In an increasingly theocratic America, an anomalous dispensation has been granted to gambling, a vice that was once grouped with excessive drinking and fornication. Deep in the Bible Belt, the Mississippi legislature and Republican Governor Haley Barbour have allowed the state’s casinos to come ashore (and expand) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. [...]

Warm evening air, too warm for Vermont in October, comes through the open window as I sit and write. I’m a hypocrite; I’m against global warming, but there are times when I like some of the symptoms.
I’m still trying to get some effects of global warming out of my head. At night, my [...]