William E. Jackson Jr.

The Bottom of the Eleventh: Game 6

In the bottom of the eleventh in old St. Louis city...
Did you partake of the feast of heroism, comedy, insanity?

Or did it take a Boswell* to explain the unexplainable,
When baseball produced the all-around unbelievable?

I do not know how many small college towns -- or just small towns -- in America warrant a critique similar to mine of local government in Davidson, North Carolina. Perhaps this essay will spur a national dialogue on the evolution and meaning of local self-government today.　

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Not so long ago, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could count on American journalists to support his campaign to publish secret documents that governments didn't want the world to see. But just three years after a major court confrontation that saw many of America's most important journalism organizations file briefs...

It is almost as if the House Intelligence Committee member is having an "out of body" experience. Is it not odd that someone sitting on a powerful committee that exercises oversight over the entire national intelligence community should resort to asking accusatory questions--in regard to claims of Hezbollah terrorists on...

An evolving practice in Republican House campaigns against Democratic candidates is the use of Islamophobia: spreading the idea that there is a domestic terrorism threat from Muslims, and that the GOP can better protect the public from "the other."

Drawing on FOX News outlets, talk radio, suspect websites in the...

In an election that Britain's political commentators have called the closest in decades, one thing that seems certain, if opinion polls are any guide, is that only one party leader, Mr. Cameron, has any chance--and in his case only a slim one--of securing a majority of seats in the House...

Every once in a while, there comes along a member of Congress who is not only eccentric, but borderline wacky, not to mention a fear monger. One of the leading examples is Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), representing a very conservative, heavily-churched district in Charlotte.

It is difficult to understand...

What Obama seems to have discovered is that this is no longer the war that began eight years ago. That war was an act of retribution and prevention. But now who are we punishing? What are we preventing? The old narrative is broken. --Hendrik Hertzberg, "The Fifth War," November 30...

When Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, the satirist Tom Lehrer remarked that he saw no further need to perform as the award had made satire obsolete. By offering the world's most prestigious political accolade to Barack Obama, a man who has held office for barely...

While an undergraduate at Davidson College, Harold P. Ford was my political science professor in the years (1955-57) he was on leave from the Central Intelligence Agency. *

In addition to the Soviet Union and Communist China, there was one other country to which professor Ford devoted special attention: Vietnam....

As of May 16, several national newspaper and television headlines were adopting an accusatory tone critical of Speaker Nancy Pelosi that undoubtedly tickled the actual authorizers (Vice President Cheney et al) and the actual practitioners (Central Intelligence Agency) of torture during the previous administration, 2001-2009. For example: "CIA Director Panetta...

Cushing Strout, The New Heavens and New Earth:
"But we have his promise, and look forward to new heavens and a new earth..." 2 Peter 3:13 in the New English Bible


A memorial service for Prof. Samuel P. Huntington was held on...

As a defender of the electoral vote system for electing the President of the United States, I cannot resist tracking the polls every four years and placing little bets on the final victory total (270 or more out of 538).

The Virtues of the Way We Do It

Briefly,...

Back at the time of the Republican convention, Gov. Sarah Palin was accompanied by Sen. Joe Lieberman to a meeting with the board of directors of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. "We had a good productive discussion on the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship," said an AIPAC spokesman, "and we...

At Wednesday night's debate at Hofstra, McCain might want to volunteer a mild mea culpa about the extent to which the presidential race has degenerated into a shouting match. And then he can pledge to the voters that the last three weeks will feature a contest worthy of this moment...

William Kristol: I spoke on the phone Sunday with Sarah Palin, who was in Long Beach, Calif., preparing to take off on her next campaign trip.

To an astonishing degree, the neo-con intellectual and New York Times columnist, Bill Kristol, has become--informally--a member of Gov. Sarah Palin's campaign...

Theologian Alexander J. McKelway: Our politics really runs on a broad and deep resentment of intelligence in America. Why? *** Maybe mostly because we have few real "public intellectuals" whose thinking and learning touch ordinary life and inspire respect. Whatever the reasons, Sarah Palin, like President Bush, appeals to anti-intellectual...

A blogger on a newspaper website observed that Gov. Sarah Palin has a gift for composing sentences containing a noun, a verb, and the word "God."

Indeed, her True North points toward knowing God's will in things political, as described in the page one, September 6, New...

May 31, 2008
Grassy Knob Mountain
Union Grove, N.C.

Circling the old house, mired down in a carpet of grasses,

Or poking around the red barn, and the outlying fruit trees;

From the cracks of sheds, I cut long limbs of red roses...

Stalks...

"Good times never seem so good. Oh, I've been inclined to believe it never would."

Across Main street from the silence of the college church sanctuary,

On Good Friday, there was a buzz in the Soda Shop, legendary.

Adorning the walls are photos of varsity stars over the...