Columnists

On April 12, 1861, Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, launching the first Civil War. Historians say that war actually began the previous November when Abraham Lincoln was elected President. America’s second Civil War will start in late September when conservatives block raising the debt-limit ceiling and the US goes into default. But our new Civil War actually began in November of 2010 when Tea-Party conservatives seized control of the Republican Party and many states. -more-

Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army soldier, admitted sending 700,000 government documents to Wikileaks in 2010. It was the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history. Manning is now charged under Articles 92 and 134 of the "Uniform Code of Military Justice" (UCMJ) , which incorporates parts of the Espionage Act in Article 106a of the UCMJ. The Manning case is ongoing at Fort Meade, Maryland. -more-

American poet-playwright Edward Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) wrote, “The gods are growing old; The stars are singing Golden hair to gray. Green leaf to yellow leaf,—or chlorophyll To xanthophyl, to be more scientific.” Why is gray hair the quintessential old age indicator? Why not wrinkles, instead, for example? And it’s international. Grey in Great Britain. Agence France Presse recently described “Japan’s elderly not acting their age,” when Saitama Gold Theatre auditioned only people aged 55+, referring to a greying society. -more-

Housing is a key issue for nonworking persons with mental illness, since often we can't afford to pay much rent on the public benefits we get. Simply renting a room is sometimes unaffordable. This means that many of us are forced for economic reasons to live in an institutional situation. Living in some kind of institutional housing is no life. -more-

The man down was roaring like a mad man at Teley/Dwight. -more-