You know who the Slytherins are, don't you?

For the two or three of you out there who honestly don't know anything about J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, let me briefly explain.

The school, located in a...

If you follow the general storyline put forth by a mainstream media star-struck by a war hero, or simply observe the reception John McCain often receives at rallies held at veteran's organizations, it's very easy to accept and believe that all veterans everywhere practically worship John McCain. I've noticed this...

If you follow the general storyline put forth by a mainstream media star-struck by a war hero, or simply observe the reception John McCain often receives at rallies held at veteran's organizations, it's very easy to accept and believe that all veterans everywhere practically worship John McCain. I've noticed this...

In security expert Gavin de Becker's landmark book, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence, he uses several illustrations to demonstrate how our survival instincts often try to protect us even as we try to over-rule them with logic and reasoning, and how we should...

"I don't wanna fly anymore, Doc. I've flown 35 missions, but Cathcart's raised the number to 50 before you can rotate out."

"I can't ground anyone just because they ask me to."

"Can you ground anyone who's crazy?"

"Of course I can. There's a rule that says...

The authority of government...is still an impure one; to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right against my person and property but what I concede to it...Let every man make known what kind of government would command his...

In his New York Times op-ed this week, "Let's Get Serious," Bob Herbert drew attention to a certain madness that is taking hold in this election that is nothing new to politics. The difference between this election, however, and elections past is, quite simply, the stakes. And because the...

Like Pogo said, we have seen the enemy, and it is us.

We boomers never thought we'd become the establishment.

When I was a teenager, back in the '60s, every household I knew was in turmoil between the young people and their parents. They...

Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt... The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there... O,...

According to the Dallas Morning News, Barack Obama has won the Texas caucus, with 38 convention delegates, and though he lost the popular-vote count to Clinton (65 to 61 delegates), the combined total (including superdelegates) gives Obama 109 to Clinton's 106 delegates and thus, a win in Texas after...

I vote in the middle of a cotton field.

Yeah, I know! It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But it's true.

When you live in a remote rural area like the wilds of West Texas, you have voting centers put up in the weirdest places...

I got another e-mail invitation to see Bill Clinton--again, I was asked to RSVP, and again, I was given only 24 hours' notice. This appearance was to be in Abilene. The invitation read "7:30" but the Abilene evening news broadcasts were saying, "8:15." In fact, the news anchor for the...

All Five Major Texas Newspapers Endorse Obama

All five major Texas newspapers: the Dallas Morning News, the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman, and the San Antonio Express-News have endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president.

On Thursday,...

On Friday, February 15, I received two interesting e-mails.

One was from the Clinton campaign, specifically, Bill Clinton, stating that he was going to be appearing in Lubbock, Texas, the next day, Saturday, and asking me to RSVP if I intended to attend. The e-mail arrived in...

Molly Ivins once said, "In West Texas, gays stay in the closet because they're afraid someone will think they're Democrats."

That sums up in a nutshell how it feels to be a pro-choice, pro-feminist, pro-environment pro-peace activist Democrat living in anti-progressive West Texas, childhood home of George...

The following piece was produced by HuffPost's OffTheBus.

The first time I was asked to leave an area forbidden to press during a recent Obama rally in Austin, Texas, I felt kinda proud, like this was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. The...

The following piece was produced by HuffPost's OffTheBus.

When Barack Obama visited Austin, Texas on Saturday, November 17 on a fund-raising jaunt, his campaign chose the venue "The Backyard," a live-oak shaded, outdoor concert site that has hosted such music stars as Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and Sheryl...

Texas politics is as rowdy as the state is big. It's down-and-dirty, mud-wrestling, in-your-face and--even with female politicians--as macho as Lyndon Johnson manhandling steers to the ground on his Hill Country ranch, or Gov. Ann Richards being featured on the cover of Texas Monthly magazine sitting boldly astride a Harley...

The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus project.

Hillary's been getting a lot of positive press lately, and I take nothing away from that; she's earned it and she deserves it. But I do think it gives a false impression that, overall, her positives are beginning...

It seemed like an easy enough assignment, when I was first discussing it with "Off the Bus's" Jay Rosen and Amanda Michel. I had told them that, living as I do in the buckle of the Bush Bible Belt, I had observed that most of my progressive friends--who,...