Playing the odds

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers
JSpencerRogers@msn.com  

Here’s a common scenario on the golf course. Mr. Topskuller, a 30-handicapper, stands on the first tee with his Supercharged, 2000cc, Titanium Tomahawk driver, takes a mighty swing - and rolls the ball almost 100 yards straight down the fairway. Read more

The politics of sexual orientation

The Top Story by Chris Graham

One of the following statements was made by John Kerry at the Oct. 13 presidential debate featuring Kerry and George W. Bush about Mary Cheney, the daughter of Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, igniting a firestorm of accusations from Republicans that Kerry was being insensitive to gays and lesbians.

“If my daughter were a lesbian, I would tell her she was committing a sin and should pray about it. … Dick Cheney may or many not like to hear the truth, but it can be spoken.” Read more

Are the Dems giving up on Virginia? The lights aren’t out yet, but Kerry move seems to signal the end

The Top Story by Chris Graham

The summer of 2004 was the best time in a long time to be a Democrat in Virginia.

The polls had presidential candidate John Kerry within shouting distance of George Bush, for one thing.

Kerry, sensing the possibility of an upset in the heart of what Republicans throatily consider Bush Country, devoted resources to the Old Dominion that the Dems hadn’t seen here from a national candidate since the days of Hubert Humphrey. Read more

Not invited to the party: Exclusion from debates another slap in the face to third parties

The Top Story by Chris Graham

Independent presidential candidate John Anderson was threatening to break down the door to the two-party system.

The Illinois congressman was running strong in the national polls, which showed him with the support of as much as a fifth of the electorate in the summer of 1980.

He also had a running mate with name recognition (former Wisconsin governor and ambassador to Mexico Patrick Lucey, who had been on George McGovern’s vice-presidential short list in 1972) and a coveted spot in the League of Women Voters-sponsored debates featuring Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter and Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. Read more

Patience is still a virtue

Golf Things Considered column by John Rogers
JSpencerRogers@msn.com  

In the era of fast food, DSL and guaranteed overnight deliveries, improving the golf game can seem like a long and difficult process. Especially when a golfer wants to turn his chunky pull-slice into a power draw with a one-hour lesson. Read more