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The View from Mudsock Heights: When the Hoped-For Disaster Fails to Strike, Television News is Bared

By Dennis E. Powell | Mar 10, 2010 at 23:46:0

You’ve probably seen it: A movie or television drama that depicts news coverage of some anticipated disaster. It might be an alien invasion, or a nuclear attack, a volcano, an approaching asteroid, or — a tsunami.

Remembering More than Just the Steriods

By Kevin Kettinger | Mar 8, 2010 at 17:2:44

We all know the word association game: I say a word or name and you respond with the first thing that comes to mind. Let’s try one. I say Mark McGwire. You respond with steroids, cheater, or liar. See you got the idea. Do you remember when your answers were that of a different tune?

The Baseball Hall of Fame, PED, and Roberto Alomar

By Jason Kettinger | Feb 27, 2010 at 0:56:55

There was something of a minor furor over Roberto Alomar’s narrow failure to be elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame by 8 votes last month. Alomar, the celebrated second baseman whose prime in the 1990s was celebrated even at the time, famously spat in the face of an umpire while playing for Baltimore. In short, the word is that he may have ruffled more than a few feathers.

The View from Mudsock Heights: the Ruse Has Gone on Long Enough, and Now I Must Confess My Addiction

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 19, 2010 at 23:57:21

We live in an age of confession. I don’t mean so much the heartfelt admission to ourselves and our Creator of our manifold sins and wickedness as a loud and public proclamation of some character flaw that henceforth is expected to excuse unsatisfactory behavior.

The View From Mudsock Heights: Accentuating the Negative(s) Brings Back Amazing Memories

By Dennis E. Powell | Feb 10, 2010 at 17:45:47

One of the best delights of the newspaper business is its unpredictability. Events, often unforeseen, dictate the course of the day. This can be exciting. Or, sometimes, it can be mortifying.

Ali: American History Played Out in Sport

By Jason Kettinger | Feb 9, 2010 at 13:43:11

Muhammad Ali’s birthday was a few weeks ago. Most people who count themselves boxing fans are fans of Ali, in my experience. He was in possession of a rare set of boxing skills, especially his hand speed, unrivaled among heavyweights. Ali’s mobility and evasiveness set him apart as well. I find myself strangely drawn to his fights, even those I’ve seen several times before.

Stopping Jerks from Abusing the Church

By Eduardo Sánchez | Feb 3, 2010 at 20:9:23

In my last piece, I examined how there is a species of creature known as the jerk, someone inclined to grab power at organizations with no regard to the cost meted out to other people. Churches, unfortunately, are often the targets of these people. In this essay, I want to consider historical approaches to balancing power in the church and how they may grant insight into protecting churches from jerks.

A Month In, How Are Those Resolution Going?

By Timothy R. Butler | Feb 1, 2010 at 15:44:50

It is February, believe it or not. Just a month ago was that time many of us would like to forget when we made hopeful resolutions about things we needed to accomplish this year. How are your resolutions working out? If you are thinking perhaps you could use some help with them or perhaps need a new resolution or two, a handful of mobile apps and a good smartphone might actually be your ticket to success.

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Haitian Earthquake Brings Thoughts of Midwestern History

By Dennis E. Powell | Jan 21, 2010 at 17:13:48

The sheer vastness of the devastation in Haiti, a nation that was not a garden spot to begin with, is such that it is almost impossible to grasp. It appears that at least as many people as populate all of my county — every man, woman, child, and out-of-town college student — were killed. The mind lacks perspective for such things, even as a phrase like “a trillion dollars” is so big as to be meaningless.

With Respect, Brett Favre is Your NFL MVP

By Jason Kettinger | Jan 19, 2010 at 1:25:6

It should not have been close. The scandal of it is that Brett Favre is already a three time MVP from the 1995-97 seasons, which was a record until now. That he lost the award to another great, Peyton Manning, in itself is not scandalous; that he lost it this season is.

The Danger of Peacemaker

By Timothy R. Butler

Here is a story. The leaders of a church have a personal agenda against someone and want to quiet him, exact revenge or what have you. They not only come at him within their church, they continue by following him outside of that church to any other church he seeks refuge at and any place he works, making a wreck of his life in the process. That is the sort of thing that only happened in the past, in dusty tales of witch-hunts in Salem or the Inquisition in Spain, right? Wrong: it is happening today, perhaps at a seemingly normal church near you.

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Tap the Power of
Snow Leopard

Looking to get acquainted with Apple's latest operating system? Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible, the definitive Mac OS X reference, features OFB's own Timothy R. Butler alongside Galen Gruman and Mark Hattersley.