I gave her the one-minute version. You know: we talked about getting engaged, I bought a ring, I planned the proposal, EB confessed that she had feelings for Rene, Now she's moving in with him. Poor professor, she felt really bad for asking. I had to reassure her that it happens all the time and isn't that big of a deal. After smoothing that over, I sat down with a handful of students ...

Talk of visiting Philadelphia continues amongst my friends. If you know anything about the city, email me. Last night was a blast. The view from Coach Insignia at the top of the RenCen was great. I tried to take EB there for dinner last Christmas but it wasn't open yet. I'd planned on going this Christmas. I'll have to save it for someone else now I guess. Anyway, the event was nice and not nearly as boring as last year's. Great food, great company, a great view. I couldn't have asked for a nicer night spent at an event for work. There's drama within my group of friends now though, as this whole deal with Peanut and wife-to-be heats up. wife-to-be tends to be a bit on the manipulative side and seems to think she's in a battle with his friends to control him. So myself, Beaker, Cannons and Do have had protracted discussions about the way we see wife-to-be treating him and the rest of us, especially while she's drinking. If you boil down our conversations, essentially what we are saying is that we want Peanut to be happy and we want him to be happy with wife-to-be. We just want ...

I was greeted with frost covering my windows when I went out to my car this morning. I really hate the cold weather. It made me consider a job inquiry I got this morning for just a second longer. Last spring a man emailed me from the Searcy Citizen in Searcy, Arkansas. Searcy, incidentally, is a small college town 30 minutes north of Little Rock. It seems that at the beginning of the year, the publisher cleaned house. He fired all his staff, hired a new executive editor and gave him the task of rebuilding the paper from the ground up. That's when he contacted me. It seems he needed a news editor and saw my resume. Now it's not often that jobs like this seek you out, but last May, he did. Now you have to understand where I was in May. I was happily in a relationship with EB, I was in a job that I thought would sustain us when she moved home and finally, I was on the cusp of filling in for a woman here at work while she was on maternity leave. All those factors made the decision to say thanks, but no thanks, very ...

Yesterday was kind of hectic. Lots of work to do, I'm still writing the daily column here at work. I'm also trying to track down a bunch of stuff for the lists, which is the other part of my job. I swear, sometimes it feels like that's all I do. I wasn't able to put together a big project that I wanted to (but wasn't necessary) for the Web this week because of the list work. It's starting to get quite frustrating. The good news is, however, that the my former publication in the northern Toledo suburbs, for which I was the managing editor before coming to CDB, won a general excellence award from the Michigan Press Association for work done while I was there. The few people I've told about it have asked, what the heck are you doing managing Web sites. The answer: it paid the bills and was a steady 9-to-5. A good job to have when you're married and thinking of starting a family. Looks like it's time to get back into newspapers. I've got a pretty good success rate going. The Pacemaker (essentially the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism) and countless Michigan Press Association awards while ...