Category Archives: history

Goodbye, Columbus? Not in South Philly.

Posted on October 12, 2021 by oddmanout215

This is a follow-up to a column Odd Man Out wrote last summer. A bizarre psychodrama was unfolding in South Philadelphia while Swamp Rabbit and I worked a dull sales event in the suburbs. Hundreds of people had gathered to … Continue reading →

Posted in history, humor, immigration, mainstream media, Philadelphia | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Farewell to rock & roll’s coolest timekeeper

Posted on August 29, 2021 by oddmanout215

“All the great ones are checking out,” I said to my neighbor Swamp Rabbit after hearing that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts had died Tuesday at age 80. “It’s the end of an era.” Swamp Rabbit sipped whiskey and shook … Continue reading →

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OK, I give up — why were we in Afghanistan?

Posted on August 17, 2021 by oddmanout215

America’s 20-year war and nation-building experiment in Afghanistan came to a predictably bad end over the weekend. Since then, foreign policy “experts” have been speculating what went wrong, but few are admitting the effort was a colossal mistake from the … Continue reading →

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The Year of the Yahoo

Posted on August 11, 2021 by oddmanout215

“What exactly you mean by yahoo?” Swamp Rabbit said, sounding defensive. I’d just finished telling him that yahoo-ism is a syndrome that’s been trending for years in this country. That the yahoos among us became louder and more conspicuous when … Continue reading →

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Wishful thinking, a.k.a. bipartisanship

Posted on August 4, 2021 by oddmanout215

I told Swamp Rabbit that the country is in a one-step-forward, two-steps-back historical loop, and there’s no reason to believe things will get better anytime soon. He didn’t want to believe this, so I summarized some news stories for him … Continue reading →

Posted in climate change, history, humor, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hey, let’s appoint Jeff Davis to investigate the Civil War

Posted on July 23, 2021 by oddmanout215

So Nancy Pelosi tells Kevin McCarthy no, you can’t appoint foes of the democratic process to a committee investigating an attack on the democratic process. She’s referring to Jan. 6, when an angry mob of Trumpers stormed the Capitol with … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, fiction, history, humor, mainstream media, Politics, taxes, voter suppression | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Time’s running out, but Biden still won’t voice the f-word

Posted on July 16, 2021 by oddmanout215

The consensus was that Joe Biden gave a rousing speech Tuesday in Philadelphia that will do nothing to derail voter suppression efforts in red states around the country. So what was the point? I asked my neighbor Swamp Rabbit but … Continue reading →

Posted in history, humor, mainstream media, Obama, voter suppression | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A major court victory for the new Confederates (Happy 4th!)

Posted on July 4, 2021 by oddmanout215

Just in time for the holiday, the U.S. Supreme Court further divided the country with a 6-3 ruling that finished neutering the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a writer for The Atlantic put it: Republicans will understandably view … Continue reading →

Posted in history, humor, mainstream media, voter suppression | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

For the People Act was dead on arrival. What now, Dems?

Posted on June 29, 2021 by oddmanout215

I was in a quandary, like other non-Trumpers who are watching the Republican Party’s full-scale effort to strip voting rights from as many Democrats as it takes to ensure future elections are won by extreme right-wingers. One might assume this … Continue reading →

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Not forgetting is hard work (a history lesson)

Posted on June 4, 2021 by oddmanout215

“When was the last time you thought about history?” I said to Swamp Rabbit, who was playing a video game on his phone. “Here, check this out.” I made him read the laughably creepy anecdote that starts Milan Kundera’s The … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, history, humor, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments