Keith B. Darrell's Blog, page 45

On the Warpath

A Native American website is trying to stir up controversy over a t-shirt marketed by apparel retailer The Gap that bears two words: "Manifest Destiny." These Indians are on the warpath over the shirt, denouncing it as emblematic of racism and genocide, suggesting the Gap release a "Final Solution" shirt, as well. The article is accompanied by an image of a shirt with the phrase and a picture of what looks like Prussian soldiers posing by a mass grave (presumably meant to be the US Army...

The Bravest Girl in the World

Today, I want to tell you about the bravest girl in the world. She doesn't fight demons or slay dragons. Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai fights for ideas like freedom and education. She doesn't hate school like many American kids; she fought to be allowed to go to school. For years, the Taliban controlled her village of Swat Valley in Pakistan and strictly forbade girls from attending school... under penalty of death.

[image error] Malala Yousufzai, in 2009, aged 11: "I don't mind if I have to sit on the...

The First Debate: Where's the Beef?

I hadn't planned on writing about the presidential debates today. Frankly, staged debates seldom matter in politics. They serve only two purposes: to trip up one of the candidates in a gaffe or to sway undecided voters. A gaffe can be politically embarrassing, but did anyone truly believe, when President Gerald Ford proclaimed in his 1976 debate "there is no communist domination of Eastern Europe" that he was unaware of Soviet troops stationed in Czechoslovakia, Soviet tanks in Poland, or the...

The Wishing Well

In my previous post, I revealed a technique I've offered many times to writing groups I've led to help overcome writer's block: Find an unusual or inspirational piece of artwork -- it can be a drawing, photograph, or painting -- and create a story behind the image. You can find inspirational artwork in magazines or through an image search on Google. It's a fun exercise that will stimulate your imagination and boost your creativity. Here's a fun piece of flash fiction I did for this image belo...

A Remedy For Writer's Block

When people learn I'm a writer, one of the first questions they're bound to ask is, "Where do you get your ideas?" I smile coyly, replying, "From the idea store on 45th and Main Street." The truth is, my mind is usually racing with more ideas than I can develop into stories. But I have friends who are also writers and many complain of writers block. One technique I've offered them is to find an unusual or inspirational piece of artwork -- it can be a drawing, photograph, or painting -- and cr...

Oops, I Did It Again...

I celebrated this blog's one-year anniversary by posting a list of links to some of the best (up to that point) posts I had made over the course of the first year. I was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to learn that, four months later, there were no trackbacks from that post to what I had considered some worthwhile reading material. Zero. No one, apparently, had been motivated to click any of the links. The individual posts were getting traffic, but none coming from that particular anniver...

Democracy: Does One Size Fit All?

Two US embassies were attacked on September 11, 2012. Reuters reported an American staff member of the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi was killed after Armed gunmen attacked the compound. They were "protesting" a film being produced in the United States. Earlier in the day, Egyptian protestors scaled the U.S. embassy walls and tore down the American flag and burned it, complaining of a US film they said insulted the prophet Mohammad. Gunmen fired on the embassy while oth...

This Is Not A Book Review. Really.

"What the heck is your blog about?" I'm often asked. "It doesn't look anything like an author's blog. Why don't you write book reviews?"

All good questions, so let me start with the first. As I wrote in my initial post, the entire concept of blogging makes no sense to me. At best, it's a hubristic exercise in conceit and vanity for the undeserving to lay claim to their promised 15 Minutes of Fame; at worst, it is the verbal equivalent of littering on the information superhighway. Nonetheless,...

A Pox on Both Your Houses

On December 9, 1979, an international team of scientists verified the success of the World Health Organization's efforts to eradicate smallpox, a deadly disease that had killed billions (an estimated 300–500 million during the 20th century alone) since 10,000 BC. In all of human history, smallpox remains the only infectious disease affecting humans to have been eradicated. It was only wiped off the face of the Earth after a concerted effort by all of the world's governments to end this scourg...

Paul Ryan Is A Liar

Paul Ryan is a liar. That's a simple statement. Why is it so hard for the media to print a simple statement? Ryan lied several times last night in prime-time television as he addressed the GOP convention and the nation, yet you'd have to decode the headlines to know it. "Ryan Takes Factual Shortcuts in Speech" Yahoo News says. Factual shortcuts? When George Washington chopped down the cherry tree, did he take a factual shortcut explaining it? "Did Paul Ryan Bend the Truth? And Does it Matter?...